Experimental theme portfolio review

[han...@cbnewsd.att.com]

Experimental Theme Portfolio Review

This is the most interesting portfolio I've seen. Great
photographs and lots of good ideas to play around with. Thanks,
all of you, for sharing these.

Andrew Davidhazy "Shadows Pointing in Two Directions?" - Three
people walking down a sidewalk, the first
person (with her shadow behind her) is
stretched out to double person-width, the
middle person (shadow in front of her) is a
little compressed, the third person (shadow
also in front) is very compressed - maybe 1/4
person-width. I'd really like to know how
you altered the shapes of the people. It's a
neat effect. (So striking to me that I
didn't even notice the shadows till I read
the title)

"Wasp in Free Flight" - Should be called
"REALLY BIG Wasp in Free Flight" - the
creature is about 5" long in this 8x10 print.

I really like seeing things out of context
like this so you can't tell how big or small
they are. I won't comment on your technique
since I haven't experimented much with my own
home laser beam :-)

Karen Hanmer I've been working with motion for the past
few months. For a few years I was shooting
architecture exclusively - closeups of
buildings showing the texture and patterns in
the building material. Now that I'm shooting
living subjects, mostly self portraits and
farm landscapes, the traditional tack sharp
"still" photograph just doesn't seem
appropriate. Life seems to me to be too much
of a process, always changing, too many
facets, too much feeling involved to be
captured in one static image.

There are a lot of firsts for me involved in
the blurred farm photos. The first time I
used tech pan - and it gave me those nice
clouds (thanks again to everyone who posted
and emailed me about tech pan's extended red
sensitivity). The first time I took a still
subject and introduced motion into the scene.

And the first time I just shot kind of
randomly, sticking the camera out the car
window and pressing the shutter when it
*felt* right. I had no idea what these would
look like or even what part of the scene
would be in the negative. This approach to
shooting will probably horrify most of you,
but I really like introducing the element of
chance into my photographing - just
randomly/instinctively pointing the camera
and releasing the shutter and trusting that
something worthy of a photograph will be
there. If I already know exactly what a
photograph will look like, what's the point
of taking it?

I always tell my photography friends that are
too into equipment that a camera is just a
box with a hole in it. I've been testing
this out a little with a pinhole camera I
made out of an old TLR body. The especially
blurry photograph is a bunch of people
playing volleyball. But hand-held at 4+
seconds, they and I both moved enough that
the people just become abstract suggestions
of shapes. While I'm not in love with this
particular image, I like the idea a lot and
plan to work this way more in the future.

Alan Kilian These are all really neat! My favorite is
"Three Coins." With a home-made sound
triggered flash, Alan has captured the
"decisive moment" of coins dropped into an
aquarium. We see the splash of water above
the surface and below the surface how the
water is deformed by the coins.

In "Too Close" he's used a lower tech
invention - black socks with holes in the
toes become homemade reversing ring and
extension tubes. And he got *very close* to
the subject.

I also like "Sprinkler" where Alan's hand
interrupts the flow of water from a hose.
*So cool* to see the glassy strands and tiny
droplets of water fly.

One technical note: I've had good luck with
black velvet coming out as pure, textureless
black. A large piece is kind of expensive
but you only have to buy it once... I've
been told that you can't throw it in the
washing machine - it must be drycleaned.

These are all really interesting - both the
images themselves and your techniques. I
hope to see more of your work in future
portfolios.

Elliot Rappaport Blurs 1, 2, 3" - Three color prints of crowds
on a city street. The background buildings
are in sharp focus and the people are blurred
as they pass by Elliot's open shutter. My
favorite is "Blur 2." The crowd is moving in
and out of and past Trump Tower while the
doorman, looking straight out at the viewer,
remains still and in sharp focus. Reflections
of several nearby buildings on the facade of
Trump Tower add to the sense of motion and
make me feel a part of the scene.

"Blur 3" features a smaller, more compact
crowd. They almost cease to be people and
become a bright, luxurious, abstract mass of
colors. A real pleasure for me since I shoot
only b&w and all my photography friends only
work in b&w. Occasionally it's a real treat
to see COLOR! Thanks.

Catherine Thompson Two still lives. This is the kind of stuff I
hoped people would contribute to this
portfolio - not necessarily the cutting edge
in art or photographic technology, just us
playing around with a technique or subject
matter we'd never tried before.

"Bowl of Eggs" - Like Catherine's garden
slide in the Travel portfolio, this
photograph makes me feel peaceful. The
subject is strongly side-lit, but instead of
looking harsh or sinister as a portrait lit
this way could, the light defines the shape
of the eggs and flutes of the bowl gently and
pleasingly. It feels nice to let my eyes
wander about the curves. Like I'm touching
them with my eyes - they feel smooth and cool
and refreshing. Viewing this photograph is a
very nice way to start what will be a long
day.

"Teapot & Cup" - I prefer the simplicity of
"Bowl of Eggs," but the more I look at this,
the more I like it - it makes me react. A
completely different feel from the other -
instead of objects flowing into one another,
here my eyes dart from the cup to the teapot,
zip up along the chopsticks to the cup, and
the process begins again. It happens so fast
I feel dizzy. And the folds in the mesh
background fabric jump out at me and pull me
in on their way back. Makes for much
audience participation. Did you know there
was so much going on in here? :-)

Jim Webb "....Experimental Error.... The Hubble Space
Telescope Before Launch" - Clever idea. But
for me the best thing about this photograph
is that it looks like the set of the evil
guy's hideout in a James Bond movie. We've
got a massive network of scaffolding
surrounding a mysterious, shiny cylinder.
The lighting lends a sterile-looking
atmosphere for the workers dressed head to
toe in at least two different kinds of
uniform. The low up angle from which Jim
shot this makes it look like it all goes on
forever. Neat!

I will send the portfolio to Alan Kilian this week.

Karen Hanmer

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