James Tylor is a finalist in the 2024 William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize with his series Where the Earth meets the Sun.
The daguerreotype possesses an alchemical quality—a proximity to base materials that many contemporary photographic processes lack. The copper and silver plates are extracted from the earth through mining; the sun’s light is needed to expose the images. If the daguerreotype is where the earth meets the sun and the sky, then it is the perfect medium to reclaim Country and to decolonise it.
Leigh Robb 2023
This series of daguerreotypes explores the relationship between Australian First Nation's Land and the extraction of minerals from colonial mining in Australia to make daguerreotype photography in the 19th century. Daguerreotype photography was invented in 1839 and was the first commercial photographic process. It coincided with the first years of mining in the British colonies in Australia. The raw minerals of silver, copper, gold, and salt were used in the daguerreotype process. In the first years of the colony of South Australia, the British exploited these resources around the new town of Adelaide on Kaurna Country. The series highlights how the British exploited Kaurna Country for its resources, which were subsequently used in photography that documented the dispossession of First Nations people from their land. The photographs Where the Earth meets the Sun depict early mining sites on Kaurna Country.
Over the last 19 years, the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize has emerged as an important annual survey of contemporary photographic practice in Australia and one of the most prestigious prizes in the country.
Finalist exhibition dates: 12 September - 10 November
Museum of Australian Photography, Victoria
Artwork:
James Tylor
Where the Earth meets the Sun, 2024
from the series Where the Earth meets the Sun
becquerel daguerreotypes
12.5 x 10 cm each
