Bury After Reading: The Afterlife of Images
Collected Writings on Photography in the Ecological Crisis
Alternative photography has the potential to radically reshape the photographic landscape into the future. It is within the alternative that transformative ideas emerge like weeds from the cracked pavement. It is in this space, apart from the mainstream, and its relentless focus on capital accumulation - that we can imagine new worlds, and photography apart from devastating consumption. A photography that is a true alternative, not simply another niche in our failing system.
For six years, The Sustainable Darkroom has fostered an international community dedicated to rethinking photography in an age of climate and ecological crisis. While many seek quick technical fixes for sustainability, our approach has aimed to look deeper—beyond material substitutions—towards more nuanced, critical, and imaginative understandings of what photography is and what it can become.
With the surge in popularity of alternative processes - this book aims to break the loop of hyperfocusing on process. We want to go further than what is the best plant for anthotypes, or the appropriate pH for cyanotypes. Instead, we want to hear radical visions of the past, present, and future.
For this open call, we invite written contributions for our most ambitious publication to date: a collection of essays and creative texts exploring the afterlives and futures of photography. We are looking for voices that go beyond the technical into the environmental, social, and political dimensions of photographic practice. Submissions on moving image are also welcome.
Questions we are asking
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What happens to images once they have been created?
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How do photographs live on—in social, material, and ecological contexts?
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What is the legacy left? - This could be the legacy of the photographer / artist or the legacy of the image
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How are images consumed, and how do they shape our ways of seeing and knowing?
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How might we move beyond conventional photographic frameworks to embrace new, critical, and speculative perspectives?
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What comes next for photography?
We welcome practitioners, writers, researchers, and artists to submit proposals that challenge existing structures of image-making and imagine futures where sustainability and ecological regeneration are central. Final texts should aim to be between 1,000-6,000 words.
Your essay could take many forms, for example:
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A historical reflection on photography’s extractive materials (silver, paper, plastics) and their environmental legacies.
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A speculative text imagining new, radical systems for photographic production in the wake of climate breakdown.
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A critical response to consumerist “green” solutions in photography, and what more radical sustainability might look like.
- A creative text imagining an alternative future where photography is no longer within a consumerist framework.
Please be aware, we are NOT looking for recipes or material experiments divorced from wider socio/ecological/political investigation and critique. This publication is distinct from our existing books in that it is not instructional but is about speculation, ideas, and reflection. Any submissions focused solely on recipes or material experiments will be rejected immediately.
What we offer
Selected contributors will receive:
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Editorial and critical support in developing their text.
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The opportunity to be part of an international dialogue shaping sustainable photographic culture.
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A copy of the finished book.
- A writer's fee of £150.
How to apply
Please send to sustainabledarkroom@gmail.com, with the heading ‘Book Submission’:
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A short proposal (200 - 500 words) outlining your idea for an essay or creative text, or if you have it, a sample of an existing text.
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A short bio (max 200 words).
- Link to website or equivalent.
Deadline for submissions 3rd November.
Generously supported by the Siobhán Coward Foundation.