Marking the Photography Screen

Earlier this year I participated in a month long residency at the BigCI in Bilpin NSW. In this time I developed my Trash Camera practice into a new and unexpected direction.

The idea behind the cameras is simple: if photography is a way of looking at the world, what happens when the camera itself becomes part of the story?

I build large-format camera obscurae from discarded urban materials, using objects that have already had a life, a purpose and, often, an environmental cost. During the residency I began pushing this idea further, making cameras and images in direct response to the landscape around Bilpin and the Wollemi region.

Charcoal made from material gathered on site became part of the photographic process, while discarded automotive components introduced another layer: the carbon, energy and waste embedded in our journeys to experience pristine landscapes.

Marking the tracing paper screen with charcoal and a gear wheel

The marked tracing paper screen that sits inside the camera obscura

Resultant photo with the markings integrated into the photo itself

The resulting images are deliberately slow, imperfect and tactile. They don’t simply attempt to record the landscape; they ask us to consider the complicated relationship between the natural world and the manufactured one.

Same screen, different part of the landscape

For me, BigCI became a place to experiment, question and rethink what a camera—and a photograph—can be.