T58. Cliché-Verre Expanded: Toning with Cyanotypes with Daniel Hojnacki

In this workshop, participants will explore cliché verre as a starting point for photographic printmaking, expanded through bleaching and toning techniques. The process combines drawing, contact printing, and chemical transformation to add both conceptual and visual depth to the final images.Participants will work closely with cliché verre and cyanotype printing as a way to record and reinterpret the surrounding world. After producing the initial prints, they will modify them through toning processes using household and natural materials such as beets, coffee, green tea, and red wine, observing how everyday substances can shift color, contrast, and tonal range.The workshop emphasizes toning as both a technical and conceptual tool, demonstrating how chemical and natural materials can intentionally reshape photographic meaning. Through individual and collective work, participants will gain insight into how material choices influence interpretation and visual perception.
Outline

1. Introduction to the cliché verre technique and its historical context
2. Cyanotype printing exercise: coating paper and producing a cliché verre negative
3. Demonstration of toning techniques and the range of tones achievable with selected natural materials
4. Creation of a collaborative large scale cyanotype combining participants’ cliché verre drawings
5. Wrap up, group discussion, and review of final prints

*Participants must bring:

• Any specific drawing tools or palette knives you would like to use. A range of materials will also be provided.
• Photographs you would like to translate into drawings as cliché verre prints.
• Negatives that you are comfortable scratching, cutting, or altering for experimentation.
• Paper types you would like to use for cyanotypes.
• Resists or drawing materials, such as sand, paints, inks, or household items like honey, syrup, nail polish, etc.
• Household materials for toning, such as black tea, coffee, beets, red wine, etc. (some of these will also be provided by the instructor).