False Start – Pool Ladies Photo Shoot – Honesty Cyanotype

False Start – Pool Ladies in a Honesty (Lunaria annua) Garden – Unique Cyanotype

Photographer: Michael Joseph
Hand-printed by: Justine Joseph
Original Photograph: Clapham, London, 1987
Printed: Dordogne, France, June 2026
Process: Cyanotype from an original negative with botanical photograms
Edition: One of a Kind

Created from an original negative by Michael Joseph, this unique cyanotype reinterprets False Start, a photograph from his celebrated Pool Ladies series, made at a swimming pool in Clapham, London, in 1987.

Lined up along the poolside, the swimmers prepare to dive while one figure has already sliced into the water. Both graphic and quietly humorous, the scene is framed by delicate photograms of honesty (Lunaria annua). The translucent seed pods create a natural border around the image, transforming the original photograph into a dreamlike work that seems suspended outside time.

Hand-printed beneath the sunshine of the Dordogne, each cyanotype is born from the meeting of the original negative, sunlight, chemistry and botanical elements. The subtle tonal variations, rich textures and organic irregularities inherent to the process ensure that no two prints can ever be identical.

The reverse is hand-titled, fully documented and signed by Justine Joseph, with details of the provenance of the original photograph.

A distinctive work that brings together 1980s British photography, one of photography’s oldest printing processes, and contemporary botanical artistry.