Untitled (Entanglement series) May 2023 copyright Douglas Stockdale –
I had posted the above image of my cyanotype print yesterday on my social media (IG and Fb) as a homage to those who served in the military during WWII about the date that began the mainland offensive invasion of France on June 6th, 1944. My dad landed on Normandy beach the following day after on June 7th, which is today, the day also known as D-Day+1 (My dad’s version, while Wiki states that the Army’s 2nd Armored landed on June 9th). My dad had just turned 21 years old a few days earlier and was in the US Army, Second Armored Division (also known as “Hell on Wheels”). This is also an event that while growing up, he did not like or want to talk about. I can only image how horrific it was even the day after.
This is from my on-going project photographing the urban landscape of a decommissioned WWII Navy practice bombing range where unexploded ordnance still lingers. I have been recently photographing the various barbed wire entanglements found on this site as a potential metaphor for how events from the past can still haunt us today. In a discussion with another artist, I realized how this image of the tangle of barbed wire could also represent the immense amount of barbed wire that was on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 meant to deter the inevitable invasion.
This is also my first cyanotype print using my new LED UV lightbox that I discussed last week. Btw, I really like using this little UV Lightbox, I now know its a keeper and it is already in my daily work flow. Likewise, this is my first cyanotype from a black and white negative from some really expired (1983) Ilford FP4 film that I recently used, during which the film jammed in the 120 back for my Hasselblad. Since I do not use my expired black and white film inventory very much, I wrote about one of my local pro-film processing labs, featuring this same photograph that I was already planning to print as a cyanotype. Jury is still out if I will continue using the expired FP4 and HP5 120 film for this project.
Last, also realizing that one benefit of obtaining some consistent results with the UV Lightbox in my cyanotype printing has been some slight adjustments in how I create my digital negatives. Three things have changed: one is making sure my color settings for my gray is a Gray Gamma of 1.8, that I changed my Canon print media setting to Photo Paper Pro Platinum (maximizing the pigment ink laydown on my Astra II 7mil OHP film), and third increasing the amount of absolute black in histogram curve for my image. This has also resulted in the need to make some new digital contact negatives from some earlier images that I had cyanotype printed; the slight tweak has made what I think are some great results, such as those in the image above. Maybe not as evident in the image above, while for me, very evident in the resulting cyanotype prints.
Cyanotype: Untitled (Entanglement series) expired (1983) Ilford FP4, photographed May 2023, image is 9 x 9″ on sheet of 11 x 14″ Revere Platinum rag, Variable Edition of 5 + 1AP
Make every day an Earth Day
Doug
____
The Flow of Light Brushes the Shadow, an artist book from Singular Images Press, Fall 2022 release, $60.00 (CA sales tax for those residing in the USA) plus shipping expenses. Message me douglas.stockdale.artist@gmail.com or singularimagespress@gmail for shipping details and PayPal invoice.
Note: The Artist Special Edition (book + extra print) is Sold Out.
Singular Images 
Leave a comment