Caroline Roberts

I grew up in the UK where stone age ancestors built their monuments and stories tell of kings that sleep under mountains and rock doors that open into other worlds. These places lie hidden in plain sight, just waiting for the right light and the right time to be revealed. When I found my own fingerprints appearing on developed cyanotypes I remembered these stories, and a book, Shadow Sites, by Kitty Hauser describing archeological sites that had lain undiscovered until aerial photographs were taken, by chance, in winter when the sun was low on the horizon. The idea that something could be present and yet remain unseen for millennia seemed to come straight from myth. In Shadow Sites I examine the ways in which the surface of the artwork can become such a place, using scratches, stains, brush marks and shadows as traces that are invisible until revealed by light and chemistry. The simplicity and robustness of the cyanotype process - coat paper, expose to sunlight, develop in water - makes it ideal for such experimentation and manipulation. My process is a delicate balance of experience and the excitement of discovery.