Image Caption: Passu Glacier, Hunza, Pakistan, 2022. Photograph produced using chai tea film developer.

New Work
Glacial Movements & The Ghaib
British Council Pakistan X Lumen X Pak Khawateen Painting Club

Above you can see one of the first images that I have produced from a new collaborative project “Glacial Movements and the Ghaib” with Lumen Studios and The Pak Khawateen Painting Club. This project has been supported by the British Council.

This was taken during an adventurous overnight trek next to the Passu Glacier, with the Pak Khawateen Painting Club and Lumen Studios. I have created these images using Tapal Danedar chai tea leaves.

Glacial Movements and the Ghaib” is part of the British Council Pakistan-UK New Perspectives 2022 programme.

“The project was selected through an open call that awarded four grants to proposals co-developed between Pakistan and UK partners that offer opportunities for cross-cultural creative practices, knowledge exchange and new artistic work. Pak Khawateen Painting Club and Lumen will develop experimental art works based upon shared research activities and an expedition to the Gilgit Baltistan region. In Hunza we worked indigenous communities and local experts to recognise the severe impact climate change has and will continue to have on indigenous people whilst considering themes of sustainable tourism and migration. The project builds upon Pak Khawateen Painting Club’s previous expeditions on the River Indus, supported by the Lahore Biennale 2020, Graham Foundation and Sharjah Art Foundation 2023. The two groups will exhibit artworks informed by the project in a series of exhibitions in Pakistan and the UK in late 2022. Pakistan-UK New Perspectives 2022 programme has been launched to celebrate Pakistan’s 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022. The programme features projects addressing shared global challenges including but not limited to digital innovation, environmental sustainability, gender equality, diversity and inclusion principles, and empowering young leaders of the future.”

See new photographs on my website.
Find out more on the Lumen Studios website.

New Commission
Space Studios X ARUP X super/collider

super/collider has recently led a series of workshops at Space Studios and Beal High School. These workshops were part of a commission by Space Studios and ARUP to work with Beal High School and the River Roding Trust in Ilford, London. Our project explores the health of the river and the future of the climate crisis with a group of 30 sixth form students over a series of five engagement days. Our workshops so far have included microscopic photography, listening exercises, cyanotype and light experiments to creatively explore the River Roding. We will have an exhibition of the work created in 2023 at SPACE Studios. 

Arup is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment.

SPACE is a leading visual arts organisation supporting artists by providing creative workspace, advocacy and professional development.

The River Roding Trust is a community-led effort to restore the River Roding, with particular focus on the lower reaches around Barking and Ilford. The objects of the River Roding Trust are as follows:

‘To preserve, protect and restore the River Roding for the public benefit and to undertake and carry on projects and activities of a charitable nature related to the river which will assist in promoting recreation, protecting the environment and educating the public about the history of the river.’

New Commission
Cosmic Awakenings
Sea Foundation Tilburg

I was commissioned by Sea Foundation Tilburg to produce a text on the theme of “Awakening”. 
You can read the text here.

Personal Work Feature

This month, Ancient Light was featured in Personal Work Journal .
You can read an excerpt of the text below.

”What were the challenges you faced?

Technically, it took a while to work out the correct ISO and exposure to use. I tried out several cameras and found that my Mamiya 645 camera was best due to its portability and its framing of the landscape. For taking analogue photographs on a telescope, I found that using a Canon EOS 35mm camera worked well with a T-mount, slotted into a telescope eye-piece.

In the darkroom, my Ilford Delta 3200 film is pushed two stops. I then generally use the highest grade on my enlarger and do long enlarger exposures to produce my prints on silver gelatin fibre-based paper. This process results in contrasty prints with deep velvety blacks. This process also helps to counteract (some!) grain in my print. The project has been primarily self-funded.

I am working class, so this has essentially meant paying for my projects through part-time work or applying for small pots of funding. As I am a woman who has always lived in a town or city, I found it difficult to go outside alone at night.

As a woman walking alone in a darkened area, there is always the real possibility of assault of some kind. In a rural environment, this danger lessened – but it is still difficult to find courage. Residencies allowed me to be immersed within rural environments away from light pollution, but with quick access to safe, secure environments where I could gather my nerves.”

eco_media IV: rip, rip, microchip,
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

I have created a virtual presentation for the eco_media IV: rip, rip, microchip conference at, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. 21 November 2022. This presentation is focused on my practice-based PhD project “Ancient Light: Rematerialising The Astronomical Image”.

“The aim of the eco_media project is to understand how environmental issues, questions, and concerns are communicated through media forms, and to play at the borders of disciplines including media and environmental studies, philosophy, social science, and communication theory.

The second and third symposiums focused on how the two hyperobjects of climate catastrophe and COVID pandemic enmeshed and collided, and how we might approach these existential threats and changes to everyday life through theory and creative practice. The resulting edited collection, The Climate Catastrophe: A Creative and Critical Survival Guide, is currently under editorial review and will be published in early 2024.

In 2022, eco_media focuses on media technologies and extraction. In particular, how are media technologies and industries extracting and exploiting natural resources and the environment? There are bold and interesting new developments in the areas of machine learning, remote collaboration, and blockchain technology, for example. How are these evolving technologies intersecting with creativity and media industries, and beyond this, how are these industries working sustainably and eco-consciously with these new innovations?”

Upcoming Workshops

Please see my upcoming workshops below:

26 November 2022 - Online - Botanical Cyanotype Toning with Land Art Agency
10 December 2022 - Online - Seaweed Film Developer with Land Art Agency

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 November, Patreon subscribers will receive a postcard reproduction of my “Ancient Light, Eagles Nest, Pakistan” photograph. The A5 postcard is created using sustainable recycled cardboard.