Bio
Anna Lukala is a Finnish process and reserach-based visual artist with a primary focus on exploring more sustainable photographic processes. She can often be found foraging for natural colours and materials from her immediate surroundings, as well as from her dedicated pigment and darkroom garden. Her work draws inspiration from the intricate interconnectedness of natural ecosystems and the rich heritage of indigenous historic folk traditions. Anna's creations are known for their tactile qualities, prompting viewers to perceive the land around us in new and thought-provoking ways. Her exploration of materiality and dedication to ecological solutions are central to her practice, often taking precedence over the final artistic outcomes. Anna works and lives in Wescliff-on-Sea, UK
Commercial website lukala.com
Available for workshops, demonstrations, talks, mentoring and collaborations.
Please get in touch about print sales [almost, all works are for sale], and residency ops.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Brighton Photo Fringe Collectives Hub - Common Ground, London Alternative Photo Collective
The Active Image: Political Ecologies & Photographic Agency, Create Centre, Bristol
‘Grounded’ Gallery M.I, Wirksworth
‘Symbiosis II’, London Alternative Photography, Four Corners Gallery, London
‘Qualia’, AMP Gallery, London
‘Symbiosis’ London Alternative Photography, Hundred Years Gallery, London
2023 Sustainable Darkroom, HIP Photography Festival, Hull
‘semblance’, The Old Waterworks, Westcliff on Sea
The Old Operating Theatre, London
2021 ‘Tip of the Iceberg’, Focal Point Gallery, Southend on Sea
2017 100% Southend, FPG/Twenty One, Southend on Sea
2013 Urban Photo Fest, Tate Britain, London
Projections On The Pier, City To Sea Project, Bognor Regis
2011 ‘Artside’ Southend on Sea
2009 ‘Come Together’ TAP, Southend on Sea
2003 Formula, London
1998 Lapinlahti Art Museum, Finland
1997 Young Designers, Business Design Centre, London
1997 ‘Reproduction’, University of Wolverhampton
1996 Group Exhibition, Link Gallery, Urbana IL, US
PUBLICATIONS, COMMISSIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS
2024 Back to Basics, A guide to Ecological Photo Chemistry,
by The Sustainable Darkroom and Curiosolab
2023 Culturally Curious Zine
2023 Land Whispers Back, Land Art Study Group online publication
CollectArt Drawings Special Issue
2022 Printed Matter postcard collection, Focal Point Gallery, Southend
2021 Create your own natural ink, Activity Pack, Tip of the Iceberg FPG
WSG ‘United’ publication
of the land and us ‘Issue 01’ online magazine
CREATIVE FACILITATOR
Most recent workshops, projects, and courses that I have delivered:
2024
- Cyanotypes & Botanical Toning: Growing, Harvesting, Making
Sustainable Darkroom Workshop Week
- Pinhole and Solarograph workshop, The Other MA (TOMA)
- Plant Film Developers and Sustainable Thinking In The Darkroom, (TOMA)
- Cyanotype / Chemigram workshops, Camp Kindling and Camp Wildfire
- Making and Thinking with Fungi: Multi-Species Collaborations,
a three-part course developing approaches to working and thinking with mushrooms through paper- making.
In collaboration with Sustainable Darkroom
2023
- Focal Point Gallery, Phytogram workshop (Green Creative Open Day)
- TOMA (The Other MA) Cyanotype workshop
- A series of five cyanotype workshops for a Southend neurodivergent charity STRM supported by Southend BID.
- Show&Tell / Sustainable Darkroom, An Ecology of Photography, Devario, Italy,
Teaching Anthotypes, Chemigrams, Pinhole photography, Sustainable thinking
- KEW Gardens, Community Open Week, Natural dyeing, eco printing workshops
- TOMA (The Other MA) introduction to natural plant dye workshop
2022
- Trust Links Charity. Overseeing the planning of planting a heritage dye garden,
teaching natural dyeing and pigment harvesting. This was a Heritage Lottery funded
project running over several months.
- METAL Culture, Southend 'Art makes Children Powerful’
A month long workshop with Year 2 at Edwards Hall School, Leigh on Sea, investigating how nature can be used in
art by making cyanotypes on paper and fabric as well as creating landotypes at school grounds, accumulating to
a showcase outdoor exhibition
- Acava, ‘Flourish’ London, Introduction to historic natural ink making with Oak Galls.
- Trust Links Charity, delivered a course of 6 workshops using camera-less, alternative and sustainable
photography techniques,including cyanotypes, anthotypes, and lumen printing.
This project was supported by ‘Let’s Create Jubilee Fund’ Arts Council England
2021
- Focal Point Gallery, Stanford Le Hope Primary School, Eco Printing workshops
- Trust Links, Natural Ink making workshop, Westcliff on Sea
- The Agency Of Visible Women,Taking Space, Sharing, Space, and Taking Care, Natural ink making workshop weekend
- Focal Point Gallery,Intro to Digital Photography workshop, summer school holiday activity program
-Bundle Dyeing Workshop, In conjunction with artist Mary Mattingly’s FPG exhibition ‘Vanishing Point’, Southend Pier
-Incredible Edible, Kitchen Waste Ink workshop, Leigh on Sea