the abstracted blueprint.
learn about the Cyanotype process
Interactive VR 360 explanatory video, watch me in the darkroom!
I combined my fascination towards the geometric details in architecture, with an antique photographic method called Cyanotype (blue prints using UV light and a darkroom.) These structures originally come from distorting, altering and then combining up-close photos of buildings collected throughout my time living in Armenia and Boston that focus on repetitive or abstract shapes and compositions. Originally created and collaged in Photoshop, I printed the structures onto clear negative film paper and developed the images with the Cyanotype method. This method is one of the first photographic processes invented -- I brush light-sensitive chemicals onto Arches Platine paper in a darkroom, place the negative print onto the paper and expose to UV light in order to create an imprint onto the paper (see process.)
Blueprints being the origin of architecture, they inspired the hand-drawn lines and measurements I added once the prints dried. By creating these structures, I realized they resemble brutalist and modernist era Soviet architecture, which apparently had left a subconscious impression on me while living in Armenia, a former Soviet country. The abstracted blueprint is a direct translation of my imagination and curiosity when observing architecture and the world around me as I move through different environments.