“Transmutations: Visualizing Matter | Materializing Vision” is an ongoing multi-media project exploring the history, legacy and radioactivity of uranium mining during the Cold War in Canada and the US. Since 2018, I have traveled from the sub-Arctic regions of Canada to the uranium mines of southern Utah and the Navajo Nation to document the lives impacted by uranium; ex-miners that toiled decades underground, Indigenous leaders and activists leading the charge to clean up the mines and the places that shifted the balance of power on a global scale. 

Radiation cannot be perceived by our own senses. Photography is the only medium that makes it visible. Upon placing radioactive uranium ore directly on film, the ionizing radiation exposes it as if it were visible light. The resulting images, autoradiograms, reveal the radiation as an aura through and around the mineral matrix. Using historically significant samples of uranium ore extracted from famous mines of the mid-20th century, “Transmutations” features a series of autoradiograms printed using uranotype: an historical photographic process made with hand- coated, photosensitive uranium salts. The resulting prints, comprised of the uranium metal itself, create a permanent, radioactive image; a vibrant index of the specimen photographed that no current digital technology can replicate.

In discussion with friends and colleagues, I realized that the autoradiograms were better understood within the context from which they were derived. Many people were unaware that uranium is a mined mineral, and as such, an entire history of resource extraction, environmental and social impact was lost in the discussion. I resolved to visit and photograph each region and mine where my samples were taken to create context for the work and broaden people’s understanding of uranium and our connection to materials.

Through this journey, my own views and understanding were challenged. It’s difficult to convey the sense of power and dread these places have. Survivors of the ‘Uranium Boom’ era described it as a dichotomy; a time of excitement and danger, happiness and tragedy. Millions of dollars earned in a fraction of a second and fortunes lost at equal speed. The resulting body of work, “Transmutations”, documents this duality. The two opposing sides of uranium are represented in distinct, hand-made alternative photographic processes: portraits of the communities and landscapes from which the uranium was extracted in palladiotype, created with the noble metal, palladium, reflecting the indelible impact of resource extraction. The second of the ore itself and its invisible radioactivity exposed, in uranotype, with its transmutation through a progression of elements over 4.5 billion years into stable lead.

The photographs provide audiences an image of material vibrancy, their stories providing a better understanding of our connection to the power of uranium, its history and impact on this planet and its inhabitants, raising the issues of environmental degradation and renewed extraction of nuclear materials.

See the exhibition website at www.transmutationsproject.com