Photographer Makes “Chlorophyll Prints” Using Leaves and Sunlight

Photographer Binh Danh observed one summer that there was a difference in color between grass under a water hose and the grass directly exposed to sunlight. He then began to experiment with combining photography with photosynthesis, and came up with what he calls “chlorophyll prints” — photographs printed onto leaves using the sun.

Here’s Danh’s process according to NPR:

From start to finish, his technique is this: Binh Danh begins by picking a leaf — often from his mother’s garden. To keep it from drying out, he fills a small bag with water and ties it to its stem. He places the leaf on a felt-covered board, and puts a negative directly on the leaf (he has an archive of images he’s collected from magazines and purchased online). He places glass over the leaf, clips the glass and board together, and puts the assemblage on the patio roof.

Binh Danh will check the image periodically to see how it’s “baking.” The process can last days or weeks. Four out of five times, he’s dissatisfied, and throws the leaf away. But when the chlorophyll print is right — whether precisely rendered or eerily vague — he takes the leaf, fixes it in resin, and frames it.

You can find more of Danh’s work over on his website.


Thanks for the tip, Micah!


Image credits: Photographs by Binh Danh and used with permission

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