A BLACK AND WHITE PINHOLE PORTFOLIO FROM WILLAPA BAY

A BLACK AND WHITE PINHOLE PORTFOLIO FROM WILLAPA BAY

As most of you know, I was a resident at the Willapa Bay AiR for the month of October. Photographing with my 120 Pinhole camera onto color negative film, I wanted to make a personal record of the Long Beach peninsula, a place I have been going to regularly for over 30 years. Two miles wide and 28 miles long, the peninsula is bounded by the Willapa Bay to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The roar of the ocean is a constant. The people who live there make their living from oysters, cranberries, fish and the tourists. Leadbetter National Wildlife Refuge, on the north is a wonderful place to hike and walk. Cape Disappointment is on the South end along with many camp grounds and the Lewis and Clark museum.  

I set out every day to photograph, often taking no more than 12 photographs a day (one roll). I looked at and listened to the ocean and the birds and the bay. Here is my first take on the images. Thirty-four of them are in this portfolio and I am amazed by how each one speaks to me. As always thank you for looking. Please visit the Willapa Bay Peninsula and love it as much as I do.

 

New Long Exposure Pinholes from Willapa Bay AiR

New Long Exposure Pinholes from Willapa Bay AiR

I have never taken long exposure pinholes all that seriously. I think they are serious photographs and I love the way they look but for once I am finding them to be not only fun but creative too. I made about ten multi hole pinhole cameras and about twenty altoid tin cameras. It rained so much of the month I was in the Willapa Bay area. I knew some of the pinholes were getting wet but I had not reckoned with the tide and the high mark the tide would come to on the Bay and make my pinhole cameras soaked. I made plenty though and I let go of my perfectionist streak and went with the errors and problems inherent in this type of photography. I give you some here. Two of these images are by Jeff McMahon the operations manager and Cyndy Haywood, the director of the Willapa Bay AiR. All of these images were exposed for an entire month. Enjoy the images and take the time to join the Pinhole Project (www.thepinholeproject.org) and get a camera exposing for yourself.


Pinholes from Civita di Bagnoregio (a portfolio) 2019

Pinholes from Civita di Bagnoregio (a portfolio) 2019

I lived in Civita di Bagnoregio for 32 days from mid-November into December of 2019.  I received  a fellowship from the Civita Institute to photograph the old Etruscan hilltop town with my pinhole cameras.  I took my 120 film pinhole camera (the “Zero”), my 4 x 5 inch pinhole camera (the “Leonardo”), 35 long-exposure (30 days)  metal tins–homemade pinhole cameras from various containers, round tins, an old Saltine tin, altoid tins, and several tins that were from different origins, all of which I exposed onto paper (Those long-exposure images are the subject of another post).  With the two bigger cameras, I shot color negative film and those are the ones shown here.  I worked everyday shooting the 120 film camera with medium format negatives.  That camera is versatile.  I set it to shoot a rectangle and advanced as if I had shot a square.  Overlap occurred and in some instances, two or more negatives were butted against each other.  I also double exposed several negatives.  This technical information is important because it is what I hoped I was doing.  In other words most of  these images are made from two or more negatives side by side on the film.   Negatives that were together on the film were scanned and printed digitally.  Not every image was on purpose.  Some are plain old happy accidents that I am, well, happy about. All of the negatives are fabrications, not actually how it “looked” because I exposed different places together that I thought would look good.   I was lucky to be in Civita before the pandemic hit and lucky to leave right before it became widely known.  Civita and Italy have withstood centuries of plague, earthquakes, war.  The strength of Civita is in the buildings, the cobblestones, the people.  I hope that that strength comes through.   Everything here has been  printed on 17  x 22  inch  paper as artist’s  proofs  and most  are  available for  $100.00/each.  Please  inquire.  There is only one of each image available at that price, The featured print is a part of the portfolio.   Titled:  Road to Tunnel (with Cloud) UPDATE:  I have sold 11 of these images that I call Artist Proof Prints at 100.00. There is a slight discoloration or exposure problem in each.,I have nine left.  Inquire with your interest.  The corrected edition prints start at 400.00 per print.  They are made in an edition of 10 and the price goes up to 750.00 each as the edition sells out.

Innards:  Pinhole Landscapes 2019

Innards: Pinhole Landscapes 2019

I have posted a lot of these images before but now I am hopeful that I can make them into a portfolio and put it up on this website.  Here is a statement that I haveI wrote.

The images in this collection are made on color negative film, scanned and printed digitally onto cotton rag paper with archival inks. They were either made in a Zero 2000 medium format camera; or in a large format (4 x 5 inch) camera. Some were all-night long exposures, most were exposed for 30-45 minutes when light phenomena happens that can not be predicted. That passage of time is important in these images, for pinhole photography gathers light and records an extended moment differently than the camera with a lens. People become shadows, trees seem to replicate themselves, crashing waves flatten out. colors exaggerate while double exposures occur without intention. Movement is recorded while the time passes.  I call this group of photographs Innards because the landscape is soft and the light is layered with what feels like memory. The images put me in touch with a side of myself I didn’t know existed. Over years of experimentation with the pinhole camera, I’ve come to this unconventional place, a mysterious landscape that glows and glistens from within–slightly ominous, endangered, beautiful, and sad. Imperfect and personal.

The preview image is a double exposure titled SomeWhere Near Yachats, Oregon Coast.  

Many of these images are available in a self-published boxed book called Innards.  Purchase of the book comes with your choice of a print in that is in the book. Published in an edition of 24, there are 10 still available,.  Go to the shop on this website to preview the book.

 

NIGHTTIME 2013-2020

NIGHTTIME 2013-2020

Featured image:  Stanley Ave South and South Albro

I have been working since 2013 on a project called NightTime. These images were all made within the neighborhood where I live near the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle.  The neighborhood  is a mixture of industrial and residential structures, full of train yards, factories, overpasses, trailers, small homes and beautiful gardens.  Situated at the end of Boeing Field, it endures an enormous amount of truck, train  and airplane traffic.  In 2014,  the Argo Yard Bridge, connecting the neighborhood to downtown Seattle via Airport Way was closed for reconstruction for about 18 months.  It was a time of heavy construction on the bridge mixed with greatly reduced truck traffic along the streets.  Georgetown was  in the throes of change.  My photographs try to capture both that change and the historical nature of the area.

At night Georgetown is alive.  The freeway, the train yards, the Duwamish River and Boeing Field create the four edges of the neighborhood.   These edges hum with noise and movement, yet there is solitude to be found on the tracks after trains pass, in the alleys after planes land and on the streets when the trucks are silent.

The Nighttime images are a work in progress.  This portfolio will continue to evolve and change, just as Georgetown has done.  The images are printed  in an edition of 10/15 x 10 inches.   All images are shot with low ISO, long exposure digital capture and printed on rag paper with archival inks.   Please inquire about print availability, size and pricing.  Please see the blog for updates about this portfolio:  ten of these images were in the viewing drawers of Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon during 2016.  They were shown at Gallery 110 in Seattle for the month of September, 2017.

 

FIREWORKS:  2007-2009

FIREWORKS: 2007-2009

I photographed people with fireworks for the three years along the Duwamish River in Seattle on the Fourth of July.  Initially I was interested in the time exposure, to see just how much I could blend and blur the fireworks, people and the light to create a workable image.  Reviewing the work after the first year, I realized it was the people surrounded by the light and the fireworks that really interested me. I wasn’t making portraits per se but photographs about people  who moved like dancers, within  an atmosphere that was mysterious, intriguing and ultimately unsettling. Shooting these events, I felt like I was in a war zone that was dangerous and at the same time, incredibly beautiful.  These images were made with digital capture and printed on 17 x 11 inch rag paper with archival inks.   They are available from the artist in a limited edition of 25.   Please contact me for information on pricing and edition availability.

With this portfolio are a series of posters that are also for sale for 25.00/each.  Please inquire or go to the shop page to buy one….