Taking contact printing to the extreme: Team of Italian photographers make world’s largest contact print

 

 

Contact printing is a process whereby a print is made by pressing a film negative or positive against photo paper and then exposing it. Contact prints are made the same size as the negative (or positive), so they are typically quite small. However, the team at Italy's Branco Ottico [NSFW warning: Some imagery on this website may not be suitable for viewing at work] have made a contact print that is 24 square meters in size. This Guinness World Record-making contact print was made using a 24 square meter negative and exposed using the cyanotype process, due to its lower cost.

The project was very intensive. Producing the required negative was itself a challenge. The fabric negative had to be stitched together and the final print had to be exposed for 12 minutes and 30 seconds, even in the bright daytime sun. The final image, titled "13 Years Old," is quite stunning. To watch the record-making print come to life, watch the video below.

Branco Ottico has a lot of great Italian-language content on their site, not to mention a selection of photography courses, so be sure to check it out. (And if you can't speak Italian, don't worry: Google Translate works quite well.)

(Seen via DIY Photography)