Photography (Cyanotypes & Rayograms)

Learning about photography has always interested me. This was one of my favorite art projects. It blew my mind.

I think its important to first go over the history of photography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography.


We then learned what a Cyanotype is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotype)  and how to make them

We talked about Man Ray and his famous Rayograms:

We also talked about Anna Atkins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Atkins) and how she used cyanotypes in research about British Algae in the early 1800's.

Here are some supplies that Dr. Dan suggested:

"Here are some supplies... we used the new cyanotype formula in class, but I would stick to the old one since it is easier to mix and the times are longer for kids to chill out a bit with the exposures... link on Amazon for the kit."

5) And if you have some money in your budget... then these are papers that are already sensitized..."

I absolutely loved working with sun sensitive paper. This is an activity that is very doable with student and can be used for social studies, math, or a cultural awareness project. I included  mine in my Critical theory Adaptation for a social project. 

I sent Dr. Dan a picture that I took of the Dome of the Rock in Israel. He then made it black and white and inversed the color scheme. 

He then printed it onto an overhead transparency.

I then put the transparency over the photo sensitive paper and covered it with black paper. When I went outside I took of the black paper for about 55 seconds and then covered it back up again. Once inside, I developed the paper using water and got this:

 For my Rayogram I borrowed jewelry from some girls in the class. I tried to set it on my paper under the black paper before I went outside but it moved around like crazy. Once I got out side it immediately started developing so I had 2 seconds to move the jewelry and then I had no choice but to leave it their (unless I wanted a blurry picture). It was unbelievable to watch how fast the reaction took place.

This could be used for a chemistry lesson as seen in the example below. 

Here is a cool idea about a pinhole camera made with photo paper:

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/03/29/pinhole-cameras-made-with-photo-paper/

Here is another link for a pinhole camera:

http://www.meetmeatthecorner.org/episodes/pinhole-photography-for-kids