Melanie King is an artist and curator with a specific focus on astronomy. Melanie King's studio is based in Ramsgate, Kent, UK. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. She is a lecturer on the MA programme at the Royal College of Art, and on the BA Photography course at University of West London. She is represented by the Land Art Agency. Melanie is a PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art. She is a graduate of the MA in Art and Science at Central Saint Martins, and the BA Fine Art at Leeds Art University. 

 

Melanie King is a visual artist and practice-based researcher at the Royal College of Art. She is interested in the relationship between starlight, photography and materiality.  Her PhD practice-based research "Ancient Light" considers how light travels thousands, if not millions of years, before reaching photosensitive film or a digital sensor.  Her main body of photographs “Ancient Light” comprises of a series of analogue photographic negatives and prints of star-scapes, as well as a series of images created using telescopes and observatories around the world. Alongside this body of work, Melanie has produced 16mm films of the Moon and photographic etchings created using meteorite-imbued ink, milled at the Royal School of Mines. Melanie has produced daguerreotypes and world-record sized cyanotypes exploring the relationship with the Sun and photosensitive material. The purpose of her research is to demonstrate the intimate connection between celestial objects (sun, moon, stars), photographic material and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice.

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Processes:
 

Cyanotype
Daguerreotype
Solargraph
Film Photography 
Chemigram

Anthotype
Plant Based Developers
Solarisation
Infrared
B+W Film

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