CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTS

Les Choses du Quotidien
See the extraordinary in the ordinary

“Les Choses du Quotidien” is a collection of images recording everyday objects or moments in the form of still images captured on film or video. If we look closely, we can often see the remarkable in what appears to be an everyday object. It could be a moment seen from the window of a train as it speeds along the rails, or a simple object found in a flea market. It’s all about “seeing,” which is deeper than just “looking.” It’s about taking the time to truly “see” the magic that is in the things and moments around us, all the time.
Some images are single stills edited from video or a vintage Super-8 camera.
Upon editing, often there will be a moment in the video or film that seems extraordinary, but has escaped the eyes as a fleeting moment. Many photos are objects that I discover in junk shops or flea markets, which seem to me, to have a spirit or an “inner life” of their own.

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PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHS

Pinhole, or "stenopeic" photographs, are photographs created without a lens. A thin sheet of metal, perforated with a pin to create the aperture replaces the lens and allows the light and image to enter the camera and create the image, often creating very dreamy, soft focus or painterly images. The following is a sampling of the many different experimental images I have created using a variety of pinhole cameras I have constructed.

Pinhole Photographs
Using
Tin Containers

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Polaroid Pinholes

I have been experimenting for some time, shooting pinhole photographs using converted 1960's pack film Polaroid cameras.

Some I have removed the lens from, and replaced it with a thin sheet of aluminum pie plate with a tiny

hole created by piercing the metal with a pin. I rig the Polaroid camera shutter lever to open and close manually,

as I count the seconds for exposure. Polaroid development times vary greatly depending on the film type.

HYBRID cameras, I construct by using an early 20th century "back loading" box camera, that I remove the back door from to attach to a 1960's Polaroid pack film camera that I remove the bellows from. The box camera is then attached to the Polaroid "bellows-less" camera. The bulb setting lever of the box camera is perfect for the longer exposures required. The simple glass box camera lens, when left intact under the strip of aluminum with the pinhole, creates Polaroid images that are soft and often very dreamy. The images can be equally dreamy, or at times sharp, when the lens is removed and replaced by the pinhole metal strip as the aperture.

Hybrid Cameras

Early 20th c. back-loading box camera attached to 1960's Polaroid cameras,a pinhole adapted Polaroid 210 camera with its lens replaced by a pinhole strip and an early 20th c. box camera with Polaroid back attached.

Hybrid Cameras

These cameras create very soft images on Polaroid pack film due to the pinhole pierced aluminum pie plate strip replacing the simple glass box cam lens. The box camera "bulb" setting lever is perfect for the often long exposures

Pinhole Video

Still Frames

I began experimenting with the idea of converting or adapting video camera to shoot in pinhole. Most of the images here were captured using (now out of production) one-time-use pocket video recorders and the same pocket recorder that had a flip out USB for downloading the videos. As the lens was attached to the chip in the camera, making it almost impossible to remove, I attached a thin strip of aluminum pie plate over the lens with a tiny pin pierced hole in it as the new aperture. The chip in the camera was not created for this strange light source, and it recorded the images in a very soft and painterly fashion. I LOVE the results!

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Boxcamera Pinhole Photos

Here are images captured using vintage box cameras that have been converted or adapted to pinhole. Through the years I have shot many pinhole photos with my assortment of box cameras, using either medium format 120 film (which is still available) or Ilford RC matte paper to capture images as paper negatives to contact print in the darkroom. The bulb setting lever on the box camera is ideal for the longer exposures needed for pinhole capture. I often remove the simple glass lens and replace it with a thin strip of aluminum pie plate pierced with a glass head pin to create the aperture where light enters and exposes the photo sensitive surface inside, creating the negative to print from.

( The photo to the right is of me with one of my box cameras in my Pézenas, France atelier ).

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Still Frames From Video & Super 8 Film

Over the years I have shot many videos and super 8 films and screened many experimental films at festivals. I am especially fascinated by shooting film and video from a moving train as well as in the streets. Film is shot at 18 fps usually and video at around 30 frames per second.

In this time continuum that is captured, there are many instants that pass unnoticed by our eyes. I love to review the images frame by frame to discover what surprises lie within, then extract and print them out as still photos. Here are a few of my favorite still frames.

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Mixed Media Work

My mixed media works are a combination of collaged vintage photographs, walnut ink drawing and gouache combined with string, fabric, sticks or straw and paper ephemera. They are mounted on vintage book cover boards from old books found at local flea markets and in junk shops.
For the ink drawings in these current mixed media works, I carve my own wooden pens from dry tree branches found on hikes.
I also prepared my own walnut ink, that I draw with, from green walnut husks found discarded at a walnut farm on the route to Chambery,FR.