CONSTRUCTING SPACE
A key debate in photography is the question of the authenticity of the photographic image. Constructing Space investigates notions of truth intrinsic in our perceptions of photography of space. Our idea of space is informed by images from science’s forays into the Universe via space missions and telescopes. Many of the space photos we see are initially received on earth as raw computer data, binary code distilled into monochrome images and coloured-in to emphasise visual information. My aim was to make alternative versions of authentic space images.
Initially working in a temporary colour darkroom that I built onsite at the Meteorite Department at London’s Natural History Museum, I had daily conversations about the wonders of astrobiology & space science with the museum's Head Mineralogist, Professor Monica Grady. Inspired by these talks, I made photograms with the Museum’s meteorite collection. I later purchased meteorites for my collection In order to continue to work in my own darkroom.
I arrange the meteorite fragments onto light sensitive paper, making several exposures, one for each colour. The space-dust blocks light during the exposures to create the stars in my galaxies. Meteors are commonly associated with both the wonder of planetary formation and the terror of potentially cataclysmic extinction level events. Handling this interstellar dust I am intensely aware that the matter in my hands forms the very building blocks of everything we know.
When this work is presented without accompanying text, I am often asked, “What kind of telescope did you use to take these photos?” In considering the authenticity of my outcomes, the realism of the subject appears validated by the inherent perception of truth conferred by the photographic medium. When all is said and done, my pictures of the stars do posses some truth, as the direct indexical trace of the stardust used in their creation.
The pictures in this gallery are cameraless in their creation. Known as photograms, they are a photographic printmaking technique that predates the invention of photography.