This will be a one day workshop on the experimental and creative technique of Cyanolumen printing, that can be done outside of the darkroom. There will be theoretical discussions and guided practical exercises looking at the chemical process, making prints and going through specialized techniques developed for this process.
The workshop instructor is a guest resident artists at the CYAN darkroom, visiting Oslo from Houston, Texas, and we are super happy to welcome her here. During her stay she will be exhibiting at the Oslo Negativ photofestival and developing her own work at the CYAN darkroom.
Darkroom 309 - Cyanolumens: Masks, Liquid and Light
This workshop introduces the process of Cyanolumen, mixing the processes of cyanotype and lumenprinting. We will go into the practical techniques developed by the teacher Caroline Roberts in her own personal projects, and how you can control these processes making your own prints.
The workshop is suitable for participants with basic analog knowledge or an interest in learning more about alternative photographic printing techniques.
Ca 5 hours
24/10 at 12AM - 5PM
Instructor: Caroline Roberts
2-8 participants
1600,- (includes materials and chemicals)
(20% discount for darkroom members)The workshop will be in English and is open also for you who are not a member of the darkroom.
In this workshop we will work with ways to apply cyanotype (and other chemicals) to selected areas of silver gelatin paper, exploring the use of ‘masks’. Caroline will demonstrate the use of absorbent paper masks to give better control of the process and we will discuss and explore the use of cardboard masks to control the use of light during exposure. These two methods give more creative control and can bring out the colors in a lumen print. While Caroline developed this masking technique to create rock imagery, we can also use also this technique with negatives or photograms.
During the workshop we will work with a variety of chemicals and Caroline will bring examples of a range of papers to show how they bring their different palette of colors and capabilities to the work.
We will be washing/fixing the cyanotype part of the print. We will also fix the lumen prints and talk about ways to prevent bleaching of the cyanotype during the fix process as well as the color change that is inevitable when fixing lumens.
The workshop will be useful for both the experienced and the newcomer to the analog darkroom practice.
It is not necessary to have worked with the cyanotype or the lumen process before and this workshop will help you get started with these processes.
Caroline Roberts is an artist and researcher living and working in Houston, Texas/USA, originally from the UK. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston in 2015 and has taught workshops and exhibited widely in the USA. Often found hiking in state and national parks, Roberts’ interest in landscape and the natural world is heightened by managing fifteen acres of forest in rural Texas.
Caroline Roberts is an artist in residence at CYAN darkroom in October, being CYAN´s invited artist picked at the Halide project´s “Living Image” juried exhibition in 2025
All materials included.
If you want, participants can bring their own printed negatives for contact printing, up to size A4/8”x10”.
And participants can also choose to bring their own b&w RC or FB photopaper for printing and experimenting (up to 8"x10” size)