In a new film from our Extended Play digital series, Barbara Kasten reflects on the significance of the early cyanotypes she created in the 1970s. Under the impression that the works were too beautiful for their time, Kasten didn’t show her cyanotypes for years—but they serve as a foundational element in her practice.
Filmed while installing her first major survey exhibition at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, Kasten remembers experimenting with the cyanotype printing process while searching for a way to demonstrate to students how a flat woven surface could be rendered as a three-dimensional form.
“This was my first attempt at photography. I liked the idea that it was more like a printmaking process, but it happened to be a photographic recording.”
