Talk #137

Melanie King

Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. Melanie is now based in Kent, UK. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a practice-based PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency.

You can find out more about Melanie on her CV and Exhibitions page. Image: Melanie King, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2023. Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between photographic materials and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching a number of sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice.

Melanie's recent project Acquaintance explores the creative possibilities of botanical cyanotype toning and sustainable photographic processes. This exploration considers how location-specific sustainable photographic processes can produce bodies of work that are materially connected to the landscape. This project is centred on the Peak District, an area close to where Melanie grew up.

Melanie's 2021-2022 project "Precious Metals" considers the materiality of silver and palladium, from the production of silver and palladium within the cosmos, extraction from Earth and its uses within our society. This project focuses on their use in photography, suggesting methods of using the material that is less harmful to the ecology of the Earth.

Her PhD practice-based research "Ancient Light: Rematerialising The Astronomical Image" considered how light travels thousands, if not millions of years, before reaching photosensitive film or a digital sensor. Ancient Light comprises analogue photographs of star-scapes, as well as a series of images created using telescopes and observatories around the world.