Courtney Johnson’s Glass Cities Are A Master Class In Cliché-Verre Photography

moray mair | Photography | September 7, 2012

Photographer Courtney Johnson‘s ‘Glass Cities’ series are a master class in cliché-verre photography a technique that was first developed in the mid-19th century by painters who wanted to experiment with the new medium of photography. To create this beautiful series of images Johnson hand painted cityscapes on glass, or film, with nail polish, White Out and ink and then printed the resulting image on a light sensitive paper. This was then scanned, enlarged and finally printed. But why cities and this technique? Well, for Johnson both are connected;

Historically employed during times of change, cliché-verre serves as a bridge between the past and the future as we transition into the digital era, and also as we move from the era of landscape to the cityscape…the images in this series depict characters in our new global mythological system: cities.

I’m sure you’ll agree that her technique is a wonderful way of bringing these cities to life, that it truly captures the excitement and experience of a metropolis at night. These prints are now over two years old but her new series in this ongoing project are equally vivid and well worth checking out. Infact I’ll post them up next week. There. I love them that much.