DRAGONS & SNAKESTONES
Hello. I'm Jamie Dormer-Durling, a photographer and lecturer based in Weston-super-Mare in the UK. In the spring of 2014, whilst walking on the beach at Lyme Regis, I struck up a conversation with a group of people who appeared to be looking for something amongst the debris of a recent rockfall. They told me they were on a fossil walk, searching for ammonites, belemnites and pieces of the creatures of the distant past, following in the footsteps of a local heroine.
It was at this moment that my obsession with Mary Anning began.
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Fossil Hunters, Lyme Regis, 2014
Later that day I found myself in Lyme Regis Museum, learning about her life, her discoveries and her exploitation at the hands of the scientific establishment of the early 19th Century.
I was immediately engrossed in her story.
Trips to the Natural History Museum in London soon followed, and I was fortunate enough to gain access to some of her handwritten documents. Through her notes, drawings and doodles, a voice began to emerge from within this contested and fragmented narrative.
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Copy of Paper Transcription of the Geological Society of London 1823
Just as my research was intensifying, Mary Anning’s story was gathering momentum outside of the world of science. Institutions started to celebrate her as a collector, novelists fictionalised her romantic relationships, and small and large-screen biopics explored her personal life.
After contacting people with close connections to her story, and spending time photographing the Lyme Regis landscape, it occurred to me that the real story might lie with the fossils, now sitting in museums across the country.
As well as her hometown, I visited Oxford, Cambridge, London and spent time studying these artefacts, sitting in the space with them, trying to find a way to photograph them that might do justice to this part of her untold legacy,
Four years later, I was scanning and retouching the photographs in the lab. It was this process that revealed the heart of the story, scrutinising the intricate detail of these ancient objects - rendered perfectly by large format negatives - just as Mary Anning had all those years ago.
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Detail of SM J.35189, Icthyosaurus platydon, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Cambridge, Photographed 2017
In this moment, I felt close to her. Like we'd had an encounter in a visual space that we had both briefly occupied, brought together by a forensic fascination with these artefacts of deep time. Set against the 195 million years between us and the creatures entombed in stone, the two centuries that separated Mary and I seemed insignificant. It was this moment of revelation that led to the final stretch of the project. I returned to all of the museum sites to re-photograph these objects, moving ever-closer to their surfaces, looking for traces she left behind, for areas that would have captured and held her gaze.
Then, back to the sea and the rocks of Lyme Regis where the journey began.
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In this photobook “Dragons and Snakestones”, I have collected together some of the photographs I made of the fossils she found and the landscape she explored. These have been brought together with excerpts from letters to her friends and correspondence with the dealers and powerful men of the scientific establishment of the 19th century.
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Detail of Letter from Mary Anning to William Buckland, concerning the sale of an Ichthyosaur, 1829, Natural History Museum Archives, London
This 102 page publication aims to tell her story, celebrate her moments of discovery, and reveal her continued struggle for recognition.
By pre-ordering this book and supporting its publication, you too are becoming part of her journey, celebrating the achievements and contributions of this woman of scientific and political significance.
The money raised through this campaign will go towards the printing, production and distribution of the book as well as helping me to pay those that helped me with the design and layout of the texts and photographs that have been brought together in this book. A donation will be made to Lyme Regis Museum from any profit made.
Thank you.