Lens Based Art
Cyanotype as a Modern Still Life: Beauty and Transience
In my work, life, decay, and repetition converge. Modern compositions of the still life — a contemporary interpretation of beauty, transience, and the strength found in renewal.
I draw inspiration from classical still lifes in painting, particularly the seventeenth-century vanitas still lifes. My work presents a modern “still life,” in which withered leaves and other perishable natural forms allude to the passage of time and the cycle of life and death. Yet where a seventeenth-century painter might have used a toppled glass or a burnt-out candle to symbolize mortality, I introduce subtle vanitas symbols of our own consumer society — such as a piece of plastic or frayed nylon.
The foundation of my technique is photography. I combine analog photographic processes such as cyanotype and casein printing with painting techniques. In doing so, I add a human touch to the work. The interaction of these techniques creates a layered composition in which both media enhance each other: photography provides structure and detail, while painting brings texture, emotion, and imagination.
Within this layering — literally in the technique, figuratively in meaning — I suggest the passage of time, as if each element represents a stratum of history. In the cyan blue, the objects appear like artifacts from an archaeological excavation or blueprints in an old book.
My inspiration for using cyanotype in a botanical context partly stems from the work of Anna Atkins (1799–1871), a pioneer in the cyanotype process. She published a book of cyanotype images of ferns and plants, and is often regarded as the first female photographer.
The format of my work is inspired by Eastern art, with symbols of life, impermanence, and renewed growth.