Photographer featured in the current Daphne Oram Gallery show Glacial Movements and the Ghaib, Melanie King, discusses her amazing research into sustainable photographic processes

Since 2019, I have been researching several sustainable photographic processes to minimise the environmental impact of my artistic practice. I am now a trustee of the Sustainable Darkroom, a group of artists who collectively research every aspect of analogue photographic processes to find more sustainable alternatives.

https://www.londonaltphoto.com/sustainable-darkroom-about

One of the areas I have been looking at, is the toxicity of standard film and paper developers, which use hydroquinone. If not disposed of properly, these developers can affect water quality. These chemicals can negatively affect living organisms in water systems, such as rivers and oceans.

Thankfully, it is possible to use plant-based developers, which are generally comprised of soda crystals, vitamin-c and a plant-based substance. When mixed together, these ingredients have a chemical PH which is similar to standard developers. The recipe utilises phenolic compounds which are present in all plants, in different quantities.

“I eventually decided to use chai tea, as this was a regular feature of our everyday lives on the expedition!”

Melanie King

Plants such as mint and rosemary have high levels of phenol, which makes them very effective developers. I have also experimented with seaweed, which has a lower phenolic content and therefore creates a slower developer. Each plant has a different effect on the film – for example, coffee creates high contrast images and seaweed produces images that appear misty and fogged.

Glacial Movements and the Ghaib

For the Glacial Movements and the Ghaib “Moving Mountains” project, I produced 35mm and medium format analogue photographs of the glaciers that we visited. I was keen to use a plant-based substance from Pakistan to produce my images. I eventually decided to use chai tea, as this was a regular feature of our everyday lives on the expedition! Back in my studio at The Margate School, I tried and tested several recipes, before alighting on the technique that produced the images for the exhibition. When making a new developer recipe, it is important to test out your developer recipe on a test strip of film, before trying out a whole reel of film!

Alongside the exhibition at the Daphne Oram Gallery, I will be leading a chai tea film developing workshop in the darkroom where you can try out the process for yourself. Please bring a completed black and white film, at 400ISO and ensure you book a space ahead of the day: Saturday 21 October, between 12 and 3pm. More info and booking: Event details (canterbury.ac.uk)

The ”Moving Mountains” series has been featured in THE EYES MAGAZINE #14 FRACTURE ECOLOGY – TIME – HUMANITY, a new publication edited by Chloe Dewe Matthews. This publication will be launched at Paris Photo in November 2023. https://theeyes.eu/en/shop/the-eyes-14/

About Melanie King

Melanie King is an artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective CIC.  She is Trustee of the Sustainable Darkroom CIC.

Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a practice-based PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency.

Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality.  Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between photographic materials 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 recent project Acquaintance explores the creative possibilities of botanical cyanotype toning and sustainable photographic processes. This exploration considers how location-specific sustainable photographic processes can produce bodies of work that are materially connected to the landscape. This project is centred on the Peak District, an area close to where Melanie grew up.

Melanie’s 2021-2022 project “Precious Metals” considered 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” considered how light travels thousands, if not millions of years, before reaching photosensitive film or a digital sensor.  Ancient Light comprises analogue photographs of the night sky, as well as a series of images created using telescopes and observatories around the world.

To find out more about the exhibition head here: New show: Glacial Movements and the Ghaib – Arts and culture (canterbury.ac.uk)