Joya: DARKROOM / DEVELOPERS GARDEN in collaboration with the LAPC

Joya: AiR / DARKROOM is a studio practice / analogue darkroom available for resident artists from January 2021.

Joya: arte + ecología / AiR embodies a creative and inspirational roll in envisioning sustainable practice within our common future. Our aim is to co-exist and constantly maintain a balance between our specific biosphere and our cultural activities.

To augment this commitment Joya: AiR is in collaboration with the London Alternative Photography Collective (LAPC), a substantial group of analogue and alternative photography practitioners curating large scale symposiums, exhibitions and workshops.

The LAPC has a research, training and mutual learning initiative called ‘The Sustainable Darkroom’ which aims to provide cultural practitioners with the knowledge to evolve a sustainable, non-toxic photographic darkroom practice.

The Joya: AiR / LAPC collaboration is the nurturing of a ‘Developers Garden’ here on the Mediterranean subtropical steppe lands of Almería, Spain. Certain plants can be used as black and white developer as an alternative to the pernicious chemicals used in conventional photography.  This technique provides long term sustainability to processing of black and white films and papers.  

The ‘Developers Garden’ at Joya: AiR intends to nurture a list of specific plants that have particular active ingredients or relative compounds which can be synthesised to be used in photographic processes. However, Almería has specific challenges relating to horticulture, soil and water. We intend to use ancient and newly developed permaculture design principles to create the necessary medium to grow this garden.

Commensurate with the LAPC’s promotion of sustainable and creative practice, the ‘Developers Garden’ is at the disposal of its members who are invited to participate in a group residency at Joya: AiR.

Practitioners:

Hannah Fletcher, initiated The Sustainable Darkroom, an artist-run research, training and mutual learning programme, to equip cultural practitioners with new skills and knowledge to develop an environmentally friendly photographic darkroom practice. Taking its form in publications, residencies, workshops, talks, symposiums and training sessions. She intends to lead a movement in challenging the environmental impact and sustainability of darkroom practices. 

Over the past year and half her research includes the sustainability of silver, plant based developers on black and white films and papers, salt based fixers, biodegradable alternatives to plastic film, the integration of plants into the darkroom, recycling of darkroom materials and the cross pollination of ‘waste’ materials between disciplines.  

Melanie King is the founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective, of which The Sustainable Darkroom is part. She is also co-director of Lumen Studios and super/collider.  She is a PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art, and a graduate of the MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins. Melanie’s research focuses on the study of materiality, from the cosmic to the quantum. Melanie is interested in how photographic materials such as silver are created within the furnace of supernovae stars, formed within the Earth and then used within photographic materials. Leading on from this, Melanie is keen to promote the sustainable use of photographic materials. Melanie has experimented with plant based developers, silver reclamation from fixative, anthotype prints and large ephemeral chlorophyll-based prints within the landscape. 

General Treegan aka Andrés Pardo runs a film lab in Mexico called Curioso Lab. It is a space for photochemical exploration, specialising in cinematography. His research focuses on non-traditional development processes, most recently he has been working on an 100% home made film developer for black and white film. Based on clementine peels and potash, he has labeled it as  ‘SIMPLE’ developer. He is in the process of studying the performance and possibilities of this developer of 16mm and 35mm film. 

Megan Ringrose’s work is on research of the fundamental properties of photography:light, time, process and materiality. Her practice involves a rethinking of what photography might be now. 

Currently, she is researching and employing new substrates for light sensitive emulsions to adhere. She plays with long exposures and ways of slowing photographic processes down to its original invention speed. She has been experimenting with how the emulsion is attached to the substrate, collecting light on surfaces depicting nothing but the haptic act of making a photograph. The photographic objects are the story, they index photography and its 21st century state: slippery and boundaryless. 

Russel Marx is a PhD student in neuroscience and artist. His research involves using microalgae as a living emulsion for printing images. By projecting a negative image on a petri dish, algae in the dish multiply faster and synthesize more pigment where they receive more light, thereby forming an image. Most recently, I've been experimenting with combining species of red and green algae to manipulate color.

Dagie Brundert is an artist from Berlin, who has worked with super 8 film for almost half of her life – short films, experimental films – and for about a decade now she has developed her films using eco friendly materials. Then she discovered anthotypes and recently has been experimenting with the combination of extracts from plants for use in both anthotype printing and for film developing.

“For film developing I need juices containing phenols, for anthotype emulsions, too: extracts from flowers, berries, tree bark and parts of plants that contain strong dyes that bleach in the sun. As a chemical layman (is there actually a laywoman?) I suspect that they are not that different from each other. This needs to be researched! Phenol = aroma = colour!”

Developing recipes…