A summer afternoon at a stunning RIBA-prize winning building, a talk for the Blackheath Arts Society.

I delivered a presentation centred on my experimental photography work, demonstrating how various sources of inspiration drive me to explore different techniques.

Even though I am an ”experimental” artist, concerned with materiality, I reflected on this talk afterwards and saw a thread running through my work. It takes a lot of distance to look in the mirror and see that thread, when you are doing eclectic work day-to-day. The thing that ‘gets me out of bed in the morning’ is to spread awareness, through art, of the importance of preserving nature and this small blue dot we live on. History comes into that, as we all too easily forget the lessons of the past.

There was a lot of interest in the cyanotype process, and going from 2D to 3D, and cyanotype being printed onto fabric, with one attendee suggesting that I start my own fashion line! (I was wearing one of my cyanotype shirts!)

My assistant Miya, helped me with a live cyanotype sunprint demonstration using some plants from the beautiful gardens. The sheer magic of science and nature always leaves people spellbound, especially that moment when the paper turns blue in water.

photos by Miya Otsuki