Margate Solar Etchings

The solar etchings are all from locations I photographed myself in Margate. They document a time before gentrification had taken hold. The subjects have either undergone change, were undergoing change or were threatened by change. The earliest images were photographed in the early 2000s.
They were exhibited as a body of work entitled ‘Change’ at 101 Social Club, Northdown Road, Cliftonville in 2017. They are my response to the quickening pace of change at the time.

Shunryu Suzuki
‘Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.’

Process
To produce a solar etching an image is transferred directly onto a specially prepared etching plate using a UV light source, this can be direct sunlight or an artificial light source.
Once the image is transferred the plate is washed, inked, wiped and printed. Etching is an intaglio process – meaning ink is left in recesses on the plate’s surface and the ink is drawn out onto damp paper once the plate is passed through a printing press, this leaves an embossed edge on the paper.