The Vegan Photographer
This project is based on veganism and sustainability. This process is when photosensitive plant extractions are used to create an emulsion. The emulsion is usually painted onto paper, but other materials can be used. Once dried an object is placed on top of the paper. The sun is used to develop the image by bleaching out the light sensitive emulsion which the object is not covering.
I've made my project as environmentally friendly as possible. I decided not to use film to reduce the amount of harmful material and chemicals used in the process of creating my images. Such as plastic, developer, bath stop, fixer and gelatine. Gelatine is used as a thickener in film but is made out of boiled skin, tendons, ligaments and bones from animals (pigs and cows). As it consist of animal parts this means it is not vegan. No animals were harmed or killed to create my project.
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I created my work on paper as the prints will not stay forever. Once exposed for too long the entire image will bleach out. When this happens the paper can be recycled. No vegetables were wasted for the purpose of my project. As a vegan I always have a lot of fruit and vegetable in my home. I only used vegetables which didn't get eaten before running out of date. Rather than wasting fresh ones which could be consumed. I used beetroot and spinach.
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I photographed animals that are most commonly exploited by humans in Britain. I focused on farm animals. Photographing animals such as cow, pigs, donkeys, chickens, goats, sheet, ducks and horses. There animals are bred so they can be slaughtered for human consumption or used for human benefit e.g horse riding and horse racing. Other than their flesh animals are robbed of their natural benefits such as eggs, milk, skin, wool, fur and feathers.
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Below are some photos of the process using spinach.
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Below are photos of the beetroot process.
After blending the vegetables with a couple of vodka shots. I let it drain through a sieve the painted it onto watercolour paper using a foam brush. Once it dried I place monotone photos of the farm animals over the side covered in vegetable emulsion. And place them into picture frames. I left them in the garden to be exposed by the sunlight. The spinach ones took around 2 hours and the beetroot around 2 weeks. Some of my beetroot prints were damaged by cat's urine. However I feel this is a part of the process, as the prints are left outside for a long period of time. Natural things can happen which affect the prints.
Final prints
