Sub Exposures Series of ferrotype prints 2025

Originally invented in 1853, ferrotypes are photographic images printed on metal plates, often used by travelling photographers for making inexpensive portraits. Sub Exposures is a set of handprinted ferrotypes of microscopic sea creatures found in deep Arctic waters off the Norwegian coast. Based on images taken during the artist’s time on the RV Kronpins Haakon in the Arctic Ocean, the prints feature newly discovered subspecies. These creatures inhabit lively ecologies in the deepest part of the ocean where no sunlight reaches. Only visible (at least to human eyes) in certain light, due to the underexposed images produced by the ferrotype process, Sub Exposures asks for close attention and other modes of attunement to creaturely life that is almost imperceptible yet integral to ocean systems and cycles.

 Kindly supported by Kildare County Council and Ocean Census.