MELANIE KING
Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. Melanie is now based in Ramsgate, Kent, UK. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. Melanie is a PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art (2015-2022). She is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University.
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.
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.
Her PhD practice-based research "Ancient Light: Rematerialising The Astronomical Image" considers how light travels thousands, if not millions of years, before reaching photosensitive film or a digital sensor. Her main body of photographs “Ancient Light” comprises of analogue photographs of star-scapes, as well as a series of images created using telescopes and observatories around the world.
HANNAH FLETCHER
Hannah Fletcher is a London based artist. Her work is rooted in the challenge of intertwining the organic into the photographic medium. She does this while simultaneously exploring environmentally and ecologically-focused issues. Working in an investigative manner, Hannah combines scientific techniques with photographic processes. Creating a dialogue between process and materials, between research and exploration and between the poetic and political, each unfixed and unwashed print a unique object.
Hannah has exhibited in group shows and festivals across the UK and Europe, including Art Rotterdam, Unseen (Amsterdam), The Photographers Gallery (London), Sluice HQ (London), RAW Labs – Bow Arts (London), The Garden Room Gallery (Totnes), Four Corners Gallery (London), Ugly Duck (London), Shaelpic Photokunstbar (Cologne), Revela.T Festival (Barcelona), O3 Gallery (Oxford). Hannah also teaches workshops in alternative photographic and print making processes and has taught at venues including The Royal Academy, London College of Communication, Chelsea College of Art, Photofusion, Bright Rooms and Canopy Market.
Project Managers
DIEGO VALENTE
Diego has been showing in alternative spaces as well as galleries. Currently on a Research Fine Arts Masters by practice at the Royal College of Art, he had a solo show at the belfry of St. John's on Bethnal Green Church. Together with Emma Backlund, Sun Shi and Alice Serraino, founded The Kitchen Gallery, an artist run show in a conventional kitchen at an East London flat. He has co-curated the London College of Communication photo book table for Offprint London at Tate Modern. Diego also co-edits the S:KIN Journal together with Emma Backlund and Ramona Guntert. Group shows include Unseen CO-OP 2018 curated by Lars Willumeit, Lumen: School of Light, Brighton Photo Fringe, Paper, Publication, Performance at Lychee One Gallery, Psyche Valuations at White Conduit Projects, Open Door and Geekender at The Photographer's Gallery.
MARTHA GRAY
Martha Gray is a London based curator and artist, working with alternative photographic mediums. Gray graduated from the MA of Art and Science at Central Saint Martins in 2021, and in 2018 from BA Photography at Camberwell College of Arts. Her practice applies alternative methods of creative thinking to historic photographic processes in response to themes of sustainability, feminism, and the natural world. Gray is an editor for the online platform Alternative Processes where she conducts interviews and curates’ content. She has exhibited across the UK, collaborated with institutions internationally, and has been awarded artist in residence with the London Alternative Photography Collective, Lumen Collective, and Bow Arts.
KATRINA STAMATOPOULOS
Katrina is an artist based in London. Her interests are located amongst meanings of agency and subject, what we consider real, scientific and surreal, and how we consistently misperceive through photography.
She is particularly interested in connections made between the ways we digest food and images, their source and distribution, and how they entwine as daily process. Katrina works amongst photographic processes that are physical in their quest. She is fascinated with pinhole photography and placing disguised home-made cameras in public,
Katrina also utilises food waste and collects film waste from commercial photographic labs in London. Her practice manifests through photography, darkroom experimentation, chemigrams, found 16mm and 35mm film, video, sound and bookmaking.
Katrina is the Co-Founder of the Project Space Equivalentbehaviour in North London, with Wojciech Kawczyk from StorqueStudios. Their space is home to a photographic scanning studio and workshop, and has a growing programme of Curated Performances, Exhibitions and Events.
CONSTANZA ISAZA MARTINEZ
Constanza Isaza Martínez is a visual artist, art historian, and educator based in London, working primarily with photography. Having developed a passion for the darkroom from a very young age, she studied Photographic Arts at the University of Westminster, and was awarded a First Class BA in 2007. In 2012, she received her MA in History of Art with a distinction from the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Constanza’s practice is informed by the depth of her art-historical research, and characterised by an interest in the materiality of the print, the artistic possibilities of analogue and historical photographic processes, and the process of making as central to the meaning of the work. She has participated in artist residencies in Canada, Italy and the USA.Her work has been exhibited internationally and is included in private collections in the UK, Colombia, Canada and the USA.
Constanza lives and works in London, where she co-owns Lux Darkroom, a space dedicated to teaching and researching analogue and historical photographic processes. She regularly teaches workshops in historical processes, both at Lux Darkroom, and for private clients including Cambridge School of Art, Radley College, and the Institute of Conservators. She also provides an editioning service for artists wishing to print their work using early photographic processes.
DINKE VAN DER ZALM
Dinke van der Zalm is currently doing an intership with London Alternative Photography Collective from August - October 2023.
Dinke van der Zalm is a visual artist based in the Netherlands. She is finishing up her final year of her Bachelor of Arts at St. Joost School of Art & Design and will be showcasing her graduation project in the summer of 2024. Dinke uses her great affinity for nature as the main motivator for her work. Living in the current climate crisis Dinke tries to create hope for the future by combining photography, installations and fine arts to give light to the intelligence and importance of fungi and other natural phenomen