Biography & Statement
About Dr Melanie King
Dr Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. Melanie is now based in Kent, UK.
She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective.
Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has recently completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency.
You can find out more about Melanie on her CV and Exhibitions page.
Image: Melanie King, PhD Graduation, 2024.
Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. In her work, Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between photographic materials and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching several sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice. You can read more about Melanie's recent projects below;
Melanie's 2024-2025 project In Praise Of Raw Data looks at the construction of astronomical images, with a specific focus on images that retain artefacts from their means of production. In this project, she is collaborating with Dr Claudia Mignone, an astronomer at INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Rome. This project comprises of several colour printing processes and sustainable printing techniques such as risograph, cyanotype and screenprinting using botanical inks. These analogue, layered processes mimic digital imaging processing techniques used in astronomical imaging within institutions such as NASA and the European Space Agency.
Her PhD practice-based research Ancient Light: Rematerialising The Astronomical Image (2024) comprises of analogue photographs of the night sky, produced in several dark sky locations. In this body of work, Melanie captured light that had travelled for thousands, if not millions of years, onto photographic film. To produce these images, she participated in residencies away from light pollution. During this period of study, she collaborated with the University College London and Kielder Observatories. As King's project considered the intimate connection between the cosmos and earthly materiality, many of the resultant works were produced using sustainable photographic paper developers and cyanotype-based processes. You can view artworks produced during this period of study on the Ancient Light page, read King's thesis and view her adjacent portfolio on the Royal College of Art website. This project will result in a photobook, to be published in Spring 2025.
Melanie's 2023 project Acquaintance explored the creative possibilities of botanical cyanotype toning and sustainable photographic processes. This exploration considered how location-specific sustainable photographic processes can produce bodies of work that are materially connected to the landscape. This project was centred on the Peak District, an area close to where Melanie grew up.
Melanie's 2021-2022 project "Precious Metals considered the materiality of silver and palladium, from the production of silver and palladium within the cosmos, extraction from Earth and its uses within our society. This project focused on their use in photography, suggesting methods of using the material that are less harmful to the ecology of the Earth.
Melanie's 2021-2025 project Submerged Landscapes, focused on areas of the UK which are vulnerable to sea level rise, with a particular focus on Kent, where she is currently living. Melanie has documented the affected areas before they are submerged by rising tides, using the materiality of the sea within the production of the work. To produce these images, Melanie used seaweed film developer, anthotypes made from sea spinach and fixative made from seawater.
