Beyond Silver
The Hive, Birmingham

Introducing a new exhibition curated by the London Alternative Photography Collective , which celebrates its’ 10th birthday in 2023.

Venue: The Hive, 43-47 Vittoria St, Birmingham, B1 3PE.
Dates:19th January - 06 Feb 2023.

Metals and minerals are of the earth - extracted, purified, dried, cut, mould, extruded, dissolved and filtered. Photographic images are of the earth, they are metals and minerals, polished, coated, sensitised, exposed, developed, washed, fixed, displayed. We rely on the sensitivity of these metals to depict the world around us, the earth that they come from. 

Silver has taken a leading role in this history - it is a history of colonisation, extraction, and depiction. From Louis Daguerre’s Daguerreotypes to Henry Fox Talbot’s calotypes in the early 1800s, to today’s digital Chromogenic prints - silver is seen as unbeatable when it comes to making a quality, archivable photographic image. However, silver is not the only metal used for image making.

The London Alternative Photography Collective present “Beyond Silver”, an exhibition that explores the relationships between analogue photography and metallurgy. The exhibition will consider the use of silver in photography, as well as shining a light on many of the other metals that are used within photographic image production, in both historical and contemporary practice. In addition to silver, the exhibition will include works which utilise  lesser known metals in photography including iron, copper, tin, aluminium, platinum and palladium.

Exhibiting artists: Ignacio Acosta, Victoria Ahrens, William Arnold, Alex Boyd, Alice Cazenave, Caitriona Dunnett, Hannah Fletcher, Jo Gane, Kate Goodrich, Martha Gray, Charlotte Greenwood, Constanza Isaza, Ellisa Jane Diver, Soham Joshi, Melanie King, Liane Lang, Sara Mulvey, Andrés Pardo, Oliver Raymond-Barker, Megan Ringrose, Kris Skyla, Sayako Sugawara, Diego Valente, Eileen White

Public Programme:

Wednesday 18th 6 - 8pm = Private view
Thursday 19th 10am - 12pm = Electromagnetic field Cyanotype workshop with Martha Grey
Thursday 19th 12.30 - 1.30pm = Artist and curator lead exhibition tour

This exhibition is supported by Canterbury Christ Church University, the Exeter Sustainability Institute, Falmouth University and the University of Birmingham.

Transmutation at The Margate School

The London Alternative Photography Collective and Thanet Alternative Photography Collective are pleased to announce Transmutation, an exhibition of works produced using experimental, analogue and alternative photographic processes. An alchemical underpinning of transformation, creation, or combination is central to the show while simultaneously fusing a range of disciplines, including sound, sculpture, technology and performance. Positioning analogue photographic practice as a physical three-dimensional agent. 

This transdisciplinary exhibition proposes photography as a dynamic, light sensitive, explorative medium for navigating our world. Photography which is made to remember and to forget. It has incredible dualistic qualities that can ask us to look in another way, look again, or to even look away. As a physical translation of optics, photography’s relationship to being two dimensional can be framed by the materiality of paper, and by the digital nature of screens. It will always be dualistic.  Angular lines and rectangular formats typically harness photographic perceptions, and the networked image continuously repositions photography, in displacing it through time and space. 

It is important to free ideologies of what makes a photograph, and to relax into the potential materiality of what being light sensitive can be. (Text: Diego Valente)

Artists: TBC. Selected via an open call.

Exhibition Open: 12th January 2023 - 15th January 2023

Opening Party: 12 January 2023, 6-8pm.

Workshops & Talks: 14-15 January 2023.

Information about The Margate School (TMS) Gallery and Events Space

The Margate School (TMS) Gallery and Events Space is part of TMS, an independent and international post-graduate liberal arts school based in the heart of Margate at the lower end of the high street. It is on the ground floor, and accessible to the public with wheelchair access.

It features a large gallery/cafe area and a grand piano, an auditorium with cinema seats and audio visual facilities. There is also a workshop area with tables and chairs. The Gallery and Events space is facing the high street, with large windows. Also located on the ground floor are our hirable darkrooms, and a kiln which can be used by the public on enquiry with our technician together with studio spaces.

Information about the London Alternative Photography Collective

The London Alternative Photography Collective provides regular artist talks on the subject of analogue & alternative photography processes used in contemporary art. The collective supports practitioners who challenge traditional ways of printing images to reflect on contemporary issues. The London Alternative Photography collective is also a platform for exchange of knowledge and skills, as well as creative ideas and exhibition concepts. We regularly curate exhibitions and run affordable/free workshops and demonstrations and organise symposiums in London.

Organised by:

Melanie King (TAPC, LAPC)
Dominic Rose (The Margate School)
Hannah Fletcher, Diego Valente, Katrina Stamatopoulos (LAPC)
Emily Rose Parris (TAPC)

Upcoming Workshops

On Sunday 15 January 2023, I will be leading a caffenol-c (coffee) film developer workshop at The Margate School . This workshop is part of the Transmutation exhibition, mentioned above. 

I also have multiple online workshops available in Botanical Cyanotype Toning and Seaweed Film Developer with Land Art Agency in Summer / Autumn 2023. These workshops are designed to reach multiple time zones.

Support Me

Here are a number of ways to support my work:

- Patreon 
- Ko-Fi 
- Visit my store
- Visit the Land Art Collective shop to purchase artworks.

£10+ Patreon subscribers receive a monthly postcard and a monthly digital download. In December, Patreon subscribers will receive a postcard reproduction of my “Passu Glacier” photograph, originally developed in chai tea. The A5 postcard is created using sustainable recycled cardboard.