Sustainable Photography Part 3 – Lumen Print making & Intro to Developing 35mm film with coffee.

morning workshop 11am – 2pm – Lumen Prints Workshop

Explore the camera-less techniques of lumen prints using photographic paper and the power of the sun. Artist and tutor Julie Corcoran will guide you through lumen printing in a sustainable way using expired photographic paper and gathered plant materials. 

What is Lumen Printing?

In 1834, William Fox Talbot experimented with coating paper with silver nitrate, which darkened when exposed to light. He used this discovery to create “photogenic drawings” by placing leaves and other botanical specimens on the paper and exposing them to the sun, leaving the areas blocked by the objects white while the rest of the paper darkened. Reactions occur between the photographic paper and the internal chemistry (polyphenols) in the plants creating unique colours and patterns.

afternoon workshop 2.30pm – 4.30pm – Intro to Developing Film with Coffee 

What if we could sustainably make photographs with coffee? Artist and tutor Julie Corcoran will guide participants in a film photography processing, making a caffenol developer and using that developer to develop negatives that will be digitally scanned so participants will have a paperless copy of their images to cherish. 

What is caffenol developer?

The 1995 technical photographic chemistry class at Rochester Institute of Technology, led by Scott Williams, developed a method of developing photographic film using standard coffee combined with agents to balance the pH and successfully made printable images. Since then a whole community has built up around caffenol developing, with people sharing recipes and discoveries in cafenol ‘cookbooks’. 

Materials: One roll of exposed unprocessed. 35mm Black & White film, all other materials provided.

Artist – Julie Corcoran

Artist’s bio:

Julie Corcoran lives in Cavan and is based at Bó Studios, Dundalk. She works through the mediums of analogue and digital photography researching alternative photographic processes and low-toxic photo-chemistry. 

Julie’s most recent awards include a two week darkroom residency in the Bristol Folkhouse Darkroom in January 2026 supported by Cavan Arts Office. In November 2024 she was awarded an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Bursary Award from Louth County Council Arts Office to support her research in the darkroom.

This culminated in her solo exhibition, ‘It Matters’ which ran from the 7th November – 2nd December 2025 in the Downtown Hub, Clanbrassil Street, Dundalk featuring traditional silver gelatine prints alongside photographic work made with low toxic photo chemistry including a cyanotype of Brigid’s Well made on a kombucha scoby, soil chromatography, phytograms, sacred cyanotypes and chlorophyll print made on a laurel leaf.

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