In conjunction with her Aurora exhibition, Family Pictures, Priya Suresh Kambli will lead this workshop that explores advanced techniques in cyanotype. Kambli incorporates cyanotype into many of her series, including Objects of Workshop, and Baba, I am working hard, both on view at Aurora during the workshop.

In addition to basics, including coating and exposing the paper, Kambli will share many of the techniques she utilizes to expand and complicate the range of a cyanotype, including multiple exposure, masking, dodging and burning, and movement. Over the course of the three-hour session, participants can expect to make 2-3 multi-layered compositions using these techniques.

This workshop focuses on non-photographic composition using objects rather than working with negatives. We will have a host of plants, flowers, and fun objects to use for your compositions, and you should feel free to bring your own items to experiment with. Flat items usually work best, and cyanotype can be messy, so precious things like family heirlooms should probably stay at home. All other necessary materials, including chemistry and paper, will be provided at the workshop.

Some prior experience with cyanotype a plus but not necessary. This activity is best suited for artists 16+ years old; minors must be accompanied by an adult.

Priya Suresh Kambli, born 1975 in Mumbai, India, is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with photographic media and installation. Kambli received her BFA from University of Lafayette, followed by her MFA from University of Houston.

For the past two decades Kambli has worked with a fragmentary archive, her family inheritance brought with her from India to the United States when she was 18 years old. This inheritance included family photographs, heirlooms, and documents packed in a suitcase that weighed 45 kilograms. In her work she has revisited, rephotographed, and recontextualized her archive to create personal work addressing her migrant narrative and feminist practice.

She is the recipient of the 2025 Howard Foundation fellowship; winner of 2025 Leica Women Foto Project Award; Creator Labs Photo Fund, Aperture and Google’s Creator Labs. She is the 2025 MacDowell Fellow and has participated in other residencies including at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Light Work and Visual Studies Workshop. Her work has been published in Aperture, Musee Magazine and Art India. Her work has been exhibited at Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Arts, and Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, and collected by Duke University, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.

This workshop was made possible by a generous grant from the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.