Chlorophyll Prints

Chlorophyll printing is a photographic printing technique that results in an image on a leaf or group of grass. Binh Danh, a Vietnamese immigrant (his parents left Vietnam in 1979 because the aftermath of the American-Vietnam War) who grew up in California, invented the process sometime within the last decade—it is uncertain precisely when this was. The chlorophyll process is incredibly simple: make a positive transparency of a black and white image (basically a photograph on a transparency, so the black areas are more opaque and whites are clear), choose a leaf that fits the image both in size and subject (the right shape, veining, etc), then you sandwich the leaf and transparency between two pieces of glass, and simply leave it in the sun for a few days to a few weeks depending on the intensity of the sunlight. Once the image is done, it is cast in clear resin to preserve it.

Danh uses found images from the American-Vietnam War and foliage from his mom’s yard that would be common in the jungles of Vietnam. He said, “It reminds us of where we came from, which is actually from the land. The continuation of the landscape is in us and when we die we return to this land again.” Through the chlorophyll prints he makes people rethink the war, the people who died in it, and our relation to nature. It is a simple and inexpensive way to make natural images. To make your own chlorophyll prints, buy Pictorico OHP Transparency Film which allows you to make transparencies out of digital images using any inkjet printer, choose a leaf, find some glass panes, and follow the steps outlined above.