Hannah Fletcher: On working sustainably
In this episode, we talk with Hannah Fletcher about how to develop a more sustainable photographic practice. She discusses the issue of sustainability within analogue and digital processes. Hannah explains the need she identified for a wider conversation around sustainability within photography and how this led her to found The Sustainable Darkroom. She explains her relationship with science and why it is so important for photographers to consider themselves within the broader ecosystem of photography and all the industries photography is connected to.
What you’ll find inside:
“I suddenly just thought, what if actually some of these plants could absorb the silver from waste photographic fixer and use it in a positive way? Like actually what if there’s something more going on here that I could explore and somehow create more of a holistic ecosystem within photography?” (4:18)
Hannah discusses the main issues of sustainability within analogue photography , including: the amount and type of water used, the use of bovine gelatine, waste chemistry disposal, and the use of plastic. (7:18)
Hannah discusses the main issues of sustainability within digital photography, including: the ethics of your camera’s manufacturer, the mining of minerals and materials for your camera, disposal of your old camera, and the storage of digital photographs. (12:27)
“In 2019 I founded an initiative called The Sustainable Darkroom which is basically a kind of platform and research and learning initiative to support other practitioners in finding their own more environmentally friendly approach to working with analogue photography.” (16:26)
“I knew that I needed collective knowledge and the help of scientists and experts, which is why I kind of thought I need to make something that is going to bring together lots of people to really work in this way of activism and community resilience. Because I really believe that these forms of actions are some of the most powerful ways that we can move forward in society.” (18:51)
“I think we need to be open to possibilities for new understandings and new visual languages within our photography because that’s the only way that we can really move forward.” (23:40)
“None of these ideas that I’m putting forward are solutions to working completely environmentally friendly. None of them are perfect. None of them are solutions yet. But I believe that just making an informed decision, knowing what materials you’re using, where it came from, why you’re using it, why it makes sense for your practise, being able to justify it. I believe that this is one of the most powerful things that we can do as a society, is to inform ourselves and make conscious decisions.” (26:06)
“If we are thinking about the whole ecosystem of photography, it relies on so many other industries to exist. And I think we need to not think of ourselves as an individual photographer existing on our own.” (30:12)
Hannah explains her relationship and approach to science (32:00)
What does photo ethics mean to Hannah?
“I think ethics encompasses everything that we do. And I don’t think it should be thought of as something separate from photography, you know, it should just be completely intertwined in a way. And ethics isn’t this thing which kind of sits, you know, on a podium over there. It’s like within everything. It’s within the ecosystem. It’s within, you know, the camera that you’re holding, and it’s within the scene that you’re photographing, and it’s within the chemistries that you’re developing in. And I think it’s just really about having a complete awareness of how those materials came to be and your relationship with them and a consciousness of that. That you have kind of like done your research, if you like, and you can justify why you’re using that camera and why you’re taking the image you can... I think if we’re more conscious beings then we don’t have to think about it so much because it will always be there within the way that we work and the way we approach our practise and our kind of just wider lifestyle.” (35:18)
Links
Hannah Fletcher is a London based artist, working with cameraless photographic processes. She is the founder of the Sustainable Darkroom, co-director of the London Alternative Photography Collective, and a facilitator of sustainability in the arts. Hannah’s work intertwines organic matter such as soils, algae, mushrooms, and roots into analogue photographic mediums and surfaces. She does this while simultaneously exploring environmentally and ecologically focused issues. Working in an investigative, pseudo-scientific, and environmentally conscious manner, Hannah combines scientific techniques with photographic processes, creating a dialogue between the poetic and the political.
You can see her work at https://www.hannahfletcher.com/
This podcast is supported by the Rebecca Vassie Trust, a UK-based charity which promotes the art of narrative photography through granting bursary awards to up-and-coming photographers, and funding public education projects like this one. This podcast has full editorial independence, and the views expressed in this series are not necessarily those of the Trust.