I have created this body of work, in Cyanotype, as a testament to heading “Into the Unknown.” We often take paths in life that lead to places we may not expect, similar to taking paths or even roadways. There may be a destination, but we may not always know what we will locate at that destination, in this way. I have created a body of photographs depicting unknown trails leading to unknown places. The uses of darker and even lighter prints, in cyan, eludes to the uncertainty that we face as we take unknown paths.
The use of cyanotype further solidified the uncertainty of going “Into the Unknown” and speaks to the plethora of emotions that can be felt, including sadness, joy, fear, and excitement
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Thoughts on project:
When I started this project, I had a completely different direction I was going. All of the images I mused were still taken from this quarter, as I am drawn to pathways and roads that curve, as they very much lead to the unknown. As such, this made more sense then the composite I was struggling to get right. It was started several weeks back and no matter the amount of tweaking, I wasn’t finding myself happy with it.
The direction change made the negatives I was getting correct, obsolete. Which then started the chaos of dealing with contrast in my negative and trying to have images come out correct. Changing with a week and a half left added a huge crunch to what I was doing and created a little extra struggle I should have expected but didn’t.
As I apparently enjoy a struggle, I also started using sunlight. It’s the end of winter and sunlight is not exactly reliable. One day I was working in a sunny 16 with a fast time to completion, while another I started under clear sky’s and when I headed out the second time, was facing clouds and a threat of rain. On one of the last burn days, I ended up in pure dark clouds with rain. However, I decided that working outside seemed better than struggling to get into one machine as we all tried to finish projects. Thereby, I struggled with the sun or lack there of. I will say that this made any data messy, at best. In pure sun I was at. Max of 10 minutes where clouds created a longer time. However, determining the number of rays coming through, just by eye, is impossible.
The hardest part of this project, besides deciding on an idea, was waiting for results. It felt like there was a lot of hold up and wait as you printed, edited and burned images. The process was not fast or even straightforward, as edits often had to happen to negatives. The waiting made the process feel so much longer.
I think if I had more time I would have refined images more, though I don’t hate the way the images came out, in the end. I also like the way I set the final 5 up, as it felt like a better story than the images being randomly laid out.
This is a project I worked on during my second quarter of school. The color of these is a soft blue, as they are completed in Cyano type. Pathways seem to be a theme I often go back to, as I am struggling to locate my won path in life. As such, I have completed a large number of photographs with turning corners and where the aths go out of view, with the reminder that what is ahead of us, is often unknown.
Photography By Charlee 
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