Music, nature, and family those three things tried together by the passion for photography. Lineage of Music explores these concepts. Growing up I was infatuated with the violin and wished to learn how to play it. I was finally given the opportunity at the end of elementary school and I continued to play it for 8 years. Music was a large part of my life and continues to work its way into my present passion today of photography. 

Before learning about the historic ways of photography throughout my schooling career I did not know the possibilities of what it could create. I was only aware of photographing digitally and with film. Cyanotype has become a great interest of mine these past couple of years. After only printing on paper for years I wanted to explore printing on 3D objects. Since the violin was a large part of my life I thought it could be intriguing to try and print cyanotype on the body of a violin. I acquired 3 damaged violins to explore this idea. Not knowing the past of the wood it was very experimental and did not know how the final result would look. A historic use of the cyanotype process is as documentation of botany. Another use was as a cheap alternative for reproducing family photographs. These two aspects inspired me to think about how the Prussian blue process could be implemented in my practice.

Over the winter I learned more about my family while going through old photographs. My grandmother used to take tons of pictures of her plants and garden. I also learned that my uncle used to have his own photography studio. Although my grandmother has stopped her photography my uncle has not. He currently has a small company online called Sharp Shot Nature that primarily focuses on wildlife. With my own practice, I started with nature, and it continues to influence my work today. I took from these three archives and created collages for each person with their own photographs. I wanted each person’s photography to be celebrated individually on the fronts of the violins while on the backs of the violins is an extended frame. The extended frame is a landscape photograph of Pelican Lake, which is where we have our family cabin and it connects the three of us. Lineage of Music is a representation of my family’s love of nature being passed down. The violin portrays the physical aspect since violins are passed from student to student. 

The final results of the violins were not as perfect as I imagined, but in their own way, they are lovely in the imperfections. My grandmother’s violin the images are incoherent which reflects her discontinued use of photography. My uncle and my own photographs are more prominent which indicates our continual use of the camera. The passage of time is also portrayed as the images become clearer as you move down the generations of photographers as well as the state of violins. The first one no longer has strings and as you move on the third has its strings. Also omitting the bows from this project speaks to the silencing of the instrument since I no longer play. The third violin is almost playable if it did not have missing pieces. Their missing pieces and cracks give them their own character and personality. Like the people, they are portraying each one has their own unique story to tell.