Each print begins not with a camera, but with a coated sheet of paper — sensitised by hand, exposed under UV light, and developed in water.
Explore the processesAlternative process photography describes a family of non-silver, non-digital photographic techniques developed largely in the 1800s. Unlike conventional photography, these processes rely on metal salts — iron, platinum, palladium — rather than silver halides to form an image.
The results are fundamentally different from inkjet or darkroom prints: the image is in the paper fibres, not sitting on top of them. Tones are richer, surfaces are matte, and the archival stability can outlast almost any modern printing method.
Working this way means accepting variability. Each sheet of paper responds differently. Temperature, humidity, and the exact mineral content of the water all influence the final image. That's not a limitation — it's the point.
Each process has its own chemistry, its own palette, and its own relationship with light.
Two iron salts — ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide — are mixed in equal parts and brushed onto watercolour paper in complete darkness. After drying, a large-format negative is laid directly on the paper and exposed to UV light for 10–20 minutes.
Where light strikes, the iron compounds undergo a chemical reaction and form insoluble Prussian blue. Where the negative blocked light, the paper remains pale and water-soluble. Development is simply running water, washing away the unexposed chemistry and revealing the image.
Kallitype uses ferric oxalate and silver nitrate to produce an image in metallic silver. It's often described as the closest alternative-process technique to platinum/palladium printing — producing warm, luminous tones in a brown-to-black range depending on developer chemistry.
The process requires more chemistry than cyanotype: a developer (typically sodium acetate or borax), a clearing bath to remove residual iron, and a fixer or toner to stabilise the silver image. Toning with sodium thiosulfate or gold dramatically improves archival stability and shifts colour toward cooler or warmer blacks.
This is not a single process but a deliberate collision of two. A sheet of cotton rag paper is first prepared with a hand-applied inkjet layer — colour, texture, or tonal elements printed directly onto the paper using pigment inks. That same sheet is then coated with cyanotype sensitiser, dried in the dark, and exposed under UV light with a large-format negative.
The cyanotype development washes away unexposed chemistry, revealing the Prussian blue image — but now it sits on top of and in dialogue with the inkjet layer beneath. The two image-forming systems interact: blue chemistry over warm ink creates passages that neither process could produce alone. Each print is genuinely unrepeatable.
The cyanotype/inkjet hybrid requires precise sequencing — the inkjet layer must be fully cured before any photochemistry touches the paper.
Alternative process prints have outlasted nearly every printing technology that followed them. The reasons are structural.
Chemistry is sourced from Bostick & Sullivan (New Mexico) and Photographers' Formulary — two suppliers who have supplied the alternative process community for decades and maintain consistent purity standards.
Paper selection is tested every time a new batch arrives. A small calibration print is made before committing to an edition — coating characteristics, exposure times, and development behaviour all shift slightly between paper batches.
No proprietary chemistry, no shortcut kits. Each chemistry solution is made fresh at the beginning of a printing session and disposed of responsibly at the end. Freshness directly affects the quality of the final print.
Want to see the process in person, or commission a print made to your brief?
Workshops run with a maximum of four people. You'll coat paper, expose prints, and leave with finished work you made by hand — plus the knowledge to keep going on your own. No experience necessary. Everything provided.
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