“Blue Jay" © Andy Kraushaar. Approx. 8x12" (20.3x30.5cm) handcrafted alternative process photograph (tri-color gum bichromate over cyanotype) printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag. GALLERY5X7 offers this signed, original print at $500.

“Blue Jay” © Andy Kraushaar. Approx. 8×12″ (20.3×30.5cm) handcrafted alternative process photograph (tri-color gum bichromate over cyanotype) printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag. GALLERY5X7 offers this signed, original print at $500.

GALLERY5X7 welcomes Andy Kraushaar to our community of artists and collectors! We are excited to feature a variety of his work on our site, including Andy’s beautiful hand-printed gum bichromates, gum bichromates over cyanotype and cyanotypes. These beautiful alternative process prints are wonderful additions to our gallery portfolio.

Artist Bio

Andy Kraushaar is a photographer and collector of vernacular photographs living in Madison, Wisconsin. He works primarily with cyanotype and gum bichromate. All of the images are captured digitally and then negatives are produced to make the prints.

His father encouraged him to appreciate birds when he was very young, five or six years old. Since that time nearly 3 billion birds have disappeared from across the US and Canada. This is nearly a 30% decline in bird populations due to agricultural practices, pesticides, habitat loss, and a variety other factors. It seemed to him like a good time to start to photograph the survivors.

“Snowy Owl" © Andy Kraushaar. Approx. 8x12" (20.3x30.5cm) handcrafted alternative process photograph (hand-tinted cyanotype) printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag. GALLERY5X7 offers this signed, original print at $250.

“Snowy Owl” © Andy Kraushaar. Approx. 8×12″ (20.3×30.5cm) handcrafted alternative process photograph (hand-tinted cyanotype) printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag. GALLERY5X7 offers this signed, original print at $250.

He was never inclined to document birds or explore their habitats until he retired in 2018 from the Wisconsin Historical Society, where he worked with the state’s photographic collections. His work there introduced him to a great variety of photographic processes throughout the history of the medium. Although he had worked as a professional photographer prior to becoming an archivist and photo curator, the challenge of photographing birds required a new set of skills. He took two ornithology classes at the University of Wisconsin to help with identification and appreciation of bird behavior.

The combination of his fascination with historic photographic processes and his existing skills in photography led him on a path to combine the two interests. In 2019 he attended a weeklong workshop on the bichromate printing process at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. And in the summer of 2020 he worked one-on-one with an artist to refine his work with the process. This is one of the few historic processes that allow one to make a literal translation or a creative transformation of an image in full color. Although employed largely by Pictorialist photographers between the 1890s and the 1930s, gum printing is undergoing a modest resurgence. The resulting prints are surprisingly painterly and the process invites chance. It is an appropriate technique for this subject, taking a step away from the too often clinical and literal translation offered by digital media.

“Swallows" © Andy Kraushaar. Approx. 8x12" (20.3x30.5cm) handcrafted alternative process photograph (cyanotype) printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag. GALLERY5X7 offers this signed, original print at $250.

“Swallows” © Andy Kraushaar. Approx. 8×12″ (20.3×30.5cm) handcrafted alternative process photograph (cyanotype) printed on Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag. GALLERY5X7 offers this signed, original print at $250.

GALLERY5X7 offers several of Andy’s original prints in signed, limited edition.

View Andy Kraushaar’s currently available prints for purchase.

GALLERY5X7 is dedicated to connecting artists with a collecting community by creating a trusted channel to market handcrafted alternative process photography.  Are you interested in submitting your work to GALLERY5X7 for possible representation? Perhaps you are a collector of alternative process photography and want to be alerted to new artists and print offerings? Learn more about the benefits of representation by GALLERY5X7 to both creators and collectors.

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