Native, Cyanotype on paper 20/25cm,2019

This series of cyanotypes has been realized with plants native to Louisiana, such as Elephant ears, banana leaves and palmetto. Most of these prints are not really sharp and almost ghostly. To make them I put the photo sensitive paper on a board and I placed it under the plants. So I never cut the plant. This is the opposite of what is known in the history of the cyanotype, where usually the specimen is cut in order to be documented in a precise way.
Here the blue color of the technique also suggests something aquatic. suggesting also the submerged lands. Where the soil becomes water and water becomes the soil.
And in this context these plants sometimes become ghosts of their native landscape.
One of the prints is different from the others. It shows a plant and its root. There is not much to recognize the plant. So we don't know its origin and where it has been extracted. It comes to question the complete series. And asking ourself if it is a harmful substance for its environment or if it is a native and if one is more damaging than the other. The blue again gives a depth where this root seems to fly or float. It questions the origins, one does not know if it is going to be rooting out. Or if it will be planted. It is again a metaphor on our responsibilities in the face of this perishing age.

— Manon Bellet