Surrounded by views of Oxfordshire, the Chilterns Hills, the Vale of Aylesbury Waddesdon Manor, provided our group with an ideal place to photograph and explore. We gathered by the rococo style Aviary in the heart of the gardens filled with rare and exotic birds.
Photographer Kate Dyer set up an impromptu studio near the Aviary and explained to the group about how make a cyanotype or sun print, we were fortunate that Autumn was kind to us and the light was still strong enough for our purpose.
Kate hope the cyanotypes would be inspired by the walk to the Aviary
and would be made with found or natural objects plus
a selection of preprepared architectural line drawings.
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide.
Our chosen objects were lad on top of the cyanotype paper and a sheet of acetate was clipped on top, the image was them left to create a positive image produced by exposing the paper it to a source of ultraviolet light (such as sunlight). The extent of colour change depends on the amount of UV light, but good results were obtained after 10–20 minute exposures.
String made a good drying line
After exposure the paper was washed in water
and hung to both dry and develop
the results were beautiful and mysterious.
The cyanotype processwas first introduced by John Herschel (1792 – 1871) in 1842. Sir John was an astronomer, trying to find a way of copying his notes. One of the first people to put the cyanotype process to use was Anna Atkins (1799-1871), who in October 1843 became the first person to produce and photographically illustrated a book using cyanotypes
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After they had finished their cyanotype the group were invited to step back in time in the Victorian style gardens, gaze at flamboyant colours on the parterre amid the ornate fountains and statuary and to explore the gardens and building at their own pace, walking their own paths. In 2012, it was announced that Waddesdon Manor would be one of the sites for Jubilee Woodlands, designated by the Woodland Trust to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.
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Waddesdon Manor was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild between 1874 and 1885 to display his collection of arts and to entertain the fashionable world. Opened to the public in 1959, Waddesdon Manor is managed by the Rothschild Foundation, a family charitable trust, on behalf of the National Trust, who took over ownership in 1957. It’s home to the Rothschild Collections of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.
Some of the group decided to tour the inside the
house, and found treasure trove of collections.
In the Stable Gallery they were able to Witness nature re-imagined in an exhibition that sees an amalgamation of fashion, digital art and animal specimens on show. In collaboration with the Natural History Museum at Tring, Walter Rothschild’s spectacular collection of natural history provides the inspiration for colourful virtual collages by Platon H and couture dresses by Mary Katrantzou.
Our time at Waddesdon raced by
This is the face of happiness and wellbeing and lies at the heart of this project - to bring people who lack access to parks, gardens, woods, water, crafts and industry to places they might not ordinarily visit. For many of the group it was the first time they had been to such a grand garden, so full of richness and inspiration. It was a memorable day and one to treasure.
