I decided to engage with the sites and places of Mparntwe by taking photographic documentation and creating Cyanotypes in blue ink.
Cyanotype is an old photographic printing process, which uses two chemicals to produce a cyan blue print. After taking photographs I de-saturated the photos in Photoshop and increased the contrast, inverted and flipped the images to create a negative. I printed the negative on transparency films. I placed the films on fabric previously brushed with cyanotype chemicals and exposed them to the sun for 10-30 minutes depending on the darkness of the negatives and the strength of the sun.
This method uses the sunshine to create an image, drawing on the hot and arid characteristics of the environment. The blue tone imbues the images with a sense of melancholy, which seems fitting to me as I observe the aftermath in these sites.
