CREATIVE SERIES: The Big Camera: World Cyanotype Day 2022

Join Ijams Nature Center and The Big Camera on September 3 to make, create, and celebrate World Cyanotype Day 2022!

World Cyanotype Day is celebrated every year on the last Saturday in September. It began in 2015, in Johnson City,Texas, by Shootapalooza, a collaborative group of artists and photographers. The theme this year is “Enlighten”. Participants from around the world make 12x12 cyanotype flags and send them to a central location to be displayed together. This year that place is Ijam’s Nature Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, hosted by the Big Camera, 6’x12’ mobile darkroom and Camera Obscura.

Cyanotype is a printing process invented in the early days of photography that produces a blue print. Objects or  botanicals are placed on the light sensitive fabric, exposed to the sun, and rinsed in water; it’s a simple non-toxic process. It was popularized by Anna Atkins, considered to be the first female photographer and the first person to make a book using a photographic process.

The Big Camera invites you to participate in this community event. We will have a FREE Community workshop on September 3 from 12-3 pm on the plaza at Ijams. You will make two cyanotype flags - one to keep and one to be displayed to be displayed at Ijams Nature Center on World Cyanotype Day, September 24, 2022.

Please reserve a ticket to this event so materials can be prepped and ready for everyone that wants to attend.