Bègã
Bègã, an Ogoni word for "spoiled" or "ruined, is an environmental portrait project focusing on people living alongside the world's most polluted bodies of water. My end goal is a book, but along the way there will be mini projects, or chapters, the biggest of which is the Niger Delta. I will shoot in a 6×9 or wider format and develop the film using ingredients I find along the way (such as polluted river water, coffee grounds etc…)
Test 2: North Wales Slate Quarries
In July 2026 I travelled to northern Snowdonia to photograph the abandoned slate quarries from last century. Because the huge gashes carved out of the mountains reflect light from a thousand different angles I thought it would be quite challenging to expose correctly. I used Ansel Adams’ zone theory (as best as I could) and it worked well to reduce the extreme highlights and darks in the images.
My current caffenol recipe is:
500ml water (from the quarry), 23g Nescafe instant coffee, 10g Vitamin C, 32g Washing Soda. 400 iso at 20 degrees for 15 min.
Opposite is a little behind the scenes I made.
Test 1: Colour film in coffee
If I am going to travel up the Niger Delta and develop my photographs on location with found ingredients, I better actually know how to do it… To start I took a roll of Kodak Portra and developed it using a caffenol recipe from Mat Marrash. I was interested in what a black and white caffenol developer would do to a colour film, and the result is very exciting. There seems to be some loss of detail and tonal range, but the images stand up surprisingly well. I love the green/yellow/blue wash it creates.
PS: This is my beautiful Belgian Malinios, Islay, a constant source of inspiration.