sustainability statement
This project is a digital anthology which aims to document and encourage human interaction with landscape — and critically, to advocate for female interactions with landscape. It also relies centrally on the use of film photography — and photo development materials — in the field. This page describes preservationist steps taken both in field and in-office to combat the abuse of the landscapes this project seeks to share, honor, and explore.
This project aims to “LEAVE NO TRACE”: about our map
"Leave No Trace" is an American not-for-profit organization which recently published some "Social Media Guidelines" to encourage responsible enjoyment and protection of the outdoors. These guidelines are valuable in shaping the use of social media into a powerful tool of environmental stewardship. Within, they outline some helpful practices for sharing outdoor adventures on social media which will help environmentalists and outdoorspersons at every level of expertise to commit to a more considerate model of stewardship within the changing digital climate. Their first point illustrates the framework for the following three, and is most applicable to this project. It implores residents of the digisphere to "tag thoughtfully", to indicate only vague locations, or none at all, on posts and photos descriptive of outdoor and wilderness experience in the interest of preservation. They advocate for digital tagging and sharing practices which are mindful of the fact that a location can become "over-loved" (and sadly, often abused) if it becomes too popular. This project makes the following commitments to ensure it takes an active role in the responsible stewardship of the sites it represents.
To encourage visitors to this site to get out and make their own stories without sacrificing the human reach the “map” feature illustrates, story locations will be mapped only in the most general sense. Map icons will never describe the exact location or coordinates of the natural landscape the story and its photograph(s) implicate. In general, they will point to a location which describes a general, associated area, one associated with human settlement, which describes the locale of the narrative within a non-specific perimeter, rather than direct coordinates or location of the photograph(s) in question.
There will be few if any intentional exceptions to this rule: however, in the case of large, well-known public parks and green spaces in large, well-known cities and urban areas, this rule will be more difficult to uphold. With the project based in a major metropolitan city, narratives set in these spaces are both expected and very welcomed. Due to the amount of foot traffic and media engagement which renders iconic urban green spaces culturally and digitally ubiquitous, the application of these guidelines in these cases alone will be more lenient. Preexisting location popularity and the intended use of green spaces by city dwellers provides permanent cultural ownership over a green space which is valuable to the historical record this project intersects. In cases where a narrative intersects a popular, urban location, this project will provide more specific location in the name of the provision of appropriate cultural context rather than erasure.
commitment to sustainability in IN-FIELD FILM DEVELOPMENt:
The 1897 Kodak No. 4 camera used in this project is an essential factor in considering its footprint. The use of antique camera technology in the field across many locations and environments is, at times, a demanding, difficult, and finicky process. Both collodion and film were historically used in the No.4., but collodion is not used in this project due in no small part to the environmental concerns it presents. The film used in this project is specialty and so, has specialty concerns. Direct positive film provides both an an authentic sense of immediacy and comparable image quality to some of the original, collodion photographic methods which were still in use among many Kodak No. 4 photographers at the turn of the century. However, If it is not developed within about an hour of exposure, especially in temperature-variable field conditions, the image begins to distort and eventually, the image is lost. This demands in-field film processing through the use of a mobile darkroom is, and so, strict attention to chemical waste management becomes an inexorable part of the process.
When developing in-field, all chemicals are carefully contained at all times. The utmost protections are taken to ensure leakage, spillage, or breakage resulting in a chemical leak is avoided. This project holds itself to the highest standards of chemical disposal, and maintains this standard in the field by ‘carrying out what is carried in’.