FOR WHOM?
Event for youth and adults.
ACCESSIBILITY
More information for people with diverse needs: dostepnosc@ethnomuseum.pl; phone: +48 512 940 167 (SMS available). Please contact us by phone from Monday to Friday between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM.
ABOUT EVENT
This dynamic two-hour workshop introduces young adults to the cyanotype printing process—an intersection of art, science, and identity. Led by London-based visual artist Melanie Issaka, whose work is featured in the „Afrotopias” exhibition, participants will harness the power of sunlight to create striking blueprints using personal and natural materials. Melanie’s tactile and experimental practice focuses on body prints and botanical forms to explore themes of visibility, presence, and representation.
Cyanotype is one of the earliest photographic processes, first used in the 1840s by botanist Anna Atkins to document plant specimens. Atkins’ work—now considered the first photographic book—earned her recognition as the first female photographer. This workshop honours her legacy while reimagining the process through contemporary lenses of Afrofuturism, identity, and materiality.
In this hands-on session, participants will:
- Discover the history and chemistry of cyanotype printing
- Watch a live demonstration of coating, exposing, and developing cyanotype prints using sunlight
- Experiment with body prints, fabric textures, plant materials, and found objects
- Create and take home their own cyanotype artworks using intuitive composition and gesture
Goals
- Introduce cyanotype as both a scientific technique and a medium for creative expression
- Explore how the body and identity can be represented through material and process
- Encourage personal storytelling and experimentation through alternative photography
The workshop will be conducted in English with Polish translation provided as needed.
HOST
Melanie Issaka (b. 1994) is a London-based visual artist and freelance photographer whose practice explores the intersections of race, gender, and class. Working across analogue and digital photography as well as printmaking, she investigates the complexities of identity and representation, often challenging surface-level perceptions and conventional modes of visibility.
Her work draws attention to the tension between public and private life, using material processes to emphasise presence, embodiment, and self-awareness. Focusing on the tactile and physical qualities of print and lens-based media, Melanie seeks to foreground the materiality of image-making as a way of asserting agency and resisting reductive portrayals.
She holds a BA in Graphic Design from the University of Brighton (2016) and an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art (2021). Since 2022, she has worked as a Technical Instructor in Photography at the Royal College of Art.
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