My photographs are a response to the lights and night time energy of the city.
Using the photographic process as a tool, I'm trying to create abstract, painterly
patterns of form & color which I hope will take the viewer to some undiscovered
places within themselves. I think of it as painting with light.
The work is also
inspired by music, specifically by a series of multi-tracked solo synthesizer
discs made by my friend Dave Storrs. I've tried to emulate the
sense of the music with visual forms & colors instead of notes & sounds ... but
with the same multi-layered rhythmic improvisational feel.
The element of chance
- random encounters, unplanned combinations, serpendipidous "mistakes" -
also
plays a part in this new work. I wander the streets finding
various interesting lights which I then shoot in or out of focus, or with the
camera moving (or both...). I also have a "vocabulary" of lights & movements
set up in my back yard which I shoot, and I usually try to add into the mix some
abstract-seeming object shot in a straightforward way. Everything is photographed
against a black background (usually the night sky...) so that the individual
"frame" of each shot blends with all the others. I run a short 12-exposure
roll of film through the camera 15-30 times to create a multi-layered whole,
each
"layer" being a set of similar images repeated in a certain rhythm.
Because the rewinding process is not precise, and I can't literally see the layers
which
have already been exposed on the film, I'm not in complete control of how the
layers of images will combine together - but I am open to the possibility of
the delight of a final image which is better than one I could have consciously
made. Naturally things don't always work with this method, but when they do
it's tremendously satisfying.
Getting the film back from the processors is always
potentially a thrill. Once I see what is there on film I can start the very conscious
part of the process
- selecting what part of the roll works as a printable image. Because there are
no "frames" I may select as long a strip of the film as I like - it's exciting
to push beyond the traditional boundaries of the 35mm format.
Working with good
old fashioned film is a key part of this process - not quite being in total control
of what I'm doing allows me a freedom & a spontaneity which I think would be
difficult for me to achieve shooting digitally.