Roboticist

“Yeah, they’re bright in a hollow sky”

Produced entirely from the (figurative) road without the aid of any of my usual photography stuff, but then I got lazy and didn’t post it for three weeks. A proof of concept, maybe.

Bleak House

It’s a cipher.

This is another from my first-ever Holga roll. In addition to setting the counter to 645 (vertical rectangles 6×4.5cm) instead of 6×6 and therefore overlapping exposures, this one was accidentally set to bulb, resulting in blurring and overexposure. I think the effect is interesting, though unintentional. Isn’t that the point?

Holga, XP2.

Saint Elizabeth

A photo posted on another photographer’s blog yesterday reminded me of one of my favorite photography truisms:

Just because you don’t know what it is at first glance doesn’t mean it’s bad.

In fact, I think too many of us forget the value in not knowing. What’s wrong with being uncertain? Unsettling or agitating your viewer can be a conscious artistic effect, and I think it is sorely underused

So what is it? You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

In “I’m getting another digital camera” news, my SLR body is set to be delivered tomorrow, and I ordered a lens and CompactFlash card this morning. As I am writing this I checked the UPS site again, and they won’t be delivered until Tuesday. The facility is 150 miles away and they are taking all of their 2-4 business days? I am not amused. It’s going to be a long weekend.

I am racking my brain for friends, acquaintances, or strangers with F-mount SLRs that I could borrow lenses (I guess I need a CF card too), but to no avail. I’ll be spending my weekend staring at the picture on the shiny box.

Pentax digital SLR, which is long gone. To the people I sold it to, I hope it’s serving you as well as it served me.

Ian Curtis

This is another cross processed shot. The thick film base that my methods don’t clear necessitates drastic steps to get the darks back, which results in the lovely artifacts on this image.

There’s just something about this one that I like.

Pentax K1000, Fuji Superia X-tra 400 cross processed in F76+.

To Do

Photography is decontextualization.

A photograph is a still image torn from its larger context. This moment occurred over the summer, and though what I was doing at the time is completely different from what I’m doing now, I can still associate with the image and the moment.

Make sense?

Pentax digital body with vintage SMC M lens.

She Thinks

Photography is abstraction.

There are many ways to define abstract. Every object that we construct meaning around it itself made up of smaller elements, and to abstract is to break things with constructed meaning back down to their unnegotiated parts. Sometimes it’s borderline.

No matter how large the subject of a photograph, it is still an abstraction in that it removes its subject from some semblance of context. Even an aerial photo of Boston would abstract it from it’s important surrounding, which are vital to what Boston is. At the very least, visuals are abstracted from the full sensory spectrum.

Is it obvious what this one is?

Pentax digital SLR body K-mount manual lens that’s older than I am. Mixing old and new is beautiful.