Lucas Leffler Explores Photography's Material Origins and Digital Ruins in ATP Diary Interview

Photographer Lucas Leffler discusses his five-year investigation into photography's material and chemical foundations in an interview with Sara Benaglia for ATP Diary's New Photography series. His work challenges digital immateriality by using industrial waste like silver-contaminated mud from a polluted river to create prints, blending analog and digital processes. Leffler's projects, including Silver Creek, Mudprints, and Implosion, examine photography's toxic legacy and ecological footprint, while questioning linear narratives of technological progress. He prints images on iPhone screens and explores virtual worlds like Minecraft servers as contemporary ruins. The artist describes photography as ontologically toxic, born with industrial society, and critiques Big Tech's purity aesthetics. Future work will explore virtual technology and video games as emotional and political tools, moving beyond photography's history.