Modern Vanitas

I shot this series of images for a Nikon contest at B&H using the D3200.

And I made an artist's statement cus I'm a nerd...

Does "Modern Vanitas" sound too pretentious for a photo contest?

Photography itself, falls somewhere in between two binaries: Art and Science. In these images I tried to convey certain dichotomies with the over-arching theme of Science vs. Art or, one could say, Man vs Nature.

All of these images were shot in an East Coast Industrial city, most shot in Baltimore Maryland. I made use of the urban setting by juxtaposing it against the organic elements found there in line, shape, color and texture. Some images are almost one hundred percent "Nature" others are entirely "Mechanical" but, interestingly enough one can see how there is also a symbiotic relationship between those two elements. In some images, artificial items reference nature in their design or decoration, in other images there is hint of Man's Hand in an otherwise agrestal setting. Erosion, a natural process eats away at metal and discolors it, there are wild natural things taking over and wearing away at man made structures... It really is a modern Vanitas when you think about it.

Prospect Park, Brooklyn

I'm affectionately known as "Pinhole"

Apparently I'm affectionately known as "Pinhole" behind the Pro Photo counter at B&H (where I now work in the photo bags area) It was pretty funny, a customer asked me if I knew if we had Pinhole apertures for sale. I didn't know, being new I really have no idea all of the products we have. I figured I'd ask one of the seasoned veterans behind the Pro Photo counter. There is a little area with all the plastic Holgas, Lubitels and Polaroids so I figured I'd ask over there. They didn't know, so I was sent a bit further down the counter where I was asked by the Pro Photo Guy: "Is it an SLR?" Me: "Uhhh... no." Pro Photo Guy: "A point n' shoot?" Me: "No, it's just a box with a hole" Pro Photo Guy: "Oh! I know what you're talking about! We have those!" Alas, we do not sell the apertures separately. My brother came in and purchased a memory card from the same fellow behind the counter and apparently I am now affectionately known as "Pinhole."

Anywho, this started me thinking about my pinholes again. I mentioned to a co-worked that I did a Sleep/Pinhole project and she immediately said "I totally wanna try that now!" So I think this is an apropos time to post some past pinhole work.

Before I do that I should probably explain exactly what a Pinhole is for those non-photogs. A pinhole basically starts with a box or container of some kind with a lid. Many have started with an empty Quaker Oats tube-like container. I prefer mine to be more box-like but it's all personal preference.

So, got the box- right? Now you paint it all black in the inside, tape up the corners and seams with black masking tape to eliminate light leaks. Now on the lid or on the side (in the middle) you're going to cut a little opening, not too big, like half an inch to an inch diameter and put some tin foil or other maleable metal over the opening. You will tape that too so it stays. and now you prick a small hole with a needle or thumb tack in that metal directly in the center of your foil. make sure the hole isn't big, and it must be a clean puncture. put some tape over your new hole, that's the shutter. You've made a camera! Tada!

Photo credit to A. Hanft

In the darkroom, load it up with photo paper on the back wall of your box (double stick tape the back so it's stationary) and close up. Take it out on a sunny day and peel the tape off your aperture. Be sure to keep the camera perfectly still, rest it on a ledge or solid structure and expose for a minute or so (the bigger your camera the longer the exposure, a matchbox pinhole will take a lot less than a pinhole the size of a moving box) also if you're paper is realllly far away from the aperture it's going to take a longer time to expose properly. Once you expose your paper (only one shot!) take it to your darkroom and develop normally (Devo-Stop-Fix-Water Wash) there you go it should have worked. If you've got a totally black image there was too much light, it could be over exposed or you could have a light leak. It you have a white paper it was under exposed, not enough time with the aperture open. You should have some sort of image though, the perspective will be weird (because the aperture's so small) and it will be a negative. For a positive image contact print it in the darkroom, or scan it in and invert in Photoshop.

How it works:

Thanks Wikipedia!

The light is projected on the back of your box where the photo sensitive paper catches it.

OK lesson over! Now to the pics!

The negative came out of the camera, then I developed it in the darkroom and then scanned it into Photoshop.

The image would also be reversed in addition to the Blacks and Whites being inverted, e.g. the head of the bed on the left, but I fixed it in Photoshop. I also adjusted the levels and spotted the dust out in PS. This is "Pinhole #5" in the Pinhole/Sleep Series

Barcelona Photos & Exciting New Prospects

Now announcing the launch of David and I's new "company" I use the term loosely since it's just the two of us and we started it last night around midnight. It's called Bklyn Tech Guy. We'll do computer reapirs, virus removal, tech support and tutoring, as well as computer, network and program set up. I'll do the art aspects, digital photo editing, photoshop, film scanning and graphic design.

Also, we're back from Barcelona, and I've gone through the massive amount of photos I shot.

This is us at Casa Mila

More to come... I can only do 5 per post so I've got a bunch more to upload

Lumenhouse/Studio job

For those of you whose ears I have't talked off about this, I've been working at an art studio a couple of days a week. The artist I work for is Aurora Robson (her website is in the "people I like" list) and she mainly does large scale sculptures and installations made entirely of re-used plactic bottles, it's our job as her crewbies to help clean, cut rivet, melt or paint the various parts of these bottles together. We try to use every single part of these bottles- the screw top, the cap, the tube, the base and even scraps of plastic get used in a variety of ways to make many differnt forms. The plastic becomes entirely transformed and "trash" is the last thing you think of when you look at the final product.

So today at the studio we helped Aurora get the sculptures ready to be packed to be taken to the gallery at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. For the past couple of weeks we've been preparing her show entitled "Landmines," I brought my camera so I could document part of the packing process. It was a really exciting and hectic day but it was a lot of fun. We wrapped and packed everything in a UHaul truck and it just barely fit. I can't wait to see pictures of how it looks set up in the gallery with the right lighting and the sculptures installed and lit up.

so here are some images

The Orb named "Fat Skeeter" who is maybe about 6 feet wide

One of the two "Landmines" which are floor peices

"Scrapple Strands" which will be layed on top of the landmines and the orb as a decorative and textural element.

The infamous "Cap Blanket" which is made entirely of white, black, gray, silver, clear and red bottle caps, strung together both horizontally and vertically. Its supposed to look like a vortex-y outer space nebula thing, it looks really cool in person.

The "Cap Blanket" close up

Oh, and P.S.

Aurora has a 6 page article in October's issue of "Art in America" so check it out! she talks about her work and her process as well as this new show that'll be in RI. I keep checking Barnes & Noble but it's not in yet, it'll most likely be out tomorrow or monday. So, yeah cool beans!