Currently on view at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, is a captivating online survey of cyanotype artists from around the world. The 226th Anna Atkins Birthday Exhibition, a four-part international showcase, features a whole section dedicated to exciting experimental approaches titled: Expanded Cyanotypes: New Directions In Cyanotype Making. The diversity of works on display (throughout the exhibition but on this section in particular) is making a real impact, evincing a widespread interest in the cyanotype process across disciplines and artistic backgrounds.

Today on LENSCRATCH, we are thrilled to introduce you to an eclectic group of wonderful artists who, with their inspiring creativity, are pushing nature of this medium and showcase its diverse, boundary-pushing interpretations. While the perspectives, approaches, and subject matter are as diverse as ever, a common thread among the artists seems to be fragmentation—of surfaces, of life, of beliefs, geographies, memories, identities, emotions, and, of course, of the artworks themselves.

Without further ado, the Top #20 Expanded Cyanotype artists are: Albert Sanchez, Annalise Neil, Adrienne Defendi, Clara Zaragoza, Carolina Baldomá, Dana Cohen, Fruma Markowitz, Hannah Lamb, Hari Priya Vangaru, Jackie Neale, Javier Hinojosa, Joachim Froese, Julie Hamel, Jyoti Liggin, Kate Flake, Katherine Akey, Mandy Barker, Ramona Zordini, Shir Melech, Ute Lindner, Yuchen Wang.

Congratulations to all the artists! Thank you for sharing your unique approaches to cyanotype making with us. We hope you enjoy seeing tiny fragments of their universe as much as we did threading them together.

Stay tuned for an additional selection on LENSCRATCH of approximately 40 must-see cyanotype works coming soon! At this point, you might as well see the whole show. You won’t regret it!

The TOP #20 Expanded Cyanotypes

Alberto Sanchez, Annalise Neil, Adrienne Defendi, Clara Zaragoza, CarloFruma Markowitz, Hannah Lamb, Hari Priya Vangaru, Jackie Neale, Javier Hinojosa, Joachim Froese, Julie Hamel, Jyoti Liggin, Kate Flake, Katherine Akey, Mandy Barker, Ramona Zordini, Shir Melech, Ute Lindner, Yao Tong, Yuchen Wang.

© Julie Hamel, Squirrel (with handmade brush), cyanotype painted with a handmade brush made from the squirrel’s fur, paper dyed with acorn tannins, 2019 | Peterborough, United States

© Adrienne Defendi, Healing Trees, installation of cyanotype and soil on Rives BRK paper | Palo Alto, California, US

© Hari Priya Vangaru, Blue Mind, cyanotype on wood along with stones from the Hudson, 2024 | New York, USA

© Javier Hinojosa, ENSAMBLE XXXV, wood box, Cyanotype on Japanese paper, containers with sands from the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, Fossil, 2024

© Dana Cohen, Closet Doors, Closet Doors, cyanotype on 24 mylar panels in repurposed bifold doors, 2024 | Sevierville, Tennessee (US)

© Joachim Froese, Wollemi Giants, Untitled #1; 56 cyanotype prints, toned in green tea & 56 waxed digital negatives; individual prints: 20 x 25 cm, overall size: 140 x 200 cm unframed each | Brisbane, Australia

© Carola Baldomá, Untitled, cyanotype on japanese paper (Okamoto: Mitsumata + Zellsoff), 2024 | Argentina

© Katherine Akey, Weed Out Your Memory, cyanotype toned with coffee, cotton thread, linen, cotton batting, 2024 | San Francisco California, USA

© Yuchen Wang, Four Shadows I, cyanotype print on ‘Father and Son’ Comic Book, Sound Installation, Inkjet Print on Handmade Kozo Paper & Matte Paper, 2024 | Providence, RI, USA

© Jyoti Liggin, I Don’t Want to Touch The Ground, quilt of untoned cyanotype, cyanotype toned with coffee and tannic acid, commercially printed cotton fabric and batting, 2025 | Oakland, California, United States of America

© Kate Flake, I have begun to distrust my body, cyanotype on cotton, cotton batting, polyfil, cotton and polyester thread, wooden desk, 2024 | Madison, USA

© Fruma Markowitz, Gossip In The Mellah, 2024 | Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA

© Alberto Sanchez, TIRANDO PALOMAS, light drawing on canvas, 2025 | Bloomington, Indiana, USA

© Jackie Neale, Bullet the Blue Sky: Flag 3 Senseless, cyanotype of ammunition and AR-15 imprints on a distressed Valley Forge American Flag, 2020 | United States, Greater Philadelphia

© Hannah Lamb, Accretion, cyanotype and hand stitch on cotton, 2024 | Bingley, West Yorkshire, England

© Shir Melech, Cosmos, cyantype on silk, cotton frabric, 2023 | Tel Aviv, Israel

© Ute Lindner, Pentimenti (Lions’ Palace), photomontage, caynotype on fabric, 21 feet x 38,7 feet (640cm x 1180 cm), St. Maria Church, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany, 2012-2022

© Annalise Neil, Transformation Through Inquiry, cyanotype, watercolor and cotton string on cotton sateen mounted to panel, 2023 | La Mesa, California, USA

© Clara Zaragoza, Los Ojos, cyanotype collage, 2023 | Buenos Aires, Argentina

© Ramona Zordini, Who I Am, Tricolor Cyanotype, 9 level of paper collage, Pearl insert, 2025 | Brescia, Italy

Editor’s Pick:
Mandy Barker

Mandy Barker‘s project, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections, is — in the words of the artist — “an ode to Atkins” and  “a typology of discarded synthetic clothing fragments found in the sea.” I must admit, when I first encountered her work, I mistook it for an impression of algae itself. Are we, perhaps, on the brink of becoming blind to the very things right in front of us? Barker’s palpable reverence for the natural world offers a critical commentary on pollution and the degradation of aquatic ecosystems, and by extension, the broader health of life on Earth. Inside this little red book there’s a worrisome reflection on the changes we’ve made as a species, and an epic conversation between two great artists making a wonderful connection across time, mediums and coastlines.

The project was recently published by Gost Books in April of this year, and I encourage everyone to get their hands on a copy or explore it further on the dedicated website for the project: www.atkins-barker.com.

© Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections | Courtesy the artist

Learn more about Barker’s project in her own words:

“In 2012, I found a piece of material in a rock pool that changed my life. Mistaking this moving piece of cloth for seaweed, started the recovery of synthetic clothing from around the coastline of Britain for the next ten years”. 

Two hundred and two ‘specimens’ of clothing and garments recovered from one hundred and twenty-one beaches mimic different species of marine algae, with the intention to raise awareness about the over consumption of synthetic plastic clothing also referred to as ‘fast fashion’, which is currently having the greatest impact on global climate change.

After seeing an original copy of the book, ‘Photographs of British Algae, Volume 1’ by Anna Atkins, at The Royal Society in London, Barker was captivated by its detail and significance, and for the way it changed how we looked at science in 1800’s, but more importantly for the possibility to re-create similar work that could engage how we look at science in connection with a present-day critical issue.

In this new presentation titled ‘Cyanotype Imperfections’ instead of the Atkins ‘Cyanotype Impressions’, the book includes 203 cyanotype image pages and 8 cyanotype text pages using original 1800’s J Whatman paper that Atkins used from the original Turkey Mill in Kent.

© Mandy Barker, Tights (Nylon) recovered from the British coastline | Courtesy the artist

© Mandy Barker, T-Shirt, recovered from the British coastline | Courtesy the artist

© Mandy Barker, Tights (T-Shirt), recovered from the British coastline | Courtesy the artist