“I just thought that it was cool that all you needed was sunlight and water. The sun was the fixer. The water is the developer. It’s kind of simple magic.”
Juniper Harper could have been talking about her surfing, developed on the sunlashed, blue-green walls of her homebreak at Lennox Head. Instead, the surfer, artist and musician was referring to the process of Cyanotype photography.
Juniper's current blueprint, Cyanotype, filming with Dan Scott, picking up a fresh quiver.
That’s a camera-less technique that involves laying an object on paper coated with a solution of iron salts, before exposing it to UV light and washing with water to create stunning white and Prussian-blue images. It was often used by architects and engineers for technical drawings, which is where we get the name “blueprints”.
The 18-year-old Juniper had come across the process in her last year at High School at Lennox Head, whilst doing her HSC major art work. “I loved how you could make a photo appear on a piece of paper. It was the simplicity and analogue nature that appealed. Art, like surfing, or music, is all about how it makes me feel,” she said.
June, by her own admission, said that graduating from school at the end of 2024 was a minor miracle, given she spent most of the year travelling on surf trips. Harper was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, but moved to Australia with her parents and two younger brothers. After travelling around Queensland, where her dad worked in civil engineering and surfed whenever he could, the Harpers eventually settled a few blocks back from the beach at Lennox about 10 years ago.
Krui trip 2025
The natural footer started surfing around 8 years old on a 5’0” Wayne ‘Webby’ Webster custom board. “I mainly remember the spray. I designed it with a checkerboard pattern in the middle with a rainbow on the side,” she said. “I can’t remember the shape, but the spray was sick. I think I won my first-ever competition at the Boardriders on board.
By age 12, her natural talent was apparent, and she was sponsored by Billabong and started doing well in the junior competitions. If her temperament is a mix of cruise creativity, she has a competitive streak honed by surfing the point.
“I've definitely seen some pretty gnarly stuff over the years growing up out there. Fin boxes getting punched out, and other forms of aggression,” she said. “Things don’t come easy, from jumping off the rocks, to learning respect in the line-up. You have to earn your waves out there. On the other hand, it's such a good, supportive community. We look after each other.”
But like the water developing the Prussian blues of the cyanotype, the point also shaped her surfing. Her style reflects her love of an easy flow, where she likes to link her turns together.
New COR_X Tailpad Range with art to match.
“That’s why when I first tried some twins and quads, the freedom and fun of those boards just really clicked with the way I wanted to feel on a wave,” she said. For Juniper, again, it's always about the feels. Filmer Dan Scott had watched Juniper on the equipment and hooked her up with Matt Parker of Album, who had just started his collaboration with Coco Ho on XO surfboards.
Cokes had been hero of Juniper's, and one of the reasons she had wanted to try all those different, weird and funky boards. “One of my first boards off Matt and Coco was the Bliss model. It's a high-performance twin, with a bit more volume, and I just fell in love with the speed. I made me have more fun, and that made me more excited and motivated to go surfing,” she said. “Most of her boards are now passed down to her two younger brothers, who, she says, when they aren’t terrorising the neighbourhood on their skaties, they're demolishing her old boards on the Lennox boulders.
June | Lennox
The combination of school and her art, plus a move to the more alternative equipment, meant Juniper dialled down her commitment to her competitive career. She pivoted more to using her surfing as a platform for her creativity. Or maybe it’s the other way round.
Last year, she hand printed and hand cut 200 cyanotype prints, then individually photographed each one. She fed those images through video software to create what she calls an analogue animation, which later featured in a clip she made for Billabong. And if that wasn’t enough, Juniper has also been providing the backing tracks, playing guitar, for other edits.
“It was so time-consuming, but so rewarding seeing the analog prints unspool to make a video,” she said. “I was nervous about putting my music out there, but if there is something I’m passionate about, I just get fixated and decide to go all in.”
It’s a blueprint that so far is working. She’s spent the last part of the year travelling with her trusty Apex boardbag and surfing everything from the cold points of Victoria to the tropical barrels of Java. She has been thriving on the challenge of surfing new setups and exploring new cultures and experiences, whilst mixing music and art back home at her studio at Lennox.
“I don’t really separate all the strands right now. I know that surfing makes me feel like nothing else on Earth,” she finished. “But like with the cyanotype, where the sun and water combine to create something special, mixing it all seems to be working right now. I’m not sure if it is a blueprint, but it feels pretty good. And that’s all that matters.”
Words: Ben Monday
Filmed: Dan Scott
Edit: Ben Lang
Music "Tenth Planet" Solid Space
🤝 TRUSTED by surfers for a lifetime.
🦘 Born in Australia.
🦘 Born in Australia.