In my 80 years I have straddled two centuries and experienced, Juan Domingo Perón & Evita, ice being delivered at home, having no telephone (but finally getting a black dial phone in 1953), the demise of Packards, Studebakers, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles, beepers, Kodachrome, journalism and the fading into oblivion of those once important fax machines.
I am happy to report that I have managed to adopt (not too willingly at first) the digital technology of this century. This has helped me feel relevant to myself as a photographer. I have adapted Garry Winogrand’s mantra:
“I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.”
But this excitement could never happen without willing & enthusiastic subjects ( I have disdain for the word model).
One of these enthusiasts with whom I collaborate (important word) is Olena, she of the former blue hair.
The pictures I have placed here, which I am sure will follow the community standards of social media were done as follows:
I photographed Olena with my Fuji-X-E3 camera in my small Kits studio. Then a few weeks later I projected on her body (using an Epson digital projector) the former photographs. With my 19 year old Photoshop, I “corrected” to my taste the colour, the contrast and the opacity of the blended pictures.
Looking at these, I know that at one time they would have been up at that wonderful photography gallery on Beatty Street, the Exposure Gallery. Now there is no viable venue for these photographs.
Of late I have not found too many photographers I know who shoot this kind of stuff. If only an 80 year-old-man (me) could inspire them to put their phones away!
