The Blue radiant

Photography, Durgaprasad Bandi 

PROJECT STATEMENT:

These artworks are hand-printed cyanotype prints. Bandi's new series of works has become a land where imagination, longing, and experience meet.

ABOUT THE CYANOTYPE MEDIUM:

Cyanotype is a photographic printing process in which an object is placed on paper coated with a solution of iron salts, then exposed to UV light and washed with water to produce the characteristic white and Prussian blue image. When ferric ammonium citrate or ferric ammonium oxalate is combined with potassium ferricyanide, the mixture becomes sensitive to UV light.

The solution is applied to paper or fabric and allowed to dry in a dark room. Once dry, objects or negatives are arranged on the surface and exposed to sunlight. UV rays activate the chemicals, creating the deep cyan background while areas shielded by the object remain white.

Rinsing the print with water removes unreacted chemicals and fixes the image so it is no longer light-sensitive.

In this project, he carefully arranged his specimens, prepared various negatives, and used them within the cyanotype process; several prints were subsequently tea-toned after the initial exposure.

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Durgaprasad Bandi, artist, printmaker, educator presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Graphic Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, The M.S.University of Baroda. His research and creative interests lie in the printmaking as a medium of visual expression. He has participated in various group exhibitions national and international level, artist residencies and artists workshops at a regional and national level. He is recipient of junior fellowship award by Ministry of Culture, New Delhi.