We are delighted to welcome back Martyn Grimmer to teach the wonderful process of Gum Bichromate over Cyanotype. This will be a 1 day workshop diving deep into the layers of Gum and Cyanotype to creative these rich textural prints.

The workshop will start at 10am, with a break for lunch, aiming to finish around 5.30pm.

Some words from Martyn:

“On this fast paced course you will learn the historic processes of Cyanotype & Gum Bichromate printing. The aim is to beat the blues by combining both processes to create a duotone print with a gum layer over the cyanotype. Cyanotype is a photographic process that involves two chemicals to coat the paper to make it sensitive to UV light, resulting in a deep Prussian blue image. You will have the chance to tone the cyanotypes, with tea and coffee with remarkable effect. Cyanotype is one of the simpler alternative processes and is a great introduction to alternative photography.

With Gum Bichromate, a combination of Gum Arabic, pigment/watercolour, and sensitiser are used to coat the paper, upon which, a negative is placed during exposure to ultraviolet light. A cyanotype print can be transformed into something quite special by the simple overlay of one colour from the Gum Bichromate process.”

We will close bookings 7 days prior to the workshop date. 7 days prior to the workshop, all participants have to send in 3 or 4 scanned digital images that Martyn will make into acetate negatives for the day. Please send to darkroom@negative-thinking.co.uk. Please note a preference order, we will aim to make 2 prints on the day. Images need to show a decent amount of contrast, vivacity and beauty! Martyn will choose best images for the process.

Have a look at Martyn’s selected image on this page for an idea.