28” x 21” fine art print on Hahnemuhle rag paper. Edition of 10.

Opuntiella californica. The scan of this wonderful specimen (found as drift at Point Reyes National Seashore in California) is at play with its shadow self, made as a cyanotype print in my own backyard. Cyanotypes, or sunprints, are an historical photographic process whereby a light-sensitive emulsion is coated onto paper and kept in the dark until ready to be exposed. Once exposed to sunlight the emulsion stays fast as a deep Prussian blue, but where the emulsion is shadowed by a specimen or object the emulsion washes away to white. Printing techniques, such as this one, whereby the specimen itself is used to make the image, is known as nature printing and my scanning of seaweed specimens to capture their portraits fits into this lineage.