Robert A. Schaefer began his photography career while studying and getting his MA Degree (Diplom Ingenieur) at the Technische Universität of Munich, Germany. With exhibitions in Munich, Frankfurt, Hannover, Hamburg, Paris and Graz, he moved to New York in 1981 where he began working with alternative printing processes from the 19th Century including the Van Dyke Process. This summer, he will spend an entire month at the Can Serrat Artist Colony outside Barcelona, Spain to produce a new body of Van Dykes and Cyanotypes. Schaefer currently teaches various photography courses at New York University, and the Domeischel Gallery in New York City handles his work.
The Penumbra Foundation | Center for Alternative Photography will offer an introduction workshop to the Cyanotype Process. Participants of the workshop will be given a piece of paper pre-coated with the Cyanotype synthesizer on which they will place small objects (also supplied) before putting this assembly in sunlight.
Learn MoreIn 1842 Sir John Herschel decided that the Daguerreotype, the first photographic printing process, was too expensive, difficult and potentially lethal. Thus, he invented in that year the printing process to which he gave the name Cyanotype. It produced a monochromatic Prussian blue photographic print on inexpensive materials such as paper or cloth.
Learn MoreThis website was made possible thanks to the generous support and partnership of 