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Wrapped in reused Amazon packaging rests a box of glass plate negatives, each one depicting portraits captured in Cornwall in the 1950's .

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Unwrapping the packaging reveals a tattered and torn Kodak box with the single word "PORTRATES" scribbled upside-down in faded black biro. The disintegrated box lid barely covers the contents held within, a collection of displaced glass plate negatives. 

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Slowly removing each one from the box I explore the roughly cut glass. Holding them in my hands I can feel them cutting into my skin then wince as I hear the sound of loose grit and small pieces of chipped glass scraping across the surfaces as I place them back upon each other.

 

These objects, now displaced, represent a period of photographic history, a time when photographs existed purely in a physical form. Through my camera viewfinder I gaze at the materiality that these objects possess; their rough edges, fingerprints and scratches.