Monday 24th November 2025 saw David Simper catch the service 61 bus to the Church Street HIVE gallery, where Annemarie Farley was opening her show ‘Lament’ featuring her cyanotypes on glass.
This event was extremely well attended, numbers being boosted by members of the Royal Photographic Society, there to view this unique show and to give Annemarie her certificate as a chartered member of the society.
The pieces are roundels of glass carrying exquisite cyanotype images of flowers, some framed, others mounted on slices of tree trunk, which gives an interesting more 3D effect. The subject’s detail is caught with incredible clarity.
Cyanotype is one of the earliest photographic processes and was used for the now heritage technology ‘blueprints’. When a sensitive emulsion is exposed to ultra-violet light, a deep Prussian blue is created. This is highly valued for the beauty and simplicity of the images created. The show is something of a homage to pioneering photographer, Anna Atkins (1799-1871), among the first to recognise the technique’s artistic potential.
Named ‘Lament’, the show partly stems from Annemarie’s husband’s death in 2021. That experience of waiting and holding on for the inevitable has become suffused within her work. The dying flowers photographed exist between presence and absence. Cyanotype enables these delicate forms to be captured. Annemarie describes her show as a way of giving shape to grief.
Annemarie was in demand, but we sat down on the HIVE bench settee for a chat about her work.
Do you favour analogue or digital technology for your work?
“Definitely analogue, using large format Fuji Velvia film. The price is rather ‘rob a bank territory’ isn’t it? I had film on order for 18-months before I got it.”
Are the materials used in this process hazardous during what seems to be a complicated process?
“Cyanotypes have been done on glass for many years. However, I am new in using the particular emulsion; to my knowledge I’m currently the only one using an agar/arrowroot emulsion. I do this because it’s easier than using just an agar emulsion, which is a nightmare. Most people use gelatine and I can’t do that if I’m selling to anyone who’s vegan. It took me six years to perfect the technique. The other materials used are very natural things and are easy to get hold of; it’s just putting them on the glass that’s difficult. Pre-covered products are available, which is what I did, to start off with.”
Are the flowers from your own garden?
“They are. I do grow pretty much everything. I get obsessed with what to use, also the little snails and slugs, which tend to spoil things. Self-growing cuts the costs down. If I can’t grow it, I’ll go to a place that is growing it; obviously I can’t nick it and kill it, but I can photograph it. These flowers are all dying, rather than dead.”
Is this a one-off project?
“I thought I was going to carry on with it, but I’m not because I’ve got another project I was going to do as part of my MA in Photography, which is in my head but I can’t tell you what it is. I’ll be bringing it back to this gallery when it’s completed. It will be cyanotypes; I don’t think I’m done with these yet: I still love doing them despite them going wrong on a regular basis. Some of them take days and days; I think the most awkward one was the rose. I thoroughly enjoyed doing the really big ones, which weirdly didn’t go wrong.”
What is the future for your work?
“Glitter is the Future (name of upcoming project). Right now I’m going to have a month off from being blue, because I’m sick to death of being blue. In future there’s going to be more mirror involved, let’s put it that way.”
Have you considered back lighting the pieces?
“I have tried backlighting them, but it sort of cheapens them, making them look really glitzy. They are supposed to be really dark and moody, so backlighting doesn’t really work. I considered using LEDs but I just don’t think it would work.”
Thanks to Annemarie for these insights.
Thanks once more to the HIVE cafe team for some particularly excellent canapes and keeping the drinks flowing.
Once more the clock ticked round and it was time to catch the service 6 bus home. This is a fine show and well worth a visit. Finally, 10% of each sale is going to Trinity Hospice
