Contact print · The Listener

Blue Imprint.

A cyanotype study after Iana Kochu’s The Listener. The negative meters light over the paper, leaving the painting’s curl suspended in blue.

The Listener's sweeping pale curl in a textured Prussian-blue print with cream paper edges. — *The Listener* in Prussian blue View original photograph

Grayscale negative of The Listener. Pale areas of the film let more light through. — *The Listener* in Prussian blue View original photograph

02 The exposure bench

Let light through.

Increase the exposure and watch the blue deepen. The densest parts of the negative hold the light back longest.

Exposure

Add a tracing-paper circleA translucent mask leaves a paler circle.

Exposure proofs

Same negative

Short proofs are pale. With a long exposure, the darkest tones begin to merge.

03 Process notes

A paper memory.

Cyanotypes are contact prints made by exposing sensitized paper under an object or negative. The paper is rinsed in water and the exposed areas form the blue image.

This simulation uses a relative dose and a saturating blue response. Paper grain and the washed palette are illustrative. Exposure units have no conversion to time or a physical printing setup.

Cyanotype process · V&A Anna Atkins’s cyanotypes · The Met

Light received / Blue formed

With the tracing paper in place, its centre passes 23% of the light that gets through the film.

● Clear film

Download grayscale negative

Unprofiled PNG · 697 × 982 px