Liz Harrington: Where Land Runs Out
Focusing on transience and the fragility of the natural environment, Where Land Runs Out is part of a wider, ongoing project based on the Suffolk coast at Orford Ness and Shingle Street. This desolate landscape and vast expanse of shingle has at times an almost haunting feel, enhanced by the rumours of mysterious happenings there during WWII. Along with much of the Suffolk coast, Shingle Street beach is subject to erosion and sea level rises and is vulnerable to disappearing.
This exhibition features a series of camera-less cyanotype images made by immersing the light sensitive photographic paper in the sea during periods of low and high tide. The resulting images are often combined or layered, creating new landscapes and perspectives. A cyanotype is one of the earliest photographic printing processes, invented by Sir John Herschel, and results in a Prussian blue image. A second series also on show draws from the distinct flora found on the shingle beach to create abstract ‘phytograms’ (similar to a photogram), which uses the internal chemistry of the plant to help develop the image.
About the artist
Liz Harrington is a photographic artist based in Letchworth. She works primarily with analogue, alternative photographic processes and camera-less techniques. Her experimental practice focuses on transience and traces of the past, finding beauty in the unseen or overlooked. Subjects include the natural landscape - often literally immersing light sensitive photographic materials in nature to produce the work, the built environment and archival/found materials. Initially graduating in 1995 with a BSc (Hons) in Geography, she later returned to education gaining a BA (Hons) Photography in 2013 from the University of Westminster. Liz is a current fellow of Digswell Arts Trust, with a studio based at their Letchworth site. She has exhibited across the UK, including at theprintspace, Saatchi Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, and has been selected to participate in Reclaim Photography Festival’s international exhibition in January 2020.
