Cyanotypes are among the oldest photographic printing processes. In 1842, English chemist, astronomer, and experimental photographer Sir John Herschel invented this technique as a way to copy and record his scientific notes and diagrams. Herschel employed ultraviolet light from the sun, along with a salt-andiron solution, to produce a cyan-blue print. Architects and engineers used this technique throughout the 20th century to produce blueprints.
Art photographer Sally Jacobson uses the cyanotype method to explore her relationship to nature and the world around her. Jacobson begins by painting light-sensitive emulsion on a porous substrate such as paper, fabric, or wood. She collects and arranges items on the substrate and exposes this arrangement to sunlight. After an exposure time ranging from 5 minutes to hours or days, Jacobson washes the piece to remove the emulsion and reveal an often ghostly white-on-blue image: a result of the physical elements blocking the sun’s interaction with the emulsion.
Jacobson also employs techniques such as wet cyanotype, bleaching, toning, and over- or underexposure to create the desired final image. She typically prints on paper and vintage linens and often uses needlework to enhance her work. In Relative Space, she has also added marginalia in the form of text and distressed, torn book pages. Viewers can clearly decipher the outlines of gingko leaves and lace – but these are vestigial ghosts, physical memories of these elements blocking out the sun. The overall effect is one of nostalgia and affection for the past.
Sally Jacobson lives and works in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she is a curator and board member at the nonprofit Galleries at Lynn Arts. She is the recipient of several Massachusetts Cultural Council grants, which have allowed her to share her expertise and enthusiasm for the cyanotype process with a diverse population in her home city. To contact Jacobson or to view more of her art, find her on Instagram @7gardenangels.