Polyphenol Dark

2025

Photo-emulsion on reclaimed greenhouse glass
Developed with low-toxic developer chemistry
Aluminium frame
Silver plated in waste photographic fix

Commissioned by Ratamo Gallery, Finland for the exhibition My Work Here Is Done

Polyphenol Dark examines the dark edges of photographic industries and their wealth. Inspired by the chandelier hanging in George Eastman’s colonial revival mansion (founder of Kodak), the sculpture responds critically to connections between photographic silver extraction, settler-colonial violence, and capitalism. Named after a chemical dye used in early cinematic film, Polyphyenyl Dark thinks about the raw edges of photographic industry and the uneven distribution of its wealth and contamination.

At its peak, Kodak consumed 13,000 kg of silver a week to transform into film. The industry established itself on Seneca lands and polluted neighbourhoods and ecologies in upstate New York for nearly a century. Today, the reverberations of this chemical violence are weighted along racial and economic lines.

Dark pigments on the glass are created through photo-chemical reactions. The use of low-toxic sodium ascorbate developer chemistry blocks the toxicity of heavy metals in the light-sensitive emulsion.

This practice of making-through-detoxifying is extended to the chandelier’s frame, which was soaked in waste photographic fixer chemistry. During soaking, waste silver transfers from the chemistry onto the frame, silver-plating it and detoxifying the chemistry for disposal.