Story and Photos by Ana Chu ’24
Upper School Photography Teacher Denise Douglas’ Winter Term Vintage Photographic Processes morning class teaches students about photography from the late 19th and early 20th century. It blends vintage photography (cyanotype and Van Dyke printing) with mixed media collage. Cyanotypes get their name from the blue-tinted prints, which is caused by placing an object, like a flower, onto a piece of paper that is covered in a solution of iron salts, exposing it to UV light, and applying a water wash at the end. Van Dyke printing is similar to cyanotypes, but uses a solution of different chemicals that creates a brown-tinted print.
They learned how to produce base images in order to build collages while also grasping the concept of image transfer and adding color to photography. The course did not require students to have prior photography experience but was open to anyone who wanted to learn more about historic photographic techniques.
Douglas chose to teach this course as it offered her the opportunity to experiment with different approaches to image-making that she is not able to teach during a typical semester. She hopes that students will have a newfound appreciation for alternative approaches to photography and the chance to be creative and freely take risks. She emphasized the importance of students working together and collaborating with her as needed in order to brainstorm ideas.
In addition, she added that Winter Term was a learning experience for not only the students but her as well, and is looking forward to experimenting with changes for future classes.
Caroline Koman ’25 said that she thinks it was “really cool to be able to do whatever kind of photography you want, and use your own images rather than doing this in a structured class.” Her most memorable experience was working with cyanotypes and using transfer paper to transfer work onto a canvas.
Mae Scott ’25 said that it was “one of my favorite classes I’ve taken just because you get to focus on experimenting and playing with the lesson and being able to personalize it instead of something more straightforward.” She would recommend this class to a friend “because when you know other people in the class it’s really fun to bounce ideas off of each other and see how everybody’s experimenting in different ways.”
Hale Foster ’25 said that he appreciated being able to “combine my creativity with new printing practices, some of which I never even knew existed.” He said that he has learned a lot of new non-digital art techniques, and is sure that he will use them “later as an artist.”
By the end, the students were able to conclude their experience with their final pieces of work that culminated from everything they had learned during the class. If you’d like to see some examples, check them out in the Lower Gallery.