In 2011 I began researching mercury toxicity in fish and other marine animals. I was surprised to see that many species were found to contain mercury levels unfit for human consumption or only safe when eaten infrequently. Find out more here I wanted to find out whether the daguerreotype method of photography, that requires mercury to form the image, could be used to imagine this problem.

Using this approach to creating a daguerreotype will allow me to comment on the subject of ocean pollution using the chemical nature of photography itself. The Daguerreotype was the first method of photography to have mass appeal and was adopted in America as well as Europe immediately after its announcement in 1839. Being very different in appearance to the processes that followed, its image forms as a positive on the plate and uniquely among photographic methods uses mercury in the developing stage. The surface of the plate is mirror-like so it reflects to the viewer the light from around the room in which the viewer is observing the plate.

 

Inherent to this project is the artistic intention of taking this chemical constituent, mercury, out of the subject and using it in the photographic method which dates back to the first anthropogenic emissions of mercury to air and water from industrial activities like coal burning and gold mining. The resulting image will be analogous in physicality, as much as in imagery, to the subject it portrays. Without anthropogenic contributions of mercury, this image would be almost impossible to make. However, due to the high levels detected in some species of marine life, there is a factual possibility for being able to create such an image.

 

In May 2014, with funding from the Arts Council and Northbrook college,  I went to the Chemistry department of the University of Aberdeen to work with Dr Krupp, a specialist in mercury in the marine environment. The daguerreotype plates presented here resulted from the research and development stage of this project. The small amount of mercury used to develop these plates served as proxy for the volume of mercury that could theoretically be extracted from whale tissue, based on typical findings. By the end of my 6 weeks we were not able to successfully extract mercury from the whale tissue available. Even though the tissue used contained a viable amount of mercury, as revealed by multiple sample tests, a working methodology still needs to be devised. The slideshow below describes some of the steps carried out.

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