Depicting Light as Pollution

Tread Lightly is an artistic research project in the form of a photographic series. Through the series, I investigate how we may critically approach the phenomenon of light pollution as an aspect of the much broader ecological crisis of the contemporary period. To do so, the project turned inwards to consider how photography, as a medium entirely dependent on the specificities of light, actually works; how do the camera’s ways of seeing differ from those of humans? What may photography offer us that is unique to that medium? And, most importantly, how can photography work to transform its very foundation from something productive into something destructive?

From these questions, it emerged that the series would investigate how light may be photographically depicted as pollution. In doing so, it continuously engages with the theoretical framework that was introduced in the prior section of this paper. The subversion of light, from the very ‘fuel’ or raw material of photography into something undesirable and even harmful enacts the type of estrangement that is central to the uncanny, especially in relation to the medium through which this subversion is performed.

The choice to focus on light pollution – as opposed to another aspect of the climate crisis – is twofold; firstly, the theme of light is a consistently recurring locus in my other photographic work. Tread Lightly actually can be traced back to an earlier photographic series, The Sun Sets Twice (TSST). This project arose after encountering the warm light emitted by greenhouses at night and reflects on the ways in which light affects and relates to our experience of a place – in the case of TSST, the light of the greenhouses related strongly to a sense of home. The shifts in tone and rationale between TSST and Tread Lightly are entirely related to further personal engagement with and reflection on the ecological crisis – one could say that I suddenly felt estranged from the homely feeling of TSST as I started learning more about the detrimental effects of light pollution.

Secondly, light pollution is one of few aspects of the climate crisis that is, first of all, visible to the naked eye, and second of all, entirely and exclusively anthropogenic in nature. Regardless of these inherent characteristics of the phenomenon, I was surprised to observe that very few of my friends and colleagues were actually aware of the extent to which light can, indeed, pollute. Sharing an article, published by the BBC, that outlined some of the effects of light pollution to my personal social media, I received several responses of shock and surprise towards the content of the article. The apparent invisibility of such a visible element of the ecological crisis intrigued me and ultimately provided the rationale to embark on this project.