Deptford Church Street, London
Deptford Church Street: Hidden in the Tide, Madeleine Waller
Year
2018-2024
Client
fereday pollard for Tideway
Artist
Madeleine Waller
Service
Commission Management
Location
Deptford Church Street, London
A photographic project for the hoarding at Deptford Church Street
Inspired by contemporary photographic techniques and working on the theme of identity, Madeleine Waller’s Hidden in the Tide was made by merging photographic self-portraits of eighteen pupils at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School with cyanotypes made from objects found in Deptford Creek and developed in the Creek water. A cyanotype is a type of photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. It was developed in 1842 as a means of reproducing drawings commonly referred to as blueprints.
The pupils, aged between 7 and 10 years old, made self-portraits of each other using a medium format camera and film, carefully choosing their clothing, background and props. Each image has a story behind it revealed in the writing about themselves and their identity using the river as a metaphor.
“This is a positive celebration of individuality.”
The images of found objects carried by the river tide are laid over the pupil’s portraits to give an ethereal quality to the images. They include bricks, bottles, crabs, and fragments of mysterious objects offered up from the creek bed. Together with the text, the images blend to form a tangible and physical bond between the pupils and elements of their environment.
As well as providing the pupils with a hands on opportunity to work with two remarkably different types of photographic processes – medium format and cyanotype – Madeleine encouraged the group to think critically about their artwork and participate in an in-depth analysis of their creations.
The artwork was in place on sections of the site hoarding until August 2024.
“Working with the children from St Josephs Primary School was a fantastic experience. I really loved the individual ways in which they were able to express how they saw themselves within their immediate environment. Despite living close by many of the children had never visited the creek before. It was wonderful to watch them explore the creek bed at low tide and collect objects they found discarded there. It was a real pleasure to support the children to make extraordinary pieces of work using simple photographic processes.”
Madeleine Waller is an Australian artist living in London who develops series of photographic portraits based on identity. She describes her approach to making work as ‘drawing out the human, quirky and noteworthy in everyday communities.’
Madeleine has had two books published ‘East London Swimmers’ portraits of swimmers who brave London Fields Lido in the winter and ‘Portraits’ as part of year-long Artist in Residence at the Swedenborg Society.
She has exhibited widely including exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A Museum of Childhood.
For more information see:
www.tideway.london