Introduction to Alternative Analogue Darkroom Techniques Workshop

This two-day course will explore technical developments in creating alternative cameraless processes for making prints. Emphasis will be on experimentation, with a brief history of analogue print processes. We will explore different types of ‘plant-based emulsions’ and photographic brews. The workshop will also involve making acetate negatives, alternative contact prints, and film negatives that can be scanned and printed as sheet negatives for use in many alternative processes.

Cyanotype is a 19th-century photographic printing process that produces cyan-blue, monochromatic prints using UV light (sunlight) and two iron-based chemicals: Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate. Commonly known as a blueprint process, it involves coating paper or fabric, placing objects or negatives on it, and washing with water to develop.

Anthotype printing is an eco-friendly, cameraless photographic process that uses light-sensitive emulsions made from crushed plants, berries, or flowers to create images. Coated paper is exposed to sunlight under organic objects or transparencies, where UV rays bleach the exposed areas while the covered, unexposed areas retain colour.

Lumen printing is a cameraless photography technique that creates unique, colourful images by exposing organic matter (like plants) on light-sensitive paper to direct sunlight for 30–90+ minutes. It requires no darkroom developer; prints are created by sun exposure, yielding shades of purple, blue, pink, and yellow.

A Phytogram is a cameraless photographic image created by using the internal chemistry of plants to interact with photographic film or paper. Developed in 2016 by filmmaker and artist Karel Doing, the process allows the natural compounds in plants to create unique, detailed, and often abstract botanical prints on both light-sensitive paper and film.

This varied and intense workshop will cover all the processes, explaining how images are generated and what tools, equipment, and materials are involved.

Accommodation: We have private rooms available for €35 per night in our residential building. Please book your tickets to the workshop on Eventbrite and then email us to see if we have a room available to: info@leitrimsculpturecentre.ie.

Christine Mackey is an independent artist based in Ireland. In 2025, she presented a major solo exhibition at The Model, Sligo funded by a projects award from the Arts Council of Ireland. Recent residencies include The Garden Studio at Butler Gallery, FarmWalks at The Dock, WATERlands Horizon (UCD), Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Jeollanam-do Cultural Foundation (South Korea), and CRUX, Newfoundland (Canada). Selected group exhibitions include Still, We Gather (Galway Arts Centre); Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (London); 1000 Ecologies (Utopiana, Geneva); and Profondeurs (Irish Cultural Centre, Paris). In 2026 she will present work at Supermarket Stockholm, supported by Culture Ireland. She is an Alumni Fulbright Research Scholar (2018) and holds a practice-based PhD from the University of Ulster (2012).