Anthotypes

to put it simply:

anthotypes are made by using the juice from crushed up flowers, fruits, or other plants as an emulsion on the paper, and then make a contact print in the sun.

history:

Invented by Sir William Herschel in 1842, his intention was to find some way to bring color into the photographic process. Scientists had known of the light sensitive properties of many fruits an vegetables for years, and "among many early observations the experiments of Henri August Vogel in Paris are of particular interest. He found in 1816 an alcoholic tincture of either red carnations, violets or corn poppy turned white behind blue glass in a few days, while it remained unchanged behind red glass after about the same time. Cotton and paper coloured with these tinctures showed the same differences."

Herschel eventually used this research along with that of others and much of his own in order to develop what eventually became known as the anthotype process. Unfortunately, the process never really gained much popularity, and to this day is still not very well known.

how it works:

The success of the final image, along with its permanency and the resulting color depends highly upon the juices that are used for the emulsion. Poppies and peonies have been recommended for good results, but there is a multitude of options and some that have not even been explored, so experimentation is best.

These are the results that one photographer recorded from his own experiences:

Yellow chrysanthemum flowers made a lovely paint, but they did not turn out to be very photosensitive.

Raspberries showed decent results.

Blueberries were all pulp and no pigment. Perhaps the skins on their own could produce better results.

Blackberries were fantastic. I got great results in exposures of about 3 days. The color and the texture are very nice with the blackberries. (image right)

Cineraria (Senecio x hybridus) was a disappointment. It did not produce much of an image despite its brightly colored flowers.

California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) are very photosensitive. The exposed portions of this emulsion faded out in 3-4 hours. I suspect that these images may not last. Time will tell. I also found that it is important to include the anthers with the poppies. The color is not strong enough without them.

My favorite emulsion might be from the leaves of the Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus). This is another fast 3-4 hour emulsion. The result is a brilliant green image with astounding contrast. (See large image to the right of this list)

Red wine is another fast and easy emulsion. Just paint it onto the paper straight out of the bottle.

Purple bearded Iris was very juicy and produced good results with just a few flowers.

I also had good luck with fruit from a Fuchsia, the anthers from a Stargazer Lily, and Colmonara orchid flowers. I didn’t even bother straining the orchid flowers: I just rubbed them directly onto the paper for Philoxanorchid.

(alternativephotography.com, Working with Anthotypes. Steven Pitsenbarger)

Here are some recent experiments that an artist has been doing with the process. I think they turned out beautifully.

the process:

the process is really quite simple, as we found in class. After choosing what material to make the emusion from, you must find a way to extract the juices, through crushing manually and pouring through a strainer or by using a food processor. Then with a brush simply coat the paper evenly with the juice, alternating the direction of your brush strokes with each coat. Generally 2-3 coats is fine. After allowing the paper to dry, simply lay the object that you wish to make the print of on top of the paper and expose it to sunlight. Depending on the light sensitivity of the chosen plant, and the amount of sunlight, the exposure time can vary from a few hours to several days or weeks.

Carol Golemboski is another artist who has done recent work with anthotypes, using blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

in class:

for our own experiment we decided to use raspberry juice that we obtained from crushing frozen berries with a mortar and pestle.

Between the five of us in the group we settled on all using the raspberry juice and testing the affects of juice to alcohol concentrations, because we had the option of mixing the juice with either water or alcohol. We ended up starting with a 20mL 100% raspberry mixture for the first paper (mine) and then added 10, 20, 30, and 40 mL, respectively, of alcohol to each 20mL of raspberry after that. We each coated our papers with between 2 and 3 coats of our solution and then cut out shapes to be taped on which would eventually end up being our final image.

The papers have now been exposed to light for about a week and a half, and so far my paper does not seem to have changed at all. We do have a lot of cloudy days though so hopefully I will eventually be able to get some results. I know some of the other groups got some results with the spinach, and I thought raspberries would work pretty well because they have such a strong color, I guess we will have to wait and see.