projection / garage follow up
Lacking the funds and ability to alter the laws of physics and design some delightful Fringe-inspired device that projects darkness, I’ve been screwing around with an LED flashlight to make cheesy shadows on the garage wall.
(this is straight out of the camera, it was more a technical test than anything)
This was simply fingers and a little LED flashlight with … nine little LEDs in it I think. I have some … relatively old … enlargers in the basement, and I was thinking, what better to make a subtle projection than an enlarger head? well we’ll see. Ultimately what I’m aiming for is the effect of shadows-appearing-without-evident-origin on a surface that appears *naturally* lit – hence the subtle light. It’s not quite working just yet with the LED flashlight but maybe the enlarger will do a better job (it’s also got built-in colour filters!) And yes, overhead projectors, I know (thank you Shari Boyle and Daniel Barrows).
On a side note, increasingly it seems evident prop-construction is going to become part of my practice. Not that this is a bad thing, but I did get rather content just ‘collecting’ things as opposed to making them. Propnomicon has been a delightfully appropriate resource of late, there is some damn good (and fun) work out there based on the Lovecraft mythos.
Also, on the night photography note, Joe Reifer’s blog and website have earned themselves a permanent tab in Firefox of late, in particular check out his night photos of military ruins … will definitely have to make a roadtrip to the american south-west sometime.
not dead, just in the dark
a few projects on the go, and a busy rest-of-april
meanwhile, a couple untouched-up night shots in the backyard
squeezing long exposures out of my S5 is a pain in the ass. A shame the thing that makes it such a great DSLR for everything else makes it a pill for hot pixels on night shots.
I’d be remiss in not re-linking Andy Frazer’s night photography blog, learned a lot there (though I’m not sure I have a whole lot to show for it just yet).
Day 10 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu) (The Last Day)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 10)
There was a version with a somewhat telling nosebleed, but it was a little too strong of a mark. I might write more about this series when it has settled a bit, but generally I’m quite happy with the results. Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!
Day 9 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 9)
And a detail, because these would definitely be printed a lot bigger than they’re appearing on screen:
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 9) (detail)
Day 8 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 8)
Day 7 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 7)
Day 6 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
Ran into some technical issues with this one that the few solutions I came up with just didn’t cut it visually. So there’s sorta two parts, the first, if I were to use a singular image, would be the one I’d select. The second could stand on its own as a separate work in the series, or perhaps as part of a diptych.
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 6)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 6 II)
And just to see how they work together:
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 6 Diptych)
Update: Managed a stitch-together of the two parts that’s remotely acceptable, but I’m undecided which I like better.
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 6 Merged)
Day 5 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 5)
…. aaaand the line is crossed, the shit hits the fan, and the borders start to fall apart.
Day 4 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 4)
Day 3 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 3)
Day 2 (The Ten Days of Cthulhu)
Well more appropriately, night 2, I guess these should be “the ten nights of Cthulhu”
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 2)
The bright blue window behind me belongs to a dude working in his garage; we’re wondering how many nights before he comes over and asks what’s going on.
My bro seems hellbent on being as frightening as possible – as frightening as one can be holding a plush Cthulhu. Not gonna write a whole lot about these at this point, I sorta wanna see how the series plays out over the next week.
the beach
The Beach (The Pilgrimage of Memory)
New work; it’ll be a touch on the long side, 140″x36″, and that could be approaching … difficult, hanging-wise. I am open to suggestions. I wonder if you can get glass that long.
Something of a start of an exploration of memories that don’t exist, through a pilgrimage to somehow make them exist. The series will expand/extend from Crossroads to a fair degree.
Also:
The Ten Days of Cthulhu (Day 1)
Just a working title, will probably change if the next sets hammer themselves into some kind of series. Bit of a flexible exploration of a single space, over a fixed duration, colliding two separate conceptual histories I like to play with – the Hoodoo crossroads ritual, and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Complete with plush Cthulhu effigy.
weekly photo feb 22nd
In My Room (At The Edges of Things / The Borders of Dark)
Parentheticals are fantastic for inserting working-titles for series of which this photo is only loosely related! But there is something to be said for the ceiling of my room after midnight, and the blackness of my closet in the corner.
weekly photo feb 15th
Ghosts (prototype two) - Devil's Trap I
Forewent a similar shot to last week for some impromptu night shots of my front living room; by some combination of coincidence a subtle Devil’s Trap appeared in the hallway, a little re-arranging and this shot came about. There were a few single-shot incarnations with shadows in odd places, but I settled on this pairing, which I think will actually function well with the previous Ghosts (prototype) shot I was playing with a little while back.
