The Pigment Change

The 2020 winner of the BMW Residency at Gobelins Paris, Spanish photographer Almudena Romero takes the etymology of ‘writing with light’ literally. For her photographic and research project, The Pigment Change, she exposed plants to specific quantities of light and specific wavelengths (thanks to the processes of photoperiodism, photobleaching and photosynthesis). The result is a body of work that is literally alive, but also ephemeral. The result is absolutely unique images that challenge traditional conceptions of photography – which are ultimately doomed to extinction because they are so polluting. “I don’t use photography to document facts. It’s not about making a photo, it’s about cultivating it. Photography is alive”, explains Almudena Romero. Divided into four chapters,
The Pigment Change includes image-objects and photographic experiments that offer a perspective beyond sustainable resources and practices, to explore questions about our relationship to nature, and production and reproduction in the context of the current climate crisis. This body of work examines perspectives on the act of causing existence and the resulting dynamics of exploitation, accumulation and inheritance that are central to the current ecological collapse, but also to the art industry.

The book is punctuated by exchanges between Almudena Romero and leading figures from photography and research: Caroline Hickman, Martin Barnes, Monica Gagliano and Michael Marder.