The Ecological Wetroom

The Ecological Wetroom

Cameraless Photography, Residue, and Ecologies of Care

AINDREAS SCHOLZ

This open session will present The Ecological Wetroom, an ongoing creative research project that asks how cameraless photographic processes might become forms of future ecological care. The session will introduce the project as both a practical and speculative framework for rethinking photographic process through sustainability, residue, and environmental accountability.

At the centre of the project is a DIY circular wetroom model that explores whether photographic washwater and wastewater might be treated, filtered, and recirculated through low-tech and plant-based processes. Rather than proposing a perfected technical solution, the project uses creative research to make visible the hidden infrastructure and afterlife of image-making. Chemistry, water,

waste, plant life, filtration, and residue are understood not as peripheral matters, but as integral to the visual, ethical, and conceptual language of the work. The session will also reflect on the project’s material vocabulary, including cyanotype chemistry, harvested London rainwater, activated charcoal, gravel, living plant matter, and washwater itself, as substances that operate both materially and conceptually.

Through this framework, The Ecological Wetroom repositions photographic practice as a site where image-making, ecological thinking, and care are inseparable. Conceived as a methodological tool within my wider research, the session will share work in progress and invite discussion around how photographic histories, material process, and environmental responsibility might be brought into closer relation. It is intended as a space for testing ideas, refining questions, and opening the project to critical feedback.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

AINDREAS SCHOLZ

Aindreas Scholz is a German-Irish, London-based photographer and PhD candidate at SEPR, TU Dublin, researching cameraless, ecological photographic practices through the legacy of Anna Atkins. His work merges environmental humanities, archival theory, and care ethics, reactivating historical processes to address the climate crisis, ecological vulnerability, and situated, interdependent modes of knowledge-making.

Image credit: Hydroponic Plant Vessel (Pothos), Aindreas Scholz, 2026