The Old School House Arts Centre in Qualicum Beach is home to an exhibit of cyanotypes, created using one of the earliest forms of photography.
The pieces in The Colour of Longing by Zoey Clare were made with negatives of digital photographs, printed, placed in transparencies and then put in a box where UV light activates a solution.
Clare’s process started on their patio before she was hired at TOSH (122 Fern Rd) and began a residency in the dark room, in addition to working as the gallery’s communications manager.
“I built these UV boxes,” Clare said. “And I started to be able to control the lighting more and do more effects and expand.”
Clare worked as an events photographer in the Toronto area for years before moving to Vancouver Island during the COVID-19 pandemic. With no events to photograph, she began looking through her archives, pulling out favourites and experimenting with cyanotypes.
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The exhibition includes cyanotypes from Vancouver Island communities such as Tofino, Gabriola Island, Nanaimo, Qualicum Beach and Sooke. The cyanotypes are accompanied by poetic reflections by Illana Hester, gallery executive director and curator. The exhibition’s works are a reflection on longing, memory and the places and distances in which we never quite arrive, according to Hester.
The cyanotypes include images ranging from a macro shot of a fern in Qualicum Beach’s heritage forest, to an English cathedral, to an old abandoned vehicle in Mill Bay.
“I’d always kind of gravitated towards industrial spaces,” said Clare. “And so when I moved here, I had never done landscapes before, so I felt like I was in this like strange world.”
When a planned exhibition pulled out, it created an opportunity for the gallery to share Clare’s work and introduce the community to the world of cyanotypes.
“The process is very painterly and artistic to make cyanotypes,” Hester said. “Although it’s a photograph, you can see the brush marks on it. The process of making a cyanotype is very mysterious and artistic and painterly almost.”
The Colour of Longing will be on display at TOSH until Sept. 3.