Geranium is Falling and Landing Elsewhere
analogue photography, home-made image developer, collage, research essay
with thanks to: Street Level Photoworks , SaltSpace, Glasgow School of Art, Creative Scotland
2023-ongoing
This body of work has grown out of my art residency at Street Level Photoworks in 2023. My initial intention was to weave my photographic practice closer to the land and develop film in a way that is connected to the land it holds the visual memories of, to oscillate between language, materials and image.
During my residency I spent time around the two UK Ministry of Defence sites: Castlelaw Hill in the Pentlands, South–West of Edinburgh and in the Garelochhead Hills, North of Glasgow. The photographic work involved making exposure at the two sites, developing the film and printing from the negatives using both traditional darkroom chemistry as well as a home brewed developer. For printing the images I gathered heather, moss and chestnut and oak leaves from the places I photographed, blending them with geranium petals.
During my residency I spent time around the two UK Ministry of Defence sites: Castlelaw Hill in the Pentlands, South–West of Edinburgh and in the Garelochhead Hills, North of Glasgow. The photographic work involved making exposure at the two sites, developing the film and printing from the negatives using both traditional darkroom chemistry as well as a home brewed developer. For printing the images I gathered heather, moss and chestnut and oak leaves from the places I photographed, blending them with geranium petals.
The written work grew into an research essay forthcoming in the Environmental Humanities journal. In it I follow the geranium – the flowering
plant and Geranium (also known as Shahed) – the drone Russia uses en masse in their war
against Ukraine, into varied scales of war and colonialism. Written in parallel with
developing photographs in the darkroom, this is a reflection on seeing and putting into words
militarized landscapes linked by weapons and plants across Scotland and Ukraine. To grasp what Ariella Azoulay calls the longue durée of imperial violence, the essay offers ways to push – materially and symbolically – the photographic medium designed to capture the
decisive moment, to instead, capture decisive time that spans centuries.
militarized landscapes linked by weapons and plants across Scotland and Ukraine. To grasp what Ariella Azoulay calls the longue durée of imperial violence, the essay offers ways to push – materially and symbolically – the photographic medium designed to capture the
decisive moment, to instead, capture decisive time that spans centuries.
Geranium is Falling and Landing Elsewhere — photography, 2023
Flowers, Mobilized — collage, 2024-2025
Uncertain Futures — group exhibition (see catalogue), SaltSpace Coop, 2024
Photography in Land Relations — artist talk at Street Level Photoworks, together with Zoe Hamill and Haneen Hadiy, 2024
Nature as Weapon —panel presentation, The Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, Tbilisi, 2024
Photographic methods for learning landscape histories — panel presentation at the
“Environment and War: Historical Perspectives and Modern Challenges” part of Historians and the War: Rethinking the Future, 2024
Geranium is Falling and Landing Elsewhere: Photographing and Narrating Landscapes and Militarization across Scotland and Ukraine — peer-reviewed essay forthcoming in the Environmental Humanities, 2025
Flowers, Mobilized — collage, 2024-2025
Uncertain Futures — group exhibition (see catalogue), SaltSpace Coop, 2024
Photography in Land Relations — artist talk at Street Level Photoworks, together with Zoe Hamill and Haneen Hadiy, 2024
Nature as Weapon —panel presentation, The Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, Tbilisi, 2024
Photographic methods for learning landscape histories — panel presentation at the
“Environment and War: Historical Perspectives and Modern Challenges” part of Historians and the War: Rethinking the Future, 2024
Geranium is Falling and Landing Elsewhere: Photographing and Narrating Landscapes and Militarization across Scotland and Ukraine — peer-reviewed essay forthcoming in the Environmental Humanities, 2025