Fucus macroguiryi Wrack – by Anna Sellen

Description

Fucus macroguiryi Wrack, from series Unfixed

With ‘Unfixed’ series, I seek to reveal what is hidden and make the chemical pollutants visible. The focus on the chemical pollutants calls for tangible, hands-on experimentation with analogue chemistry-based methods. The process is as much an outcome as the final images. 

I use locally collected seaweed and objects found on the beaches of Cardigan Bay to make the contact prints of the most common chemical pollutants. I print my images on expired photographic paper and pages of Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (2004). I use agricultural runoff and sea water in processing. Each action, each step in this process are part of the message – like my images, the problem remains unfixed, whilst inversion is an act to reverse the negative outcomes.   

I am continuing to experiment in the darkroom cross-pollinating digital and analogue photography and mixed media methods to develop my visual language to tell the story about this global emergency that has been conveniently ignored.