Alahna Grady

Overview

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When looking back at my time at Oswego, I realized that a grand majority of it was spent trying to find my style or niche in the world of design and photography. I finally found my style of illustration and also my interest in unconventional photographic processes. Anyone these days can take pictures when they have a camera in their pocket at all times and I wanted a process that was more meaningful to myself and the history of photography. Spring of 2017 was when I first began working with the cyanotype process in Experimental Photography taught by Professor Julieve Jubin. The whole procedure of cyanotype photography is very scientific yet expressive, which speaks to my personality. There is an artistic technique in the brush strokes of the light-sensitive chemicals and a permanence that comes from each print. Anna Atkins was one of the world’s first female photographers and she used the cyanotype process to document different plant life. My self-portrait pays homage to her, the strength of a female artist and the idea that nature and women balance one another. The wooden flowers were an independent study project I worked on with Professor Peter Cardone where I explored natural subject matter (flowers) on a natural substrate (wood) and used a natural source of UV light (the sun) to conceptually “grow” the flowers on the wooden panels. When these works are shown, viewers do not usually understand what Cyanotype means or the process behind the works. This show is a culmination of my experimental photography work, as well as a way to use my graphic design skills to clearly teach the process and variations of Cyanotype.