Prague in Blue

Architecture, spiritual iconography, and history are the focus of my body of work entitled, “Alternative Visions of Prague”. Prussian blue was the perfect choice to express my experience in this lovely city; evoking a sense of spirituality, melancholy, and peaceful beauty.

Using the historical photography process of cyanotype developed in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, the above images were created by coating watercolor paper with an equal mixture of potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate.  Once dry, a negative was placed on the paper and put into a contact print frame, then exposed in the sun.  A vinegar bath, water bath, and hanging to dry, were the final steps to creating these cyanotype images.

NOTE: The above image of the hands depicts the window of the Farewell Memorial in Prague Train Station. The memorial was dedicated in 2017 by the surviving children of the 669 that were evacuated by train through the efforts of Sir Nicholas Winton on the cusp of the Nazi invasion during World War II. At the time of the photograph, the door had been previously vandalized, resulting in the crack across the clear glass, allowing for reflections. For me, that crack spoke to the brokenness of the moment in our world history. The memorial has since been repaired. The new opaque glass with hands is free of cracks..