I am telling you, these are not photographs.
There are plenty of better ways and more worthy ways to make a photograph. There are better cameras and better lenses and far prettier subject matter. There are elaborate processes and refined techniques that would yield beautiful images of beautiful things.
I am telling you, these images are just pictures of memories. My memories. These are places and things that have passed before my eyes, in my life, in my world. These are things I remember. This is the way I remember.
These images are void of any technical merit. What value is lost in technique is aimed at being compensated with sentiment. These prints are mental souvenirs of the days and spaces I pass through on my way. They are made with $15 plastic cameras called a Holga, or with an older model named Diana. I keep these cameras in my glove box, coat pocket, or carry-on luggage. The film has often been accidentally frozen (at 14,000 ft. in Colorado), x-rayed (by the suspicious TSA officers at the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport), expired (from the often second hand film I acquire), or exposed to light (from the countless times the cameras break or are dropped).
No manipulations outside of the wear and tear of life have been applied to these images. The edges in many photographs are caused by scotch tape or cardboard used inside the cameras to fix light leaks or to increase tension on the film spools to reduce the likelihood of the film winding or unwinding as they tumble along with me. I do not focus. I do not expose. I do not compose. I do not think. I just look. Sometimes feel. I just push the lever. And remember. The results are the closest thing to a memory I can see.
Often, when you take away technique and reverence, all that is left to dictate a photograph is a feeling. Sometimes that is all you need.
So I am telling myself: these are not photographs.
Current Exhibit
July, 2007:
A collection of twenty-four images is currently on display at Edison Community College in Piqua, Ohio.
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