In recent months, Urbanautica hosted a call dedicated to the theme of extinction. About seventy projects have been selected and published on our online archive. (More about it here)
In this short article, we focus on some of these projects to highlight some messages and perspectives about extinction. The images of the series 'Cyanotypes of a trash world' by Miltiadis Igglezos expand the definition of photography although paradoxically bringing it back to its analogical origins. To the slow development of images. An ancient method introduced in 1842 by John Frederick William Herschel (1792 – 1871) an English astronomer, mathematician, and chemist.
John Herschel (1815-1879), photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron in April 1867
The cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces the cyan-blue print. The compounds involved are: ferric ammonium citrate (the green one) and potassium ferricyanide. Light forms Ferric Ferrocyanide (Prussian Blue) which remains trapped in the fibers of the paper to form the image. The image thus obtained is very stable, but it can degrade in the presence of alkaline substances. plenty of direct sunlight, which can be remedied by keeping it in the dark for a few days. The cyanotype print can be made on any support (fabric, paper, wood).
© Miltiadis Igglezos from the series 'Cyanotypes of a trash world'
The Greek photographer reconstructs sections of landscape in which the blue color projects us directly onto the sea and the sky, over a pristine environment. However, this vision is contaminated by waste deposits, forgotten objects that he himself has collected. This performative act, already significant and revolutionary in itself, is then impressed on sensitive support. As if to manifest that increasing technocratic will in the opulent society which results in the act of contaminating and polluting the beauty of nature. We are not facing an image but its construction. And it is in this process that we find almost as allegories to discover important messages. Above all, the vision of a world thrown away as garbage and that hides the risk of a human species that treats itself as a waste.
© Miltiadis Igglezos from the series 'Cyanotypes of a trash world'
A small hope remains, however. This invites us to reflect on the role of technology and on what it can still do for us, rather than vice versa. As the author put it: «If it is exposed to UV radiation it will gradually fade and probably completely disappear. I am often overwhelmed by this almost childish hope that one day Earth will similarly get rid of our waste...». This invites us to reflect on the reversibility of progress. A concept that seems almost an oxymoron in these times when our species looks like a train running with broken brakes.
© Miltiadis Igglezos from the series 'Cyanotypes of a trash world'
In the 'Matter' series of visual artist Sophie Dumaresq, the intervention takes place directly in nature. Photography thus becomes a register, a documentation of a performative act. In a dystopian and abandoned climate, we observe the remains of chemically treated hair. A presence that appears immediately toxic. Like a land offended and polluted by the abuse of fertilizers and chemicals which becomes a carrier of poisons and diseases. Progress as a surprise boomerang, the human species has implemented self-injuring actions that threaten its very survival. Again we tend to reflect on the use of the technique, its results and its impacts. A clear message, those who damage nature damage themselves. In fact, toxic agriculture leads to hormonal damage that causes hair loss, for example. The circle closes. What is a sign of a vanished civilization, a projection of a failed future, becomes a warning, a signal. But how many signals will still be needed to reverse the course? Are we still in time or would we be forced to powerless watch our disappearance?
© Sophie Dumaresq from the series 'Matter'
© Sophie Dumaresq from the series 'Matter'
© Sophie Dumaresq from the series 'Matter'
© Sophie Dumaresq from the series 'Matter'
© Sophie Dumaresq from the series 'Matter'
The attention of Leslie Hakim-Dowek moves on a contemplative level. Here we are helpless spectators of an off-show. Nothing truly descriptive happens. In 'Twilight Island' we are witnessing a dialogue in a silent scenario, almost observers of an alien landscape. Or maybe it's the echo of an almost lost natural condition, perhaps betrayed by details that announce an imminent and unstoppable invasion. We are on a volcanic island, in apparent calm. Beyond, there is a poetic impulse that feeds this set of images that are well-composed and held together by a visual grace, a search for beauty, as if to reveal a possible alternative face to humanity. A message that appears subtle, barely perceptible, like a light at dusk, like the innocent and powerful gaze of a teenager who masks unconscious uncertainty about the future.
A dialogue strips like a background. Among what has always been, like the memory of stones thrown by a distant eruption while the earth is being formed, and the precarious signs of the present, made of compulsive and sometimes incomprehensible gestures. The photographic one, therefore, appears as an act of conscience in the sea of oblivion. Like a volcano that strives to emerge from the sea and act as a signifier between the wandering and unperturbed waves.
© Leslie Hakim-Dowek from the series 'Twilight Island'
© Leslie Hakim-Dowek from the series 'Twilight Island'
© Leslie Hakim-Dowek from the series 'Twilight Island'
© Leslie Hakim-Dowek from the series 'Twilight Island'
© Leslie Hakim-Dowek from the series 'Twilight Island'
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LINK
Sophie Dumaresq
Leslie Hakim-Dowek
Miltiadis Igglezos
Open call 'Extinction. The World Without Us'. Featured projects
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