Anthotypes are a form a image making that uses the juices of flowers, berries, vegetables and other plant matter to make photographic emulsions. Then typically sunlight is used as the light source and negatives or positives or objects are placed on the sensitized paper and over the course of weeks or maybe months an image is produced. If you want to know more go here and scroll down to the anthotype section. It’s an interesting and unusual way to create images which is why I find it appealing. After all, anyone can pick up their phone or digital camera and snap a picture – right?

The above image was something I tried last summer. For the emulsion I used something that my yard has plenty of – dandelions. I don’t use any chemicals on my lawn so I always have a plentiful crop of dandelions. To make the emulsion I crushed up a bunch of dandelion heads with a few of it’s leaves using a mortar and pestle while mixing in a little isopropyl alcohol to get a nice liquid. When I had a sufficient amount I strained it through a coffee filter and then coated it onto watercolor paper using a foam brush. For the image I used a photograph I took of a monarch butterfly on a white ladys slipper flower. I made a black and white positive image, with my inkjet printer, on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 transparency film made by Inkpress Media. Then I clamped them together with a sheet of glass over top and a board behind to give it support. Then over the course of weeks I put it out on sunny days and let the sun do its job. So this is what I came up with. To be fair the original image was a bit fainter than this. I did photograph the original with my digital camera and did tweak it a little in Photoshop with levels and curves to bring out the image a little better. It’s not a great work of art but it’s interesting what can happen with materials as simple as dandelions and sunlight. At the same time I did this I did another one by placing some leaves on the paper rather than an image.

This is how that turned out. It will take some more experimenting. I expect another bumper crop of dandelions this year and would like to try some other plants. I’ve read that spinach works well. Who knows where it will lead?