With the feeling of  ‘Spirit and Adventure’ our new issue 5 out soon.
We are showcasing her amazing work when she travelled to the Arctic to document the changing polar regions using the technic of cyanotypes.

Get to know photographer FANNY ZAMBAZ, by using the magnificent process of cyanotype she captured the stunning power and fragility of this region.

She talks about her process and the emotions felt for this project.

“This is a project of creation of Arctic giant cyanotypes:

To bring a different, more subjective look to these changing polar regions

To looze my gaze over the days of the endless polar summer, to capture the ambiances that the eye, too sharp, lets escape

To fill my eyelids with nothing but silence, to forget the human noise”

“Because of the difficult terrain (wind, cold, humidity) I could only make two images per day. Prioritizing quality over quantity”

‘Where I want an image to appear, I brush.

Once the paper has dried, I wait for a sunny day to expose it.

To do this, I need a giant negative, which I place on my emulsified paper.

I put a thick glass plate on top, to keep the negative on the paper and leave my sandwich glass-negative-paper in the sun for several minutes. Over an hour in winter

The final result depends on the emulsion, the brush stroke, the drying, but also on the sun which reveals my painting into photography

I then clean the image with clear water and the contours of the photo are revealed in cyan blue.

At this moment, I know if I have managed to capture the magic of nature, which seemed to have been painted with the sun’s approval and the respect of time

A respectful nod to J.Herschel who developed in 1842 the magnificent process of cyanotype.’

“Where I want an image to appear, I brush.”

All my cyanotypes are unique in the sense that the emulsion is applied by hand with a brush and the paint effects remain visible.

Then, my choice of the sun as a light source allows me to work only in certain weather conditions, with multiple variables.

This choice is an interesting part of my artistic approach, which does not find its place in the fast and virtual world that seems to be our century.

I feel, I wait, I touch, I prepare….

In the Arctic, I had to keep the exposed negatives in a light-tight box until I returned home a month later. I then processed them one by one, by hand, in absolute darkens.

It took me weeks,

As these special negatives require a delicate handling in full darkness  difficult to obtain in Arctic summer light on a tiny sailing boat  and because of the difficult terrain (wind, cold, humidity) I could only make two images per day.

Prioritizing quality over quantity FZ

Big thanks to Fanny for allowing us to bring you her amazing work and a truly capturing “Spirit and Adventure” of this beautiful but fragile region.

Get to know fanny zambaz photographer more, please go to her website https://www.fannyzambaz.ch

Hopefully you can feel the sense of travel and adventure in her images to take you away in these tricky times.

For other photographers check out https://heygirlmagazine.com/get-to-know-diana-gomez/

Big Love HG x