Extending the hand of friendship

Posted on February 11, 2021February 12, 2021 by carlotta

Extending the hand of friendship

We have finally had truly cold weather in Lewes and a light dusting of snow that has changed the contours of the hills and highlighted the furrows of the ploughed fields. The first day it snowed, it began while I was out walking, and the higher I got on the Downs the more there was of it. I came onto an exposed sweep of land and there, in the middle of it, was a bouquet of roses scattered on the ground. The pale yellow of the blooms and their green leaves were a startling sight, surrounded as they were by a monochromatic landscape of white snow, grey sky and dark shrubs.

I learned afterwards that yellow roses are a symbol of friendship, though there was no indication of why they had been left in this isolated spot.

A friend suggested that perhaps they had been placed here as a caring message, reaching out to whoever came across them.

I like that idea. Friendship in its many forms is something we all need during this time of isolation and social distance.

You can find more of my landscape photographs here.

Where land meets sea

Posted on February 2, 2021 by carlotta

Where land meets sea

I have to admit that work is a tad slower than I would have liked during this third and open-ended lockdown. To keep myself busy, I have been working with my hand-printed cyanotypes again. This shot was taken at sunrise on Cape Cod during my visit last October.

I am making plans for two more cyanotype books. (My first one, about Lewes Bonfire, can be found here). One book will be photographs of the sea – mostly stormy.

The other will be photos of the plants, sand and rocks to be found where land meets sea. I will be binding them myself as limited editions. I am still working on exactly how I will do this – I’ll keep you posted! More of my cyanotypes are here.

Please get in touch if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

Festive greetings!

Posted on December 23, 2020December 24, 2020 by carlotta

Festive greetings!

Wishing you all the very best for the coming year and may it be immeasurably better than this one. Here’s to once again being able to meet and hug and be together without fear and anxiety. Hopefully that time is just around the corner.

I wanted to send you a nice wintery photograph to celebrate the season.

I wanted to post an appropriately wintery photograph to celebrate the season. I took this last December on Cape Cod and it was chilly, but not so much so that it stopped me jumping into that still clear water – and convincing my friend to come in with me. It felt magical, immersed in the sea with the snow swirling in the air. Don’t worry, I didn’t stay in very long. You can see many more of my landscape photographs here.

On the last day of summer

Posted on September 24, 2020 by carlotta

On the last day of summer

On the last day of summer, I swam in a sea with no horizon. It was boundless and made of liquid silver. The morning sun was hidden by a bank of mist and there was a stillness in the air and across the water. As I swam, I savoured the feeling, hoping that I would be able to retrieve it during the months of winter ahead. More of my landscape photographs are here.

I am self-publishing a book of my cyanotype Bonfire portraits. It is available by mail order. You can find more information here.

Please get in touch if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

It’s a whole new ballgame

Posted on July 30, 2020August 28, 2020 by carlotta

It’s a whole new ballgame

Lockdown has been many things for many people. Although obviously a very upsetting time, for me it also proved to be productive and I am excited to share with you what I have been working on. Back in January, my daughter came home from college with some cyanotypes she had made and I was immediately taken with the potential of the technique. Thus began months of experimentation.

Cyanotype is a traditional darkroom method dating back to the 1840s. I use acetate to create a negative from a digital file and use this to make a contact print onto paper that I have painted with cyanotype solution.

It is a deceptively simple process. It is fickle and inconsistent and can drive me crazy, but when it works, it is joyous. There is variation in each print so, unlike a digital photograph, every image is unique.

Because I was unable to leave the house I had many hours to play with the process, seeing what types of images worked best and how far I could push the technique. I began with photos I took during the winter storms that pounded our coastline, perhaps because I was missing the sea so much during lockdown.

You can find a selection of my cyanotypes here. This new work will be exhibited in September as part of the Lewes District Artwave Festival. A book of my Bonfire cyanotypes is available as well, more information on that here.

Was it a pea souper or the Devil’s soup?

Posted on July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 by carlotta

Was it a pea souper or the Devil’s soup?

From blazing sun to rain and wind – we have had it all here in Sussex lately. On a walk to investigate a prehistoric hill fort above Steyning, West Sussex, we were blasted by a ferocious wind, while at the same time, blinded by thick fog – which seemed a strange weather combination to me. Out of the mist a line of trees suddenly rose above the open fields of the Downs, although it was hard to make out exactly what we were looking at because of the thick fog. Beneath the trees there were strange undulating mounds covered in soft grass that formed a huge circular shape, with younger trees filling the centre. As we stepped into this circle, the wind suddenly dropped, and the space felt eery and, if I had let my imagination run wild, maybe a bit haunted.

Chanctonbury Ring has been a sacred place for over 2000 years. Neolithic flint work, Bronze Age pottery and the remains of a Roman temple have been uncovered here and some believe it is a place of mystic druid power. A local myth claims that the Devil built the Ring and if you run around it anti-clockwise seven times, he will appear and give you a bowl of soup in exchange for your soul. It must be a hell of a bowl of soup, but I think I will forgo running around the Ring seven times just in case.

You can see more of my landscape photography here.

Please get in touch if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

Tag: landscape photography