Rachel Thomson (*1965, UK) is a visual artist based at Thistudios in Tottenham London. Her work is inspired by a fascination with mimesis and affected by a concern for loss of biodiversity and climate change. Through drawing, photography, print and sculpture and using natural and waste materials her art explores the challenge that humans pose to the world and to each other.
A cyanotype photogram is a photograph made without a camera. An object is placed on a uv sensitized paper which has been pre-coated with a solution of iron salts* and exposed directly in sunlight. The UV rays from the sun react with the chemicals on the paper and when the object is removed and developed in water an “impression” of the object is left behind.
The colour of the developed chemistry is always prussian blue but this can be toned or bleached, and by using natural plant dyes it is possible to produce a different range of subtle colours.
This medium is the oldest and most direct form of photography, invented In 1842 by English mathematician, astronomer and chemist Sir John Herschel who used it as a cheap and effective way to make copies of his notes and diagrams. The process became widely adopted in the late 19th century, and was an especially useful method for reproducing large engineering and architectural maps and drawings known as blueprints. Herschel’s friend, botanist Anne Atkins, pioneered the technique to document her plant collection. Atkins produced what is known as the first photographic illustrated book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, in 1843.
