Alternative Photography - Creating Anthotypes

Experience one of photography’s most environmentally respectful techniques in this anthotypes workshop, where plant-based emulsions and sunlight combine to create delicate, ephemeral images. Anthotypes offer a slower, meditative approach to image-making that values patience, natural materials, and sustainable craft.

During the workshop, practising visual, artist Simone Darcy will guide you through extracting pigments from flowers, fruits, and plant matter, transforming them into eco-friendly emulsions that act as natural light-sensitive coatings. These emulsions are brushed onto paper and exposed to sunlight over time, resulting in softly coloured, painterly images.

Anthotypes sit at the intersection of photography, ecology, and traditional craft. They are ideal for those interested in sustainable practices, organic materials, or the poetic qualities of slow artmaking. You’ll also create your own transparencies, allowing you to transfer images, patterns, drawings, or graphic elements onto the prepared surfaces.

Once exposed, your print can be scanned and turned into a hybrid digital/analogue image, ensuring its preservation while allowing further creative manipulation. This workshop blends hands-on technique with environmental awareness and artistic expression.

 Simone will also provide a digital recipe booklet so you can continue experimenting at home with plant-based image-making.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this anthotypes course, you should be able to:

• Mix, store, and preserve plant-based photo emulsions
• Prepare and coat papers for sunlight exposure
• Create and use transparencies for image transfer
• Scan and enhance finished works to produce hybrid prints
• Apply sustainable methods in alternative photography

Course content

• Overview of anthotypes and sustainable image-making
• Extracting pigments from plants and produce
• Emulsion preparation and paper coating
• Sunlight exposure and development
• Transparency creation for image transfer
• Scanning and hybrid workflows