Honourable Mention 13th Julia Margaret Cameron Award
Scry is inspired by the ancient Greek and Roman practice of oomancy used to discover hidden knowledge or future events. The technique is a form of scrying, which involves pouring an egg white into a glass of water, then observing the results illuminated by candlelight. In a mild self-induced trance gazing beyond the translucent surface, recognisable shapes and forms can appear to which the scryer can ascribe meaning to the past, present or future. The photographic process seizes and preserves these transient visions projecting them into the future. As Roland Barthes asserts in Camera Lucida, ‘photography is prophecy in reverse: like Cassandra, but with eyes fixed on the past.’
