SLOW DOWN

SLOW DOWN is a workshop series and collaborative final show that explores human-land relations through experimentation with analog photographic techniques: ecological photochemistry, cyanotype, and anthotype.

Ecological photochemistry is what we call developing film with plant-based recipes rather than the usual toxic chemicals. For example, we have used phenol-rich sage, mint, rosemary, and thyme. Cyanotypes and anthotypes are techniques for printing photos from negatives (or images from plants themselves) using photo-sensitive plant-based developers and the power of the sun. This is highly place-based work, creating images directly from our material surroundings. These techniques encourage us to come to know and work with familiar plants in new ways.

This project works at the temporality of plants rather than the frenetic temporality of extractive capitalism. We aim to rethink the extractive mode of creating which has become the norm. This project offers participants a chance to reconsider technologies that are taken for granted and ground themselves in different ways. It offers the opportunity to replace alienated process with material ones, which many people today crave. Analog techniques allow participants to embrace unknowing, slowness, process over results, and experimentation over certainty. By collaborating with the agency of plants, we can rethink the ways we relate to the more-than-human world.

Ecological photochemistry emphasizes accessibility at its core. Accessibility and sustainability go hand in hand; creating shouldn’t require expensive equipment, consumerism, or reliance on corporate control; instead, we can create with the world around us. This allows us to break from the layers of abstraction of technology, “expertise,” and middle men. This project aims to disseminate knowledge on how we can control production ourselves.

Through a series of workshops, SLOW DOWN aims to facilitate these experiences and spread this knowledge for free. At the end of August 2026, we will facilitate a group show for participants to showcase their reflections on more-than-human relationships.

This work has emerged through collaboration with the CUNY Graduate Center Art Club and many farmers and land workers both in New York City and in upstate New York.