OPEN Eco: Elizabeth Woodger, Untitled image from the series 'Diagenesis', 2020
Elizabeth Woodger's practice combines studio-based construction with outdoor experimentation in order to create serendipitous and evocative imagery. Her photographs are characterised by tactile transformative processes, such as the folding, fragmentation and manipulation of physical prints. She also incorporates many natural elements – sunlight, trees, plants, rivers, rocks and waves – into her artworks.
Elizabeth says: "The landscape photographs in the series Diagenesis have been fragmented by a chaotic assemblage of folds. In the Anthropocene – where humans are endowed with the power of a geological agent – this meticulous folding signifies a fundamental reshaping of the environment. But by returning these photographic objects to the landscape, they are subjected to unpredictable natural forces. The objects and the environment become co-actors in a performance that personifies the primal connection between humanity and natural world. By introducing a nonhuman perspective into photography, it may be possible to transform human perception and thereby expand the dialogue surrounding the climate crisis."
As a former geologist with a PhD in palaeoclimatology, Elizabeth Woodger has spent many years researching past greenhouse climates as a potential analogue for future, anthropogenic climate change. Her remit then, was to study the subsurface milieu – the stratifications, organisms, processes and relationships – and now as an artist, she finds herself doing exactly the same thing. Her creative practice is a form of environmental and ecological research; she investigate how landscapes have been shaped and how they respond to human influence. Ultimately, photography is the mechanism through which Elizabeth examines the interconnections between humans, environment and natural processes.
Photo Fringe invited artists to propose a single image to engage audiences and help us imagine a greener, fairer world. Artists were asked to respond to the question “How can photography make a difference to the climate crisis?"
The resulting outdoor exhibition of selected images by twenty artists can be found on Worthing seafront until the end of April 2023.
Sponsored by Metro Imaging Ltd with funding from Arts Council England National Lottery Project Fund and Worthing Borough Council.