Ecological 35mm Film Shooting and Seaweed Developing Workshop with Maria McSweeney

Ecological 35mm Film Shooting and Seaweed Developing Workshop with Maria McSweeney

What to expect

About The Workshop: 
In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to shoot black-and-white 35mm film using a range of 35mm cameras Maria has. Maria will guide participants through the process of creating a eco-friendly, DIY film developer made from foraged seaweed and other non-toxic, everyday materials.

Together, we will also make a low-toxicity eco-fixer as a sustainable alternative to conventional darkroom chemicals. Using these ecological processes, participants will develop and fix their own 35mm film during the workshop. Afterward, Maria will scan the negatives and provide digital copies of the images, allowing everyone access to the collective results of the day’s work.

Maria will provide all materials including the 35mm film for the workshop. Participants will need a 35mm film camera, either manual or point-and-shoot. Maria has a limited number of spare cameras available for those who need one. 

To borrow a camera, please email: [email protected]

Information About the Day of the Workshop:

  • The group will meet Maria at 11.30am at the south end of Bray Beach, opposite the Old Bray Head Hotel (now Fontenoy Place) on Strand Road.
  • Please note, workshop participants do not need to check in at Mermaid Arts Centre before meeting at 11.30am but there is free underground parking available at Mermaid for the duration of the workshop.
  • The workshop begins at 11.30am and is scheduled to end at 3.30pm. We have left plenty of time for conversation, exploration, and to walk between the seafront and the Mermaid Arts Centre (approximately 2km from the seafront). Please wear comfortable clothing and footwear and prepare for the possibility of rain.

About Maria McSweeney

Maria McSweeney is an Irish lens-based visual artist. Her practice focuses on exploring place through the intricate process of deep mapping and documenting diverse landscapes. She is currently captivated by underwater aquatic spaces and overwater landscapes that hold unique ecologies and ecosystems. Her work traverses these underrepresented spaces, examining the dynamic rhythms and interactions within them.

Using snorkeling and scuba diving as methods of exploration, she approaches these areas through an ecological, care-based, and hydrofeminist lens. Working primarily with analogue processes, she experiments with sustainable and ecological alternatives to mainstream darkroom practices. By developing images outdoors through an en plein air darkroom model she challenges the extractive and chemically intensive nature of traditional labs, which are often detached from the environments they depict.

Both analogue photography and scuba diving are rooted in scientific traditions, demanding precision, maintenance, and specialised equipment. Her practice draws from those foundations while reimagining them through an immersive, artistic, and ecologically engaged lens. Her practice asks how site-specific, analogue, scientific, and ecological lens-based methods can become acts of care within the Anthropocene.

She holds a BA in Sculpture and Combined Media from LSAD (2020) and a Level 9 Diploma in Art and Ecology (2025) and a Level 9 Certificate in Sustainable Exhibition Making both from NCAD (2023). She is also a PADI Scuba Divemaster.

Recent achievements include: Sustainable Body: Symposium on Artistic Research in Analog Practices, Helsinki Analog Festival (2026); The Loughshinny Boathouse Studio Award supported by Fingal County Council (2025–2026); UCC Creative Workshops with Climate Scientists (2025); IMMA Perspectives: Residency for Neurodiverse Artists (2025); IMMA Earth Rising (2024); Leitrim Sculpture Centre Exhibition Residency (2023); Arts Council of Ireland's Agility Award (2021–2024); Create’s Artist in the Community Mentoring Award (2023); The Darkroom Dublin Super 8 Residency (2023); The Aran Island Underwater Photography Project (2023).

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