​ROBIN DOWELL

NON-CONTACT

Tinted cyanotypes

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During the UK's March-June 2020 national lockdown, I was struck by the growing number of discarded gloves in my immediate locale. They would appear even on the quietest rural footpaths, powerful reminders of global events. 

While worn to protect, in their casual disposal, they suggested threat and an implied potential to infect. Anonymous, yet suggestive of individual endeavour, I began to collect them through a careful system of delayed retrieval and disinfection.

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The prints in this body of work are cyanotype, one of the earliest photographic processes, which uses a direct contact method of exposure to emulsion. In the initial stage of the project, these prints were a largely uniform prussian blue. To anchor the images to the locations in which they were found, each print has been tinted with tannins extracted from the plants found in that immediate area. These included oak, holly, willow, gunnera, St John's wort, sycamore and camellia.

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