BREATHE

2016 - ongoing series

 

Photographic images printed by pelargonium leaves

[No light-sensitive emulsion is coated onto the leaf surface]

6cm x 7cm, varying sizes 

 

Alice Cazenave was the first photographic artist to use pelargonium leaves as photographic paper. These prints are made by living leaves that respond to light and carbon dioxide. As they absorb these gases, they photosynthesise and generate photographic images inside the leaf surface. This transformation of light and atmosphere into plant energy inspires the title of the series, Breathe. 

 

First developed in 2016, this work stemmed from Cazenave's interest in the agencies of plants, and their potential to generate photographic images. Working in this way invites the qestion, who is the image-maker, the photographer or the plant?

 

Breathe was published in The British Journal of Photography and The Guardian's My Best Shot feature, and was commissioned for the exhibition Fabric of Photography, Oxford, 2021.

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