Phytography as more-than-human image-making at Joya: arte + ecología

One of the oldest fixed images was developed with fossil fuels, a reminder of photography’s complicity in the global violence of extraction and pollution. However, photography also opens new horizons for action across social, political, and environmental issues. During an artistic research residency at Joya: arte + ecología in Spain, I pursued alternative photography as a sustainable darkroom process. I experimented with phytography, a cameraless, low-toxicity, mostly biodegradable approach which exposes the internal chemistry of plants onto photosensitive emulsions to make images. Walking through an environment experiencing climate change and co-creating with local vegetation became an exercise in thinking, moving, and seeing in a more-than-human way. Phytography emphasizes the materiality of photography and its outcomes. Although phytography is not flawless, attempting messy methods of image-making that consider the land and its inhabitants can bring us closer to achieving a sustainable photographic practice.