SUSTAINABLE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICES
Powell Lecture Theatre
PG09, Canterbury Christ Church University
Monday 04 July 2022.
14:00 – 17:00
2pm Introduction by Melanie King
2.15 Alice Cazenave Talk & Q+A
3.15 Break for refreshments and cakes
3.45 Hannah Fletcher Talk & Q+A
4.45 Closing Remarks
In this seminar, Alice Cazenave, Hannah Fletcher and Melanie King will discuss the sustainability of photographic practice. This seminar will consider a multitude of practice-based methods, that limit the environmental impact of analogue photographic processes.
Alice Cazenave Is a Doctoral Researcher in Visual Anthropology at the University of Goldsmiths, London. She is an associate lecturer on the MA in Visual Communication at Canterbury Christ Church University Alice's research focuses on the materiality of photography, specifically silver. Her project traces silver's movements through temporalities, geologies and climates to consider entanglements between media matter and the Anthropocene. Tracing journeys of photographic silver, Alice examines where it is sourced, its toxicity, and how it mobilises to enable analogue industries. Alice draws on experimental image-making as a material enquiry into these entanglements. Alice’s photographic work has been published in The British Journal of Photography and The Guardian and the New York Times. Co-developing the Sustainable Darkroom, she researches plant-based chemistries as substitutes for traditional darkroom materials. She has exhibited internationally and given talks at multiple institutions including The Science Museum.
Hannah Fletcher is a London based artist, working with cameraless photographic processes, founder of The Sustainable Darkroom, Co-director of London Alternative Photography Collective and a facilitator of sustainability within the arts. Hannah Fletcher’s work intertwines organic matter such as soils, algae, mushrooms and roots into analogue photographic mediums and surfaces. She does this while simultaneously exploring environmentally and ecologically focused issues. Working in an investigative, pseudo-scientific and environmentally conscious manner, Hannah combines scientific techniques with photographic processes, creating a dialogue between the poetic and political. Most recently, she has initiated and is running The Sustainable Darkroom Project; an artist run research, training and mutual learning programme to equip cultural practitioners with new skills and knowledge to develop a more environmentally friendly analogue photography / darkroom practice. Tackling issues including, but not limited to; the volumes of water used to wash films and prints, the resin coated paper going to landfill, the harsh development and fixing chemicals and heavy metals polluting soils and aquatic systems, bovine gelatine coating paper and films.
Melanie King is a Lecturer in Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. She is currently Artist In Residence at the School of Metallurgy and Materials at The University of Birmingham, from Feb 2021 to June 2022. Melanie is a PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art (2015-2022). Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between celestial objects (sun, moon, stars), photographic material and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching a number of sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice, informed by the Sustainable Darkroom movement. Melanie's 2021-2022 project "Precious Metals" considers the materiality of silver and palladium, from the production of silver and palladium within the cosmos, extraction from Earth and its uses within our society. This project focuses on their use in photography, suggesting methods of using the material that is less harmful to the ecology of the Earth