John Dugdale

     John Dugdale is an American photographer who deals mostly in cyanotype processes. Dugdale's images are very much so unlike your standard cyanotype where you see the shape of a flower or an object on a blue sheet of paper. Dugdale's images have absolutely stunning contrast, and are made using what seems like massive negatives. One things that intrigues me is how he actually goes about exposing the images. Does he use something like a projector? Or does he expose them to the suns with negatives as big as the paper? Most of his images are self portraits, many of which were taken while Dugdale was losing his sight due to complications with a stroke and an HIV related Illness. 

    Dugdale's works often involved a sense of suffering, or a theme of death. I think the reason the Cyanotype attracted Dugdale so much was due to it's somewhat hazy nature, and the fact that the images were blue. It was very easy to make sad images for Dugdale, expressing the trauma and how upset he was with all of the complications he was dealing with. 

    Dugdale's portrait here is exposed with very deep contrast for a Cyanotype, which can be much more tedious to fix when exposing due to the longer exposure times cyanotypes require. I have a feeling these negatives are not the same size as the paper though, as the image looks to have high grain. 

    Dugdale's portrayal of himself always seems to display a feeling. The use of blue in the cyanotype may mean depression? The images honestly hurt to look at despite their beauty. There is a true sense of pain in the nearly blank expression Dugdale gives. Lighting and pose are incredibly important for these kinds of images. Dugdale makes sure not to do anything dynamic, and to almost make himself look fragile/vulnerable. The high definition of the shape of his body gives of a sense of frailty, and the soft lighting makes the image feel more sad. 

This last image is a double exposure. There were probably two negatives made, one with Dugdale and one without. They're then placed on top of each other, and during the exposure process, the negative with Dugdale on it is removed, making the image behind him expose as well, and creating this sort of double exposure. I think Dugdale wants to portray himself as fading away into nothingness. It's clear that's how he views himself through out this whole series, fading, growing weak, and near dying.