francesca spedalieri
J. editor

The world of circular economy is extremely estensive and its wide definition includes a lot of different initiatives and procedures. Biology is where this circular idea came from: a world where all discards are used again in a different biological cycle. This is the very main gol of circular economy.

Photography, as always, helps us to discover and acknowledge reality far beyond from our own. Let’s take a ride with some documentary photographers that choose to point their cameras to different events and situations related to this topic.

Eugenijus Barzdziu project LDPE, focuses on plastics and choose to depict one of the biggest plastic recycling factories in EU, based in Vilnius, Lithuania. the factory in order to work 24x7 needs to import plastic wastes from other european countries. They will be recycled and sold again as bags, sheet, barrels. Every year the factory recycles more than 30 thousand tons of post consumed plastic waste. The project focuses also on the hard condition of factory’s workers, that take 12 hours shifts. Low salaries attract cheaper labour force form Ukraine and immigrants that want to extend their work permit. Barzdzius shoot the entire project on expired photography film in order to give it a new life. [lensculture.com]

“Bio Minds” is the project by Marco Buratti that focuses on scientific researches about future technology projects inspired by biology and nature. His project shows us nature and life inspired robots that follows principles of biomimetics, a scienze that study the behavior of living organisms in order to apply its mechanisms to different fields. In accord to bioremediation, fungi and bacteria are employed to fight pollution and purify soils and water from harmful substances. Altering environmental conditions to stimulate growth of microorganisms that are already present in the polluted enviroment, capable of degrading pollutants. [marcoburatti.com] [parallelozero.com]

Luca Locatelli’s “The End of Trash” was awarded by World Press Photo 2020 in the Environment section. The author focuses on various aspects of circular economy, documenting several virtuous examples. One of the main goal of circular economy is to value something that was considered as a waste, in order to eliminate pollution and trashes to fight climate crisis. One good example is Amager Bakke, a modern waste incinerator in Copenaghen that replaced the old carbon one. The plant is able to produce electricity for 60.000 houses and heat for 72.000. Another example is the greenhouse powered by geothermal energy built in lava fields in Grindavik, Island. Here barley is genetically modified to obtain epidermal growth factor, a protein used in luxury cosmetics. [worldpressphoto.org]

Nicolò Panzieri with his monumental work “Feed us” takes us to discover sustainability and circular economy in food industry. For example a production site of micro algae that will be used as biomass for animal feeding. Or the 3Bee startup that developed a technological system to monitor beehive or SpyFly: an harmful trap for insects that include AI for real time feedback on smartphones. A lot of innovative methods for farming (mostly hydroponic), for example a new greenhouse that allows to produce high nutritional food in 10/15 days, or GO-CARD a company that reintroduce cardoon in some areas to revitalization of abandoned fields. [cargocollective.com]

At least photographer Robert Hackman tells us a special story in his “Bunker Albania”. After WWII Albany was ruled by an autocratic communist regime. Informations were constantly manipulates and the population believed to be to the edge of an imminent invasion. A large number of bunker were built all over Albany, in order to protect people in case of attack from outside. Their number is estimated around 500.000. This body of work investigates the re-use and recycling of the wealth that the bunkers retain. A lot of this bunker are still existing today and are used in very creative different ways, such as cafes, storerooms, pools, silos, tattoo studios.[robhackman.com]

All of photographers that we’ve seen so far are documentary photographers, a field of photography that deals with the description of reality in order to trigger in the viewer critical thought about reality surrounding us.

In the words of Edward Steichen in “US Camera 1939”:

“They [photographers] proceed to dissect and analyze the various phases and branches of photography, wrap up and tie them into neat little packages that they file away into convenient pigeonholes, and the one marked “documentary” usually contains the conclusion that the beginning of photography and the end of photography is documentation, and that’s that.”

But what happen when photography turn their eyes on itself? What happen when the artist use the same principles of circular economy in his working method? What happen when the subject itself became part of the project design?

The artist Marilyn Waligore reflect on waste reuse for artistic purpose, in particular on aluminium. In his work “Aluminium RW#2” she use aluminium packaging as a symbol of natural resources, and imagine an utopian reuse of this material.

The author says:

"I strive to transform the discarded by inverting our value system, inspired by Thomas More’s 16th century story of Utopia. I turn trash into treasure with the hope to prompt changes in social behavior.” [marilynwaligore.com]

Photographers Skye Snides realizes a body of photographies that reflect on food waste in America. A series of still life were realized using leftover materials found in bins. We can see a series of intriguing still life where materials are compressed together to recreate their original forms.[skyesnyder.com]

Artist Denis Roussel in his “From composting to recycling” made a series of anthotypes. This is an antique photographic technique that allows to create images using plants juice as photosensitive material. Placing some material on the paper and and exposing directly through sunlight and the part not covered by the material will bleach, the other will remains dark.

The artist use elements out of his compost to create photosensitive material to apply on paper and use object out of his bins to place on paper. The result is really fascinating and the images were created only with leftover materials. [lensculture.com]

In those lasts cases waste or recycled materials are active parts of the creation process of the piece of art. Can we consider this process a kind of circular economy? The answer may be no, because waste materials are not really transformed and can’t really be used again outside artistic purpose.

However those works can stimulate critical thinking in the viewer. Giving a visual form to consumerism and waste culture, those work made aware the viewer of the waste we produce every days, and made them reflect upon different way of reuse, beside of artistic’s ones.

Those work have a certain educational value that goes beyond the aesthetics.

I like to think that this process can match the main goal of circular economy, where waste are processed and transformed in new ideas an solutions, in the minds of those who enjoy them.

Bibliography
Lugon Olivier (2008). Lo stile documentario in fotografia. Electa
Maloney, T. J. (1938) U.S. Camera Annual 1939. New York: William Morrow and

Company. Sitography

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economia_circolare http://www.eugenijusb.com https://cargocollective.com/nicolopanzeri
https://parallelozero.com/bio-minds/
https://www.robhackman.com/Bunker-Albania/Statement---English/1 https://www.marilynwaligore.com/utopia1/art1.html https://www.lensculture.com/denis-roussel?modal=project-54830