What’s in my Backyard?

Project: leaf prints

For the introduction to this series, see here.

Maybe at some point, you have made an art project using construction paper and put it on a wall in your room. After a few weeks, you may have noticed that the colors of the construction paper have faded. Ultraviolet beams in sunlight break down the dyes in the paper and the colors fade. You can use this property of construction paper to make some Photograms.

Photograms are photographs made by placing objects directly on sun-sensitive paper and placing it in the sun. Anna Atkins was a botanist in the 1860s who is famous for using this technique to take photos of plants. She published books of these photos. She is considered the first person to publish books illustrated with photographs!

To make some photograms, you will need construction paper (dark colors like blue, green, and purple work best), a sheet of glass or plexiglass, and some leaves with interesting shapes like oak or maple.

Put the sheet of paper in the sun and place your leaves on it. Cover the leaves with your piece of glass and leave it in the sun for at least four hours. The glass stops the leaves from blowing away. Do not disturb the leaves while sunprinting is in process. If the leaves get moved at all, you will have a blurry print. The longer you leave the paper in the sun, the paler the background will be and the more your prints will stand out. When you think the sun print is done, remove it from the glass and take it inside. Remember that if you leave your sun prints lying around, the print will fade over time. If you put your sun prints in a folder or inside your nature journal, they will last much longer. You can also buy special sunprint paper and use it for making sunprints but you probably already have construction paper in your house!

Who knows? Maybe someday you will be a real botanist like Anna Atkins. (Though hopefully, you will smile when people take your photo.)