Washed Up and Washed Away
The Project, ‘Washed Up and Washed Away’ is a photographic reflection on beach detritus. The Cyanotype series highlights environmental issues of our decaying marine ecosystems. It offers pictorial results from a small census of what can be found on our local beaches.
Natural and man-made items from a single coastal area in South Wales, UK, have been collected between January and March 2020. They have been photographed digitally on a neutral white background. The photographs are then transformed into digital transparencies and printed, ready for use as an overlay on the precoated cyanotype paper.
The cyanotype is exposed at the beach location of where the object was washed up.
Remaining chemicals, Potassium Ferrocyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate, (there is no evidence to suggest that this washing process poses any environmental concern on a small scale) are rinsed in the salty sea water.
The relationship between the items collected and the print are bonded by the washing process. The chemicals being washed away by the sea, is symbol of washing away the collected detritus back to the sea from where it was taken .
It is ironic that the much of the detritus washed up on beaches is made of plastic. Plastic is derived from Crude Oil, a naturally made fossil fuel, typically from decaying zooplankton and algae during the time of the ancient seas. The prehistoric organic marine organisms are returning to the seas in a non-biodegradable form that is destroying marine habitats.
This project aims to raise awareness of the human interactions between discarded items and the marine environment that they can end up in, and to influence change through the awareness.
Due to COVID-19, the original project has needed to amended because of a lack of available equipment. There is now a Digital Cyanotype version of the series. The lack of the ‘washing away’ process causes the bond of returning to the ocean to be lost within the project.
