Behind the scenes

The story behind the diving gannet.

On a day in July 2022 I was at the beach in Jammerbugten in North Jutland.

At that time there was an outbreak of bird flu in the gannet-colonies in Scotland. Thousands of birds died. Several washed ashore on the west coast of Denmark. 

With all the personal protection possible I carefully collected one of them to make a cyanotype.

I wanted to get close to my imagination of a diving gannet and therefor I chose to make a wet cyanotype with dots of foam. The paper was covered with plastic because I did not want any contact between the bird and the paper.

It was exposed in the sun and the picture was developed in running water afterwards. 

Exposing in bright sunlight.  Because the emulsion is wet it starts developing immediately.

Developing in running water.