Fictional specimen journal · Sample issue No. 09

SUNPRINT

A botanical blueprint atlas. Six specimens, five algae and one flowering plant, contact-printed by sunlight onto iron-salted paper. Scroll slowly; every plate below is still developing.

Fictional publication · Sample plates
Begin exposure

Sun, salt & iron

Each sheet is brushed with ferric salts and dried in darkness. A specimen is pressed against the coated page beneath glass, and the frame is carried into the sun. Where light strikes, the paper burns to Prussian blue; where the plant shadows it, the sheet stays white. Nothing here is ink: every print is weather, timed. (Studio text is sample copy for this fictional journal.)

  1. I Coat the paper in the darkroom
  2. II Press the specimen under glass
  3. III Expose to open sunlight
  4. IV Wash, and watch the blue appear
Cyanotype of Spiraea aruncus, white foliage on Prussian blue

Plate I · Developed 0%

Spiraea aruncus

Goat's beard spiraea, pressed in the Tyrol, 1851. The only true flowering plant admitted to this sample issue.

Sample plate · Fictional caption

Cyanotype of Cystoseira granulata seaweed

Plate II · Developed 0%

Cystoseira granulata

A branching wrack gathered off the southern coast. Fine fronds print as lace against the blue.

Sample plate · Fictional caption

Cyanotype of Himanthalia lorea, long looping straps

Plate III · Developed 0%

Himanthalia lorea

Sea-thong. Its straps looped themselves across the frame during a long exposure; the printer kept the accident.

Sample plate · Fictional caption

Cyanotype of Sargassum bacciferum sprig

Plate IV · Developed 0%

Sargassum bacciferum

Gulfweed, fished from open water. A single sprig, dried the same afternoon it was printed.

Sample plate · Fictional caption

Cyanotype of Rhodomenia polycarpa, coral-like fronds

Plate V · Developed 0%

Rhodomenia polycarpa

A red alga that prints bone-white. The boldest silhouette in the sample issue, exposed at noon.

Sample plate · Fictional caption

Cyanotype of Polysiphonia violacea, dark wispy filaments

Plate VI · Developed 0%

Polysiphonia violacea

The faintest print in the drawer; violet filaments that only surface after a patient wash.

Sample plate · Fictional caption