frugalité creative exhibition

Brought together by the desire to explore new experimental forms of creation, our interdisciplinary student team sought to explore and promote a more sustainable practice of analogue photography within our school, the HFG. Indeed, in the context of art & design, it is our responsibility to confront ourselves with the environmental burden of this technique.
Inspired by various international initiatives in the yet underdeveloped field of the sustainable photography, we started to experiment with various alternative techniques to the massive use of chemicals. To do this, we produced our own photographic black & white developers, based on regional and seasonal plants that we foraged or found in our urban surroundings : herbs, leaves, flowers, tree bark, moss, vegetables, etc.
This spatial investigation of what is available – and enables everyone to develop a more sustainable practice of photography – is what you can see on these two tables: an interconnection between geographical location, plant samples, developer production, film development, and photographic and photogram processing.
Concerning the problem of the photographic support (animal gelatin and plastic film), we are experimenting with various techniques for producing images without a camera - Chlorophyll Printing (printing on plant leaves), Anthotypes (using plant pigments on paper) - and are working on a bio-based ersatz of photo paper (Cyanotype processed in bio plastic). We are still in the experimental phase with these techniques and will be developing them further next semester.