Photosensitive - The Fake Archives

The “  Fake Archives “”, enlarged photographs from the students’ family archives, were displayed in various locations throughout the middle school to surprise their classmates, teachers, and school staff. These blue-tinted or copper-toned images are the result of recompositions, photomontages, and combinations created using the cyanotype and Van Dyke* photographic processes.

The Van Dyke process is an old photographic process that produces a direct print; in other words, the image forms during exposure without passing through a developer.  This process uses iron citrate, which is also found in the cyanotype process.