Genevieve Maynard Photography

If you're interested in further exploration of the historical print-making processes I recommend the following resources. It's a large area of interest and ongoing research, and the amount of information, some of it conflicting, can be overwhelming. The links on this page lead to websites that have been of use to me; there are numerous other resources to be found but exercise caution, as there is a lot of inaccurate or just plain wrong information online as well.

I benefitted greatly from various in-person workshops with Janus Boshoff and Dennis Da Silva at the Alternative Print Workshop in Johannesburg, so if you have the option to attend a workshop with a reputable practitioner in your home city I fully recommend doing so. If you don't have that opportunity don't worry - you can start making cyanotype photograms ( no negative needed for this) with just a few basic supplies and no expert knowledge.

The cyanotype chemistry is very low toxicity when used as instructed for the process and is considered both safe and environmentally friendly. Van Dyke brown chemistry contains silver nitrate, so do exercise care with that.
 

While historical print processes seem simple they can be mystifyingly tricky on occasion, and the contacts you make while doing these courses can be valuable on the days where you feel like you are bashing your head repeatedly against a wall :)

You'll find there are a variety of approaches to making digital negatives. You can, for example, make a digital negative using a large format film negative, take that film negative into the digital realm and make it larger and adjust the tonal range to suit the process you are using. Or you can make digital negatives using an inkjet printer and photo editing software such as GIMP (free) or one of the commercial products. You can print your negatives on overhead projector transparencies or even on paper, although I haven't done this myself.

You don't need to have a whizz bang expensive set up to get started. I had a home office inkjet printer and some very cheap transparency material, and made a contact printing frame from an old picture frame. Or you could just use 7mm glass on top of a flat wooden surface if your prints are A4 or less.

What worked for me may not be a good fit for you, but I recommend Peter Mrhar's Easy Digital Negatives website and book. The title is perhaps a little misleading and the amount of information can seem overwhelming. In that instance I benefitted greatly from an online tutorial course put together by Paolo Saccheri which helped me to clarify the procedure. You can follow along while beginning to make negatives, and the understanding of the hows and whys can come later.

You will need to get good quality paper to print on, or there may be a chemical reaction from the paper that can literally make your image just fade away. It doesn't need to be ultra expensive and you'll find various people giving recommendations in the websites I link to. 

You can buy pre-mixed or measured chemistry for the cyanotype process online in most countries. You'll find links to suppliers in the links below. As far as these processes go it is an inexpensive way to get started.

There are many books on the various processes.  Christopher James' 'Alternative Photographic Processes' is truly encyclopedic and might be a good place to start, or perhaps one of Christina Z Anderson's books . 

The AlternativePhotography website is an excellent resource with a large data base for knowledge, suppliers around the globe, community, competitions, or just finding out about other practitioners. There are also a number of online communities on the usual social media sites, and useful information to be found on the Photrio alternative processes forum.