"Becoming Terrestrial: notes towards the Land Camera"
"Letter to Mary S."
“Becoming Terrestrial: notes towards the Land Camera”
Riso printed artist book
Published by SO-RI
Edition of 250
13 x 18 cm
Design by Marnicq Roebben
Antwerp, 2024
30, 35, 40-EUR (pay what you can), order via tt.photo@live.be
The land camera is a deconstruction of the camera to its bare minimum, a camera obscura constructed from the same grounds it is trying to portray. Cameras can be made from holes in tree-trunks, rabbit holes, ditches, mud… The images are decided upon by the hole itself, only mediated by the photographer. Henceforth the technical apparatus transforms into a living camera, embodied in the environment it is portraying. The images shown are embedded in their environment, the negatives are developed with locally harvested Menthe Aquatic and the silkscreens printed with home grown Algae ink. All images included in the book are recorded around the river beds of the Scheldt estuary.
The book contains 12 individual booklets from 12 different Land Cameras, an essay on the Land Camera and a book with process images.
“Letter to Mary S.”
Self published artistbook
Handmade poppy-sensitized cover
Numbered edition of 250
10,5 x 14,5 cm
Design by Arno Huygens
Printed by L. Capitan
Ghent, 2022
25,-EUR, order via tt.photo@live.be
Since its invention in the 19th century, photography has walked step by step with industrial growth and pollution. Photography was born into a world of smoke and smog, predestined to become a symbol of a new world-order. The camera as a modern device prophesied the changing times that evoked its invention as it originates in an era marked by industrialization, mass production, automation, globalisation and capitalization.
Shortly after the invention of photography, Mary Somerville, a Scottish scientist and mathematician, started researching the light sensitive qualities of plants. By subtracting chlorophyll from weeds and flowers, she was able to produce organic light sensitive emulsions. French Marigold, Red Dahlia, Corchorus Japonica, Nasturtium, Globe Amaranth, Plumbago Auriculata, Viola Tricolour, Harlequin Flower, Scarlet Geranium, Black Hollyhock, Persian Speedwell, Purple Dahlia, etc.