Joshua Tree Blue

“Joshua Tree Blue” is a project I created as Artist in Residence for Joshua Tree National Park. My work as a whole focuses on the perception of time and how we visually process temporality, while this project specifically looks at the visual clues used to place a time and date. I chose to print these photographs as cyanotypes because it would allow me to alter the sense of time through the printing process, through the high contrast tone, and through the color. I contrast two sets of images, the grand vistas, two are included in this selection, and the close up details. The vistas present a timeless view of the park, harkening back to a time before the age of photography. They fit within the aesthetic framework of early photography and yet they are current digital images. The close ups, conversely, are clearly modern in their aesthetic and yet, being printed as cyanotypes they reflect an earlier time. Together the photographs move back and forth through time and timelessness. All of the photographs are digital captures for which I made a negative and then printed as cyanotypes on hand-sensitized Lanaquarelle watercolor paper. The photographs are 15cm square and were printed on site using the sunlight for exposure. The paper, the quality of the sunlight and the highly alkalized water onsite all effected the tonal range of the prints.