Fernworks · plate archive
Eleven years of the yard, printed.
Large-format plates from working ports, editioned and unretouched.
Fernworks · sheet 14
One day, twelve frames, three keepers.
Printed as shot and in order, selects ringed. The ones that did not make it are the reason the three that did are worth anything.
NORTH BASIN · 04 MAR · HP5 400
01Gate, 06:12 02Crane 2, holding 03Crew B, second slot 04Berth 4, empty 05Tide board 06Handover, 14:00 07Cold store doors 08Rain on the sheet 09Night gang arriving 10Last lift 11Yard, 23:40 12Board for tomorrow
Fernworks · on the work
Eleven years photographing places that do not pose.
Why the archive is printed as shot, and what gets left in.
Working ports do not hold still and do not care that you are there. Every plate in this archive was made in whatever light and weather the morning supplied, and printed without retouching.
The contact sheets stay published alongside the selects. A frame that did not make it still tells you what the morning looked like, and often more honestly than the one that did.
Prints are editioned, numbered, and dated to the morning they were taken rather than the day they were printed. The date is part of the record, not part of the marketing.
Fernworks — studio
Fernworks · back issues
Turn the shelf.
№ 45 · Rotation night
Fernworks · then and now
What they said at the commission, and what they say now.
Both quotes are theirs, published unedited, including the ones that were not compliments at the time.
R. OkaforCurator, harbour museum
At the start · At commission
“I asked for twelve clean frames and was told I would get the whole roll. I did not think that was what I wanted.”
Since · Two years on
“The sheets are what people stand in front of. The selects sell; the rejects are what they talk about afterwards.”
S. OkonkwoEditor, quarterly
At the start · First edit
“Half of these are technically wrong. Flare, motion, a crane through the frame.”
Since · Eighteen months on
“The technically wrong ones ran. They were the only pictures that looked like a working morning.”
Fernworks · open hours
Three standing half hours a week.
No booking, no agenda, no sales call. Turn up to whichever one matches your question — or to none of them and write instead.