My Biancheria (cyanotypes) 2023

My Biancheria
Cyanotype on Arches Platine, 2023-ongoing
Sizes are between 9 in. - 13 in.

In an Italian woman’s dowry of textiles called, corredo, the collected, embroidered, or woven sheet sets, clothing, and other textiles are called the biancheria. My grandmother sold most of her corredo to support her and my family’s immigration to the United States. With the lack of textiles I possess from my grandmother, I consider textiles I have accumulated in my own personal collection. The cyanotype prints showcase my interests as a collector and curator. The portraits consider compositions that best represents the textile to ultimately digitally archive and give honor to the recollected object.

Working with tactile objects encourages tactile methods of photography. I correlate the value of a woman’s biancheria to the prints as monotypes by emphasizing non-replicable brush strokes when painting the solution onto paper or hand painting the prints after using ink, watercolor, and chalk pastel pencils. The cyanotypes are one-to-one in scale with its object and become a blueprint to my corredo.