Imitation of Landscape
2025-26
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Note - install images from my MFA degree show to follow soon
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Taking the photographic darkroom as an environment and site of exploration, a camera-less image surfaced through a manipulation of light, photographic chemistry and paper substrate. This image, made on a light sensitive Japanese washi paper, became the original source of all the works in the project, as each piece and the process used evolved and changed over time.
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The installation for my MFA degree show at the Slade School of Fine Art (June 2026) included looping 16mm experimental film projections and a lighting sequence, that transformed the room between darkness and light; a series of unique camera-less photographic works, including a large scale diptych of a fractured, imagined landscape; and small sculptural objects, including a piece of silver recovered from used photographic fixer. The visibility of all the works changed over the course of the projection and lighting sequence - sometimes completely disappearing.
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My work is about the changing nature of environments, particularly those that are fragile or at risk of disappearing. It draws on my interest in geomorphology, the study of landforms, and the processes that shape them, such as weathering, erosion and deposition, as they evolve and change over time. Combining the alchemy and unpredictability of the photographic with my material interests the resulting works surfaced through a combination of touch, light, chemistry, atmosphere, time and repetition.
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The text and title Imitation of Landscape is inspired by the Imitation of Printing labels used by William Henry Fox Talbot (the British inventor of photography) on the back of his early photographs from the 1840s.