This project explores the idea of distribution, extraction and data, documenting the current period in London’s construction and development via the earth and substrata upon which it is built clay - specifically London clay - and used to create a ‘camera’ as a device to record a specific moment in time.

The data and information held within London clay go back millennia. I have constructed a pinhole camera using London clay. The images created and the camera are media artefacts, forming a connection between the data and information stored within the clay and the current state of the city built upon it. In doing so, I mould the earth to become a camera. Bricks moulded at first by hand (and now mainly by machine) from clay contribute to much of the architectural fabric of London, extending the connection between the sensor, a pinhole camera, and the subterranean world.

I extracted clay from the ground by hand, processed it, and formed it into a camera body. Using this clay camera, I photographed the redevelopment of the Battersea power station. The building was built from over 6 million bricks and powered by coal, symbolising London’s intensive extraction industry. Now redeveloped into luxury flats, often unoccupied and owned by overseas investment, Apple offices and a shopping centre, it stands as a talisman of London’s neoliberal extraction on the River Thames.