Cyanotype workshops In. Bergkvara as part of Skapande Skola with 12-year-old students from the municipality’s four schools.
By combining the practical work of making cyanotypes with algae collected along the coastline and an introduction to the work of botanist and photographer Anna Atkins, we used the workshop to discuss the decline of algae species in the Baltic Sea caused by pollution and oxygen depletion.
Atkins’s multi-species cyanotypes provided a contrast to the few algae species we were able to source, making the absence of material—linked to pollution-driven species decline—part of the workshop itself.
During the process of making their images, it became clear that the children were aware of the loss of fish populations and the oxygen-poor seafloors in nearby swimming bays that previously had clean sand. However, it was not clear whether the practical activity led to a deeper understanding of the broader ecological loss happening around them. The difference between the understanding we hoped to support and what actually developed suggests that it is difficult to convey a strong sense of loss when students have little direct experience of what has disappeared.
Each class was limited to three hours, which likely restricted how far the work could go. A longer project period—potentially including field visits to the coast to collect materials together—might create a more direct connection to the ecological conditions being discussed.