Trace, 2023

Silver gelatin print on aluminium foil, iron discard

134cm x 90cm

Trace originated from a discarded piece of iron found along the banks of the River Thames. Long-term erosion caused by the force of the river had inscribed complex lines and abstract forms onto its surface, revealing a relationship between the fluidity of water and the solidity of metal. The work reflects an understanding of objects not as fixed results, but as manifestations of processes and experiences accumulated over time.

The image was produced using a traditional silver gelatin darkroom process and printed onto aluminum foil. This material choice establishes a direct physical relationship between the image and its subject while making the process of image formation perceptible. The wrinkles, textures, and chemical traces embedded within the foil print remain visible, preserving evidence of the developmental process that shaped the image itself.

Rather than presenting photography as a finished image, Trace emphasizes the conditions and processes through which an image comes into being. By integrating the traces of its own production into the final work, the piece shifts attention from photographic representation toward photography as a material event. In this way, the chemical transformations, material alterations, and temporal traces involved in the making of the image begin to resonate with the iron object’s own history of erosion and formation within the river. The process through which water shaped the object is mirrored by the process through which photographic chemistry shaped the image, allowing two distinct experiences of transformation to converge within the same material space. Through this encounter, the work reflects on how time becomes embedded within matter, and how images can function not simply as records of what has been seen, but as evidence of what has happened.