Capturing Nature
Pia Östlund, Swedish designer and printmaker, and Matthew Zucker, of Zucker Art Books, led a day celebrating the art of ‘NATURE PRINTING’.
With activities running throughout the day, visitors were shown how to make their own cyanotype and lumen prints, early precursors to photography that use the sun to produce an image.
Pia Östlund and Richard Lawrence, from the Bodleian Bibliographical Press, gave live demonstrations on early relief and intaglio printing presses, sharing how Johann Hieronymus Kniphof (1704–1763), and Alois Auer von Welsbach (1813–1869) made their remarkable, historic prints.
Botanist and bibliophile Harriet Rix gave tours that looked closely at skeleton leaves, exploring what nature printing has helped botanists learn about the way plants support, protect, and nourish their most vital organ.
The day also featured the launch of a new publication on nature printing, entitled Capturing Nature (Zucker Art Books, New York, 2022). This 360-page book comprises over 700 images and texts by experts in the field. The publication presents the Zucker Collection of nature prints dating from 1733 to 1902 and identifies over 45 different nature printing techniques.
Sponsored by Zucker Art Books.
