ANCIENT LIGHT
Big Day Film Collective, Philadelphia, USA.
01 Sep - 10 October 2021.

"Ancient Light" is the subject of my practice-based PhD at the Royal College of Art. This solo exhibition at Big Day Film Collective is comprised of a series of photographic prints that are produced using sustainable caffenol (coffee) based developers, and cyanotypes toned using green tea.

About Ancient Light

Ancient Light was born out of a desire to capture light from distant stars directly onto photosensitive film. Distinct from photographs of terrestrial objects, light travels for thousands, if not millions, of years before reaching the lens. To me, these images demonstrate the intimate material connection between humans, the landscape we live in and the space existing beyond our atmosphere.

We are intimately connected with the stars, within the materiality of our being. Human life finds its origin within the stars. Astronomers have found out that elements such as calcium within our bones, were made during explosions of massive stars. Tracing such material origins connects us, not only to our human brothers and sisters, but to non-human beings such as plants, animals and micro-organisms.

Thinking as an interconnected planet, rather than as individual selves and separated states, allows us to consider the affect we have on beings surrounding us. During the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, the astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin saw the Earth rising over the lunar surface. These men, and the astronauts who followed their leap into space, consistently saw the planet as a fragile eco-system which protects its inhabitants from the cold and hostile void of space.

Originally, “Ancient Light” was inspired by the parallel histories of photography and astronomy. Of particular interest is the work of Sir John Herschel, the inventor of the cyanotype process, photographic fixer and an astronomer in his own right. William Henry Fox Talbot is well known for his contribution to photography, but less is known about his work as an official observer of the solar eclipse. The inventor of the daguerreotype, Louis Daguerre, was in conversation with François Arago of the Observatory in Paris and was heralded for his representation of the Moon within his famous diorama. James Clerk Maxwell is known for his work on formulating the classification of electromagnetic radiation, yet is also known for the development of the first durable colour photograph.

To create the “Ancient Light” series of photographs, I have travelled to dark sky locations away from light pollution. I was often alone outside in the darkness, an experience which I found challenging as a young female. As a result, I am in awe of female astronomers and explorers who take similar risks on a regular basis. The starlit landscapes that you see in this series, were created in rural areas of Italy, Iceland, Spain and Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, I travelled to rural Cambridgeshire, Lands End and the Lake District. More recently, I have been observing the night sky from my local area of Margate and Ramsgate.

Dr Melanie King

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