{"id":1905,"date":"2026-01-30T12:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studio55.org.uk\/currallphoto\/?page_id=1905"},"modified":"2026-09-04T20:03:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:03:23","slug":"polyphenol-prints","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/studio55.org.uk\/currallphoto\/polyphenol-prints\/","title":{"rendered":"Polyphenol Prints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Plant-based Polyphenol Prints<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Polyphenols<\/strong> are a large family of naturally occurring phenols. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of which have been used historically as dyes and for tanning garments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Polyphenols of many kinds can be used as the active ingredient in photographic film and paper developer. Dr. Scott Williams of Rochester Institute of Technology led a technical photography class, which was responsible for first writing up the these properties, in the 1995 paper, ‘A Use for that Last Cup of Coffee: Film and Paper Development<\/a>‘. Coffee contains a phenolic compound called caffeic acid. When mixed with pH balancing agents it can produce a photographic developer that has come to be known as Caffenol. Since then Caffenol has been further refined by photographers interested in using less toxic developers, which can easily be made at home with simple domestic ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first came across the idea of plant-based polyphenol prints in the work of the artist, Christina McBride. Christina is a colleague at Glasgow School of Art and fellow member of the research group, Reading Landscape<\/em>. For her 2023 exhibition, Cr\u00edocha an Chro\u00ed \/ Heartland<\/a><\/em>, Christina produced a beautiful body of photographs using sustainable photographic developers made from Bracken, Ling Heather, Sphagnum Moss and various seaweeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my own initial experiments I mixed up some Caffenol, a well documented recipe of instant coffee, washing soda (Sodium Carbonate) and powdered vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid).<\/p>\n\n\n