Men in the Mountains

Men in the Mountains

Found photographs selected and printed by Catherine Rogers

May 31 – July 2, 2023
Open by appointment

The negative photographs used in this exhibition were taken by an unknown group of about four men on a short visit to the Blue Mountains around 1930. It appears that they shared a camera to photograph each other posed at various tourist sites they visited on a clear sunny day in the mountains.

The prints made from these negatives are imitation cyanotypes (blue-prints) The negatives were found in a market in the 1980s. There were no corresponding prints.

To make the prints you see here, each black and white negative was digitally scanned and then worked in Photoshop to look like a cyanotype print. Blue seemed to fit these images. Cyanotype prints themselves, however, have never been very popular. The process was used to print postcards in the early twentieth century but was rarely used to image people. The cyanotype process itself was invented by Sir John Herschel around about 1840-1841 and is not only one of the earliest viable photographic print processes invented it is also one of the most long-lasting.

Scanned and printed from the original black and white negatives by Catherine Rogers

Pigment ink prints on cotton rag paper A2 size, $350 ea unframed

Please call 0449 235 160 for an appointment