Work · Sterne Point

The Old Jetty

2020–2023 · 34 sheets exposed · 2 prints kept

The jetty took coal off the point until 1961 and has been dismantling itself since. Thirty-one posts are recorded on the 1948 survey; nine were standing when I began; six were standing this spring.

I photograph it at slack water because the reflection doubles the count and makes the loss legible. When there are none left the series is over, which is not a metaphor.

The rotted remains of a wooden jetty, a ragged rank of black pilings standing in still shallow water with their reflections. — Nine posts, slack water Sterne Point April 2023 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 2½ toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 2.91

An upright close frame of a rotted piling head, splintered timber and a rusted iron band above still water. — Head of the third post Sterne Point April 2023 neg. 4×5 fibre base, grade 3 toner selenium 1:20, 6 min mean chroma 3.48

The prints in this series

Both were toned in the same bath at 1:20 for six minutes and measure a mean chroma of 2.91 and 3.48. The difference between those two figures is the difference between the two photographs, not between two treatments: a print with more shadow in it takes more selenium, because there is more silver in it to convert.

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