Extracting Light, Exposing Tungsten brings light into the dark, provoking contemplation on the environmental and human impacts of the extraction of tungsten, which is pivotal in lighting innovations. My own interest in light within the realms of photography and cinema and how cinema relies on both darkness and illumination unveiled a historical link between film, cinema and tungsten mining from the invention and inception of the filament needed for incandescent studio lighting. This project looks at tungsten’s extraction as a rare earth and purported conflict mineral, examining its significance in film history, its shaping of visual aesthetics in cinema and its often undisclosed ecological footprint.

Employing diverse photographic manipulation techniques exposed the inherent nature of media itself, essentially media exposing media. Utilising researched archival material from the 1900s to the present day, I extracted the unexposed dark realities of mining in contrast with the glamorous facades in cinematic history. The combination of analogue and digital photographic methodologies (tungsten being a component in iPhone and MacBook) was employed to create an artist concertina book, scaled from a format of 35mm film. The act of repetition in photographing, editing, collaging, and reframing of imagery derived from the complex history linked to the origins of lighting, cinema and tungsten mining, mirroring the editing of film footage, splicing together discarded fragments from the cutting room floor.

Extracting Light, Exposing Cinema prompts critical examination of the interplay between technological advancements and finite resources of our planet. There is an emphasis on the pivotal role of these resources in shaping our technological creative trajectory. We can achieve more discerning media interpretations if we delve deeper into the obscure, sometimes contradictory aspects of media that lay beyond the surface of mainstream cinema experiences and knowledge.