Image © Angela Faris Belt, Tree Face, from the series Traces.

APERTURES: FOCUS, LENSES, AND CLARITY

INTRODUCTION: FOCUS, THE SECOND PHOTOGRAPHIC ELEMENT

Have you ever seen a painting you identified as “photorealistic”? What made it look most like a photograph? A large part of the answer is the quality of focus it depicts. Setting photorealistic paintings apart is that they depict a scene the way a camera sees it, and photographs, no matter how closely they seem to approximate human sight, never depict the world as we see it. Photorealism looks photographic primarily because it reproduces a sense of the camera’s monocular vision, which, as discussed Chapter 3, differs from our binocular vision in the way it flattens depth perspective onto the two-dimensional plane. The physical characteristics of the camera’s aperture and lens, along with its variable depth of focus, projects an image onto the medium that looks altogether different from the one our eyes transmit to our brain. Second, photorealism reproduces the clarity and detail that has been a highly coveted attribute of photographs since the daguerreotype. It is these physical characteristics of camera vision that delineate the nature of focus in photographic images, and it is these characteristics that photorealistic painting explicitly acknowledges. I use this example to begin discussing the element of apertures and focus because it calls attention to attributes so inherent to photographs that they’re often overlooked as communicative tools.

Images captured by the action of light, through apertures and lenses, exist on a sort of continuum whose center resembles the familiar depth and quality of focus of our binocular human vision. At the farthest ends of the continuum exist qualities of focus vastly different from our own. On one end are images that are clearer and more detailed, or that capture closer and farther views than human eyes can see; on the opposite end are images that lack the clarity and detail of human vision. Precisely where the focus in an image is fixed on the continuum affects the way viewers see and interpret it, as well as what and how it communicates about a subject.

The earliest camera, the camera obscura, greatly influenced the way artists and photographers regarded quality of focus, following scientists who used the device’s ability to render the visible universe more objectively and more accurately than could the mind’s eye. By 1850, only a few short years after photographs could hold the ephemeral image, daguerreotypes began replacing traditional forms of manual reproduction for any image that relied on fidelity and descriptive quality. Conversely, the pictorialists became photography’s first practitioners to embrace and value the lack of sharpness that camera-made images could deliver, gravitating toward this quality as a more expressive use of the medium. Around the same time, the still point of the focus continuum was located with P.H. Emerson and the naturalists, many of whom consciously manipulated the monocular vision of the camera in an attempt to approximate human vision’s quality of focus. Thus began undying waves of photographic practitioners’ efforts to sharpen, dull, or accurately express what we see and how we see it through photography.

At the one side, sharply focused photographs carry connotations of specificity and, by extension, truth and reality. Viewers more readily equate sharp focus with what was present in front of the camera, and the more descriptive it is, the greater our degree of trust in the accuracy and factualness of image. Documentary, photojournalistic, scientific, and evidentiary images rely on sharp focus for this very reason. Photographs on the opposite end, those using soft or distorted focus, remove this relationship between the image contents and the seen world. They connote a vague essence of things and an atmospheric or more overtly filtered image of reality. In addition, soft-focus images guide viewer attention more consciously to the act of seeing the image, reminding us that we’re not merely looking through a window on the world. Throughout its history, the element of focus has given photographers control over these aspects of the appearance and meaning of images; today there are even more tools helping us control and manipulate focus, and in this chapter we’ll explore the how’s and why’s of doing so.

APERTURES: A BRIEF TECHNICAL REVIEW

The following technical notes are only simple reminders about apertures. If you’re still new to photography or just want a refresher, go to Chapter 2 and reread the information about apertures and exposure; be sure to do the chapter exercises at the end.

It’s usually assumed that this element of photography is composed of two parts: the aperture and the lens. However, you don’t need a lens in order to capture images from light. Apertures and lenses each have distinct technical attributes that contribute to the visual outcome, and therefore the meaning of photographic images, making discrete but interrelated study of each the most thorough approach.

An aperture of any kind is simply an opening. As it relates to the camera, the aperture (also called the f-stop) literally refers to the opening through which light enters the camera to produce an exposure. This mechanism, normally located within the camera lens, controls the amount (or intensity) of light that will strike the photographic medium upon releasing the shutter mechanism. Full-stop aperture numbers adjust to exactly half or two times the amount of light allowed by the number directly before or after it, an important relationship to understand. Some lenses let you adjust the aperture in fluid, step-less increments, and others in solid one half– or one third–stop increments in between the full stops; both are a means of offering finer exposure control, though they make exposure seem more complicated. For that reason, I recommend memorizing only the “whole-stop” apertures, and knowing what your camera offers n between.

ILLUSTRATION © TOBY COCHRAN, 2007.

The common whole-stop apertures: Each one doubles or halves the exposure from its adjacent numbers.

One third in front, two thirds behind. Depth of field increases both in front of and behind the focus point, but to different degrees. Here, the two lenses are equidistant from the focus point in the center of the image. Note as depth of field increases, the background sharpens faster than the foreground.

Because most aspects of this chapter affect depth of field, it’s important to understand how it works before we get started. The three controllers of depth of field are the lens or camera aperture, the focal length of the lens, and the distance from the center of the lens to the subject.

•  Aperture. The size of the aperture controls the depth of field. The smaller the aperture is, the greater the depth of field (the other two factors remaining the same).

•  Lens focal length. The shorter (wider angle) the focal length, the greater the depth of field (the other two factors remaining the same).

•  Lens-to-subject distance. Usually called camera-to-subject distance, this really refers to the distance from the center of the lens to the subject. The farther from the focus distance, the greater the depth of field (the other two factors remaining the same).

Tiny paper squiggle, deep implications. This impromptu still life of a paper trimmer shaving was captured using a range of apertures (and equivalent exposures) to provide editing options. Notice that at f/2 only a small part of the subject is in sharp focus and your attention lingers there, whereas at f/22 nearly the entire subject is sharp, encouraging your eye to wander more. Part of the dramatic depth of field difference and the reason why the front of the paper isn’t sharp, even at f/22, is because the camera-to-subject distance is extremely close, made possible with a 28 mm extension tube.

But with great depth of field comes great possibility of camera shake! This is because smaller apertures generally require longer shutter speeds. Camera shake happens when any movement of the camera itself blurs the image, and it can ruin an otherwise perfect photograph. Fortunately, most cameras offer ways to help you avoid it. First, self-timer and cable release options allow you to make exposures without touching the camera. But that doesn’t always help, especially when camera shake is coupled with its equally problematic relative specific to SLR cameras—mirror vibration. In particular when using extension tubes or doing other extremely close-up work, and especially with an SLR camera, the best way to ensure a sharp exposure is if the camera has a “mirror-up” option. The mirror-up moves the SLR mirror out of the way before you release the shutter so it doesn’t vibrate during the exposure. The difference can be dramatic, but it is only a viable option when doing still life photography with a tripod.

Mirror up for sharp pictures. Both images were made at f/22 (for maximum depth of field) using a 28 mm close-up extension tube and a shutter speed of 1.5 seconds. On the left, the shutter mechanism was depressed with a finger, causing camera shake; worse, the DSLR camera’s mirror caused vibrations that further reduced image sharpness. On the right, a self-timer and mirror lock-up feature were used to maintain fine, sharp details.

PHOTOGRAPH © ANGELA FARIS BELT, SHE’S HURT; FROM THE TRACES SERIES, 2006.

Shallow depth of field holding power. Shallow depth of field directs the viewer’s attention to the primary content in the image; the lack of sharp focus on other areas in the frame indicate areas of secondary or supporting content. In this case, the spider and glass are sharp in contrast to the soft city in the background, which in its softness operates to add atmosphere to the image. The fine black border (made using a filed-out negative carrier or by adding a fine black stroke in the digital darkroom) explicitly indicates the edge of the pictorial space.

There are other things you can do to take advantage of depth of field: use your depth of field preview before you shoot. Most SLR cameras have this option, and view camera lenses allow you to do it as well. Depth of field preview lets you close the aperture while you look through the viewfinder, so you can see the actual field at that aperture. Its only drawback is that as you stop the aperture down, the image in the viewfinder gets increasingly darker and more difficult to see. But once you become accustomed to using it, you’ll be able to “look past the darkness” and you’ll find it a helpful tool when trying to choose the best aperture.

All this depth of field technique seems pretty complicated, but it’s simpler in practice because of how we usually make photographs. Most photographers select a lens focal length and distance from subject first, because they control what will be inside the frame. It usually isn’t until we have the image framed that we determine the depth of field we want. So if you want to maximize it, then select your smallest aperture, focus one third of the way into the scene, and shoot at an appropriate shutter speed for good exposure. Conversely, if you want narrow depth of field, use a larger aperture and focus on the precise distance of your primary subject matter.

So depth of field isn’t only a technical attribute; like every other element of photographic language, it affects the way images look and how they communicate. For example, as depth of field increases, viewers are granted increased depth of information. We can see from foreground to background details throughout the picture plane with equal clarity. Limiting the depth of field limits viewers’ depth of information by narrowing the range of clearly identifiable contents and details within the frame. Shallow depth of field constricts the contents that viewers can concretely or confidently interpret, and the rest of the image becomes a wash of progressively less recognizable information. Further, shallow depth of field permanently restricts our access to those details, creating a situation we do not encounter when viewing the world firsthand. Although human vision has relatively shallow depth of focus, we adjust our focus distance continuously to take in more information at varying depths around us, which gives us a clearer picture of the overall scene. This process of focusing and refocusing adds depth of information over time without adding true depth of field. Whereas the human eye varies focus on the fly according to where our attention is, the two-dimensional image can hold a range of depth from that most closely approximating human sight to more limited or expanded; however, it is fixed, never offering more or less information no matter how much we try to focus in on it.

As photographers, once we begin to analyze the significance of focus and depth as they refer to our subject, we can use them to control the specificity of information the image relays to viewers to make the most accurate visual statement we can.

CAMERAS WITHOUT LENSES

As we stated earlier, cameras don’t need lenses to capture an image; all they need is an appropriately sized opening to allow light to enter. This opening—the aperture—its size, composition, and shape, dictate important aspects about the visual outcome of the image. The aperture size determines the intensity of light entering the camera, and it also determines the plane of focus for the “focal length” of the camera. That is, light entering an aperture is focused at a specific point in space; if you place light-sensitive media at that precise distance, a sharper image is rendered; any other distance will render less clearly focused images.

Photographers choose to make images with lens-less cameras for a variety of reasons. First, many photographers prefer to make cameras rather than buy them; they enjoy capturing images using simpler hand-made devices. Second, lens-less images captured through an aperture have unique characteristics (which we’ll cover more in depth in a moment) that could better communicate about the photographer’s impressions of a subject than a lens-made image could. Still others like the experimental nature of alternative cameras or are interested only in the ephemeral image inside the camera obscura rather than in capturing it onto media to make it permanent.

The Camera Obscura

The first apparatus to use an aperture to transfer an image made from light was the camera obscura (Latin for “dark room”). Essentially, a camera obscura is a dark room, which can be of any size and dimension. It has a small hole in one side that, if sized properly, allows light to project the outside scene onto the interior opposite wall of the camera. Although the technology to record images onto light-sensitive media didn’t exist until the 19th century, camera obscura optics were recognized by Arabian scientist Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al Haytham in the 10th century B.C.E., who described it as his tool for studying a solar eclipse. There were references to the camera obscura in China as early as the 5th century B.C.E. and by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century B.C.E. It wasn’t until the 15th century that European artists used them to trace images from nature, though many wouldn’t admit to doing so. Recently, the camera obscura has made a comeback, notably by photographer-artist Abelardo Morell, who has created iconic documentary images in hotels, museums, and other interiors throughout the world by capturing the image inside.

Although the camera obscura has no lens, its aperture must be a specific diameter, and must be a specific distance from the far side of the “dark room” for the image to be rendered as sharply focused as possible. A couple of notes about both:

•  Focal length equals the distance from the aperture to the far wall (focus plane) of the camera obscura. This distance dictates the aperture diameter needed to make the sharpest image as well as the angle of view of the camera.

•  Aperture diameter determines the sharpness and brightness of the projected image. The formula for determining the best aperture diameter for a given focal length is complex, involving physics of light wavelengths and some more advanced mathematical calculations. Several reliable charts are available on the topic; through research you’ll find the aperture diameter that works best for your needs.

Pinhole Cameras

A pinhole camera is essentially a camera obscura, but inside the “dark room” a piece of light-sensitive medium is placed at the plane of focus to record and preserve the projected image. As stated in the camera obscura section, for every focal length there is an “optimal” aperture diameter for maximum sharpness. Given that pinhole photographers don’t necessarily want the greatest possible sharpness, the aperture size and shape are general guides, and deviating from them can produce unique and beautiful results, particularly in terms of image clarity.

There are many excellent resources with extensive information about pinhole cameras, beginning with www.pinholeresource.com. Several places fabricate and sell custom pinholes in metal shim stock as well as in body caps to fit nearly any SLR camera, but if you enjoy experimenting and making things by hand, then you can construct the entire camera yourself. For SLR cameras, you can simply buy an extra body cap and drill about a 1-inch diameter hole in the center of it. The “ideal” aperture size for the camera is equal to the distance from the pinhole to the media plane. You can measure it or find your camera model’s specifications on-line. On-line you will also find the correct needle size to drill your pinhole (usually a standard quilting needle found at a local craft store). Drill it through a thin piece of metal shim stock, and attach it to the inside of your camera’s body cap. The size of the pinhole will also indicate it’s aperture number, which you can use to calculate exposure. If you’re using a digital camera body, you can simply check your histogram to hone in on proper exposure. This method of pinhole camera experimentation provides the convenience of a camera body with accurate, adjustable shutter speeds and a ready-made tripod mount, as well as the comfort of familiarity with the equipment.

Pinhole body cap. Prefabricated pinholes (like this one) use a laser to drill a perfectly round aperture with sharp edges at a precise diameter optimized for the local length. This renders a sharper image while still having the other attributes of a pinhole camera. However, many photographers prefer to make their own pinholes, because the lack of precision adds welcome softness and unexpected attributes to its images.

Beyond the basics, there are a few technical considerations that lead to more successful pinhole photography:

•  Because of their minute apertures (for example, f/295), pinhole cameras capture nearly infinite depth of field. A given camera structure has a corresponding, optimum aperture (pinhole) size that will produce the sharpest focus. The same formulas for focal length (the measurement from the pinhole to the media plane), aperture size (f-stop), and aperture diameter used for camera obscuras apply to pinhole cameras.

•  Optimal pinhole diameters (apertures) vary depending on the camera’s focal length, although other sizes can be used. Generally, a smaller pinhole will result in better image resolution (a sharper picture) because the projected circle of confusion is smaller. Also, the extensive depth of field means that the fall-off in focus in front of and beyond the focus point has little visible effect. Any softness produced by the aperture is far less a factor of “lens-less-ness” than it is of light diffraction resulting from the minute aperture size (or rough-edged pinholes).

•  The rounder and smoother the pinhole, the sharper the image; distorting the shape of the pinhole softens the image and has potential as a creative and communicative tool. Industrially made pinholes are generally laser etched to perfection, producing sharper images.

•  The thinner the material in which the pinhole is made, the sharper the image. As the diameter of the aperture approaches the thickness of the material, a greater degree of edge vignetting occurs due to light entering at other than a 90-degree angle. Materials too thin to remain rigid are not useful either. Materials such as brass shim stock or metallic shim stock (painted black) work quite well.

•  The smaller the pinhole, the longer the required exposure time. This makes a tripod necessary in most situations.

•  The distance from the pinhole to the media plane determines the angle of view. A shorter focal length decreases the exposure time and results in a wider-angle image; a longer focal length increases the exposure time and results in a more telephoto image.

IMAGE © DENNIE EAGLESON, SPRAY BOOTH. SEE MORE OF HER WORK IN THIS CHAPTER’S PORTFOLIO PAGES.

Loose-film pinhole cameras make great light leaks. Photographer Dennie Eagleson made this image on 35 mm film in a “Yip Yap Dog Breath Freshener” tin that’s 2″ × 3″ × 3/4″ in dimension, converted to a pinhole camera. The camera has an attached 35 mm film feeder cassette and a light-tight takeup cassette, and it has an aperture of f/62. The remarkable distortion is due to the extremely wide angle of view provided by the shallow tin. The sample image reveals that exposure extends beyond the film’s sprocket holes, which adds very unique borders, and the pinhole creates visually interesting light-leaks, too!

PHOTOGRAPHS © TODD DOBBS; FROM HIS SERIES DITCHES. (SEE MORE IN THIS CHAPTER’S PORTFOLIO PAGES.)

Going with the pinhole’s flow. These two images are made minutes apart with a large-format pinhole camera. With some pinhole view cameras you can swap aperture sizes (pinhole plates) to match different bellows extensions. In these two images, different shutter speeds (exposure times) have very different effects in the water’s appearance; however, the depth of field stays the same because of the minute aperture size. In the right-hand image the artist used an extremely long shutter speed (24 seconds) to extrude the water’s flow over the rocks, softening the feel of that image to resonate with the pinhole aperture’s quality of focus. Equivalent exposures with varying aperture/shutter speed combinations allows you to experiment with depth of field and motion, and provides you with more editing options later on.

AFFECTING VISUAL QUALITY AND MEANING WITH APERTURES AND LENSES

Although we don’t need lenses to make photographs, their addition dramatically affects the way light strikes the media, and creates a wide range of visual results. There are significant advantages to using lenses; first, photographers can vary the point of focus precisely, projecting light rays sharply onto the media plane. Second, most lenses allow photographers to vary the aperture size, which is a benefit in terms of exposure and depth of field. Third, some lenses (called zoom lenses) provide a range of focal lengths in a single lens, so you don’t have to frame images within a fixed angle of view. Finally, the majority of lenses have dramatic optical advantages over a lens-less aperture: they provide more even sharpness, reduce distortion and vignetting, have optical coatings reducing chromatic aberrations for more accurate color, and reduce flare and reflections.

On a practical level, it isn’t necessary to understand the inner workings of camera lenses. But it is important to understand three attributes of lens-made images that significantly affect the visual character of the image: they are the lens focal length, plane of focus, and lens quality.

Lens Focal Length

Quite simply, lens focal length is equal to the distance from the center of the lens to the media plane, when the lens is focused at infinity. Even though we usually turn a lens to focus it, the lens elements are actually moving closer or farther from the media plane. There are three basic categories of lens focal length: normal, wide angle, and telephoto. If you measure a lens from front to back, it is the length indicated, usually in millimeters. There are some instances where lenses are referred to in inches (especially in large-format photography), and the conversion is that 1 inch = 25 mm. A 100 mm lens is a 4-inch lens.

The primary difference between focal lengths is the angle of view they capture; the wider the lens, the wider the angle of view in front of you that will be captured in the image, and the longer the lens the narrower the angle of view. There are also visual attributes to the different focal lengths that we’ll cover as we go. Lenses are more complex than just focal length: they differ in their maximum aperture (the widest aperture available, which dictates light-gathering ability), weight and size, cost, and quality. Prime lenses are lenses with a fixed focal length. The advantage to prime lenses is that they usually capture sharper images than zoom lenses. Zoom lenses are lenses with a range of focal lengths. Their primary advantage is that you can change your focal length on the fly. Zoom lenses often have a variable maximum aperture, meaning that zoomed out to a wider angle the maximum aperture is larger (say, f/2.8), and zoomed in more telephoto the maximum aperture is smaller (say, f/5.6). Variable apertur keeps the size and cost of the lens down but provides less exposure and depth of field flexibility when zoomed in. Generally speaking, the larger the maximum available aperture, the more expensive the lens will be. The wider the range of apertures available on the lens, the more creative and exposure latitude you will have.

NORMAL FOCAL LENGTH LENSES

The normal focal length for any given media format is the same as the diagonal measurement of the media plane. For instance, if you measure the image size of a 35 mm SLR camera, you arrive at a normal focal length of approximately 50 mm.

Normal focal length lenses give photographers one particular visual advantage that is often (unfortunately) overlooked. Normal focal length lenses most closely approximate human sight and project an image with the least distortion and compression of space from foreground to background.

ILLUSTRATION © SHAWN MARIE CURTIS, 2007.

The approximate normal focal length size for the common film formats are as follows. Note: As of this printing, some digital SLR sensors are still a bit smaller than the 35 mm film camera image area, although you can often use the same lenses. If this is the case, then you should know that the normal focal length for the camera is shorter than 50 mm, so a 50 mm lens will be somewhat telephoto. Consult your DSLR manual for specific sensor measurements and focal lengths.

Camera Format	Normal Focal Length in mm
35 mm	50 mm lens
6 × 6 cm	80 mm lens
6 × 7 cm	90 mm lens
6 × 9 cm	105 mm lens
4 × 5 inches	150 mm lens

For darkroom practitioners, these are also the minimum focal length lenses required to make an enlargement with an even spread of light across the picture plane, as well as the largest projection possible. Using a shorter focal length than required for the negative size vignettes the image to white.

Normal focal length lenses are the standard when you want to represent a subject in a relatively noninflected way, by maintaining normal perspective within the visual field and keeping the distance and size relationships from foreground to background relatively unchanged. Although their visual advantages are often underrated, normal lenses are excellent general-purpose lenses.

PHOTO © DAVID BECKERMAN, HEAD IN HANDS, NEW YORK SUBWAY, 2005.

The way we see it. Using a normal focal length lens brings to this documentary-style photograph a balance of intimacy and distance. We as viewers feel we’re at the distance the camera is to the tired woman. It creates an image that feels more like natural human vision and in so doing places us easily into the scene, allowing us to empathize with the subject more intimately.

WIDE-ANGLE LENSES

Technical

Also called short lenses, the wide-angle lens for a given format is any lens that is literally shorter than the normal focal length. For a standard 35 mm SLR camera, this is any lens shorter than 50 mm. Wide-angle lenses provide a wider angle of view than the format’s normal focal length lens (that’s how they got their name), which means they include more of the scene than their longer counterparts. At the extreme are “fisheye” lenses, which cover a 180-degree angle of view. They come in two varieties: circular fisheyes cover 180 degrees in all directions resulting in an image with black borders; full-frame fisheye lenses capture 180 degrees along their diagonal only, so the image covers the full frame. Circular fisheye lenses range from 8 mm to 10 mm, whereas the full-frame types are usually 16 mm. Fisheye converters can be purchased to go on top of your lens like a filter, but they can dramatically reduce image quality.

Visual

In addition to providing a wider angle of view, short lenses exaggerate size relationships by making foreground elements larger than they would appear naturally in relation to background elements. Wide-angle lenses distort the perspective (and image contents) progressively more toward their edges and make elements in the background feel comparatively tiny. This is why portrait photographers who don’t want to distort peoples’ features use moderate telephoto lenses (generally 85 to 105 mm for a 35 mm format). At the extreme, ultra-wide and fisheye lenses distort image contents into a circular form with the center bulging toward the viewer and the edges receding.

PHOTO © DAVID BECKERMAN, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK, 1999.

Taking in the wide view. Using a 16 mm wide-angle lens on a 35 mm SLR camera provides a much wider than normal angle of view. In this scene the distortion of the building and people, as well as the inclusion of the traffic light dangling from the top of the frame, all result from the wide angle of view combined with adopting a low vantage point looking up.

PHOTOGRAPH © TONY SWEET.

A true 180-degree view. This image has about as wide an angle as you can get. It was made with a Lensbaby and Fisheye Optic attachment (we’ll cover Lens-babies in a moment). Circular fisheye lenses provide a telltale circular image on their intended camera format.

TELEPHOTO LENSES

Technical

Also called long lenses, the telephoto lens for a given format is any lens that is literally longer than the normal focal length. Telephoto lenses provide a narrower angle of view than the format’s normal length, which means that they include less of the scene than their shorter counterparts. The longer the lens you use, the more the subject is magnified, making a faster shutter speed necessary to prevent camera shake.

visual

In addition to providing a narrower angle of view, telephoto lenses compress perceived space between foreground and background in the scene, bringing objects in the background into heightened juxtaposition with objects in the foreground. Telephoto lenses allow you to capture images that are too far away for you to get to, such as a ball field while the game is going on.

PHOTOGRAPH © DAVID BECKERMAN, WALL STREET SHAPES, NEW YORK, 2000.

Telephoto depth compression. A long telephoto lens (200 mm on a 35 mm SLR format) dramatically compressed the wide space from foreground to background and merged the buildings and the light post into a single almost abstract composition. The compression caused by telephoto lenses can help you create a static picture plane.

PHOTOGRAPH © JILL P. MOTT, MACHU PICCHU, 2009.

Get where you need to go. This image was made with a 200 mm telephoto lens by documentary photographer Jill P. Mott as she explored Machu Picchu. Aside from compressing space, it more importantly allowed her to capture an image from across a wide canyon, bringing the landscape’s details and touristy color contrast close into view.

What do you see? These images were made from the same distance and perspective; nothing moved. As the lens focal length changes the contents of the frame change too, as do their relationships to one another. In this makeshift “studio” the 85 mm lens isolates the subject, the 50 mm lens provides a view that approximates human sight, and the 28 mm lens reveals the entire scene (including the entire environment around the subject). You can use focal lengths to extend or compress the perceived relationship between objects, to provide accurate or distorted perspective, and to increase or decrease the contents within the frame at its edges.

Plane of Focus

After focal length, the second attribute of lens-made images affecting their visual outcomes and is plane of focus. The plane of focus is the precise distance where light entering the aperture or lens projects an image onto the medium, which is usually parallel to the lens plane. Any camera with the lens plane in a fixed, parallel relationship to the media plane will render everything at the focus distance in the same degree of sharp focus. But some cameras and accessories give photographers extensive creative control over the plane of focus by changing that parallel relationship. Read on.

BELLOWS OPTIONS

One common way to alter the fixed relationship between the lens and film planes occurs in direct view cameras, where a flexible bellows is placed between the lens and the media plane, allowing you to manipulate each plane independently. View cameras locate the lens on what is called the “front standard” and the media plane is on the “rear standard.” View cameras provide two movements that alter the lens plane to media plane relationship; they are tilt (in which the front or rear standard is tilted downward or upward) and swing (in which the front or rear standard is pivoted horizontally). Tilt allows you to confine the plane of focus to a horizontal strip across the media plane, and shift allows you to confine the plane of focus to a strip vertically through the film plane.

In addition to view cameras, certain medium-format camera systems, such as the Hasselblad ArcBody, offer a lens mount that will allow the same, albeit a bit more limited, plane of focus adjustments. Many SLR camera systems also have what are referred to as “tilt/shift” lenses. These options are smaller and less cumbersome than view cameras and offer the added benefit of being able to look through the view-finder while making the photograph.

Unfortunately, both of those bellows options (view cameras and tilt/shift prime lenses) are cost prohibitive for most photographers wanting to experiment with plane of focus. Fortunately, a solution came in the form of a relatively inexpensive lens designed for most common SLR and DSLR camera bodies: the Lensbaby.

PHOTOGRAPH © ANGELA FARIS BELT, SNOW ROLLER; FROM THE SERIES TRACES, 2010.

Bend it with bellows. Snow Rollers just make me smile, and when I photograph them I want people to scratch their heads and smile too. I do it by using a camera with flexible bellows and adjusting the bellows so that the plane of focus creates the path I want your eye to follow; then I adjust the aperture to restrict depth of field to where I want it. The result is a puzzling perspective on a rare phenomenon.

Lensbaby Muse.

Lensbaby Composer and Optics accessories.

Lensbabies are flexible selective focus SLR camera lenses made with multicoated glass to provide good optical quality. Using a Lensbaby, photographers can capture images with one plane in sharp focus at an angle to the media plane. You can adjust the area of sharp focus anywhere in the image area by bending the flexible lens. There are several versions of the Lensbaby, each with different advantages, and there are Lensbabies made for medium-format cameras. There are several versions of the Lensbaby and Optics to take your focus experimentation to the next level. Go to www.lansbaby.com to learn more.

Bellows cameras and adjustable plane prime lenses (including the Lensbaby) allow you to manipulate the plane of focus to direct viewers’ attention in nontraditional ways. Skewing plane of focus “out of parallel” with the media plane alters the way viewers normally see, with the fixed plane of focus afforded by human vision. It replaces the expected with seeing in a way that only the camera can, making viewers ponder the image a bit longer. This lack of familiarity forces viewers to literally see the image contents in a new and different way, opening their mind’s eye to clues about potential meanings.

LEFT IMAGE © KATHLEEN CLEMONS; RIGHT IMAGE © TONY SWEET.

Another kind of fisheye. We discussed taking a fisheye view to vantage point, as in going underwater if that’s where the shot is. But even if the shot is on land or in the sky, you can use a fisheye lens or attachment. These maritime scenes were both shot with Lensbaby, the left image with a fisheye optic added for an ultrawide view, and the image on the right with a double glass optic for a more spot-diffusion effect. It’s not only the wide warped perspective and nonlinear depth of field that give these images their charm; it’s that the photographers used vantage point and framing within the angle of view to construct engaging compositions that describe unique views reflective of their subjects.

FLEXING IN THE TRADITIONAL DARKROOM

Using a flexible bellows is the most common way to break free of the rigid relationship between lens plane and media plane, but based on understanding these aspects of photographic language you can conceptualize and experiment with other ideas. Think about the relationship of the lens plane to the media plane, and at what other points in your process you might adjust it. You cannot “bend” a digital sensor, but you can bend, bow or otherwise alter the flat plane of traditional media, both film and paper, often in traditional film and pinhole cameras and nearly always in the traditional darkroom. You can alter the flat plane of the negative in the enlarger housing, or you can print onto paper that is not parallel to the negative carrier by bowing it at its ends or placing it and the easel at a 10- to 20-degree angle to the enlarger. The attributes of focus extend any time a lens is used to project images, so the sky’s the limit. The communicative and visual potential of manipulating plane of focus isn’t limited to practices that have been widely used. Also, remember that if you’re a digital photographer and are willing to combine traditional media as well, then you can scan in one-of-a-kind traditional images to further process and print from your digital darkroom. The idea is to understand the elements of photographic language, and use their characteristics to make your own unique visual statements.

OUT-OF-FOCUS OR SOFT FOCUS SLR

Whereas the bellows option allows the lens plane and media plane to be manipulated independently, even SLR cameras with a fixed parallel lens–to–media plane relationship also offer unique opportunities for focus control. Although their plane of focus might remain parallel, in most cases cameras let photographers decide where to place the plane of focus. When an image is out of focus that only means that the lens is focusing the image at some place in space other then the media plane. If you’re using a manually focusing camera, to make an out-of-focus image you choose to capture the image out of focus by placing the plane of focus in front of or behind the media plane. While capturing images in sharp focus is an obvious default, choosing to focus outside the sharp depth of field range can lend a great deal of feeling and meaning to your images.

The only real tip to making good out-of-focus images (I know, that sounds sound like an oxymoron) is to shoot using the widest aperture on the lens. When you view through the lens as you do with most SLR cameras (called TTL viewing), you are seeing through the viewfinder at the lens’s widest aperture, because the aperture only closes down to record the image or for depth of field preview. Shooting at the camera’s maximum aperture gives you an accurate view of how the final image will look. Simply look at your subject through the viewfinder, and watch the image as though it were projected on a small screen; when the contents of the image take a form that you respond to, then shoot.

PHOTOGRAPH © SEAN WILKINSON, UNTITLED; FROM HIS SERIES TRACES, 1999, LONDON.

(Un)Focused attention. The pictorialists were on to something when they rejected the sharp nature of photographic images, but they didn’t explore all the potential surrounding lack of focus. Fine art photographer Sean Wilkinson uses a medium-format SLR camera, carefully regarding the degree of focus through the lens. He adjusts the focus until the image in the viewfinder is intriguing on its own, without relying on sharpness to carry the subject. View more of Sean Wilkinson’s work in this chapter’s Portfolio Pages.

So the question becomes “Why on earth would I want to take a picture out of focus?” The answer, as always, is you would do it for emotive or communicative value. Out-of-focus imagery can express a range of conceptual and visual meanings. Because soft focus is indistinct, you might use it to give viewers only a vague or mysterious sense of something, rather than a concrete picture of it. A lack of focus refers to memory, connotes the past, and can become completely abstract. Not all subjects will benefit from techniques like this. All you can do is consider what it might indicate about your particular subject and use it if it’s appropriate. If nothing else, the practice will help you to engage in another way of seeing and expand on your understanding of the camera’s vision.

Lens Quality

In addition to focal length and plane of focus, the third attribute of lens-made images affecting the visual outcomes and meaning of the images is the quality of the lens. Lens quality includes its optics, the clarity of its glass and coatings, and other factors; they can be plastic or diffused in a number of ways. Lens quality is a significant factor in both clarity and perceived sharpness of the image.

Image clarity and perceived sharpness include, most importantly, resolution and acutance. Without getting too far into the technical aspects of lenses, resolution is defined as the ability of the lens to render fine detail; the lack thereof creates an image that feels soft or unsharp. Acutance is the ability of the lens to render fine edge crispness and sharp transitions between contrasting tonal values. Media and materials also affect clarity, resolution, and acutance, but lens quality plays significantly in terms of camera capture. In short, the better the lens construction and higher quality the glass and coatings, the clearer and sharper your images will be. You can test resolution and acutance of any lens by purchasing a printed “resolution test chart” and shooting it according to its specified instructions. If the test chart is sharp and clear, you have a high-quality lens; if it is somewhat fuzzy compared to the original test chart, then your lens quality is lower. Keep in mind that all photographs are the second generation from the original, and no photograph will be equally sharp or sharper than the chart itself printed at equal size.

But not all photographers want to produce images that are perfectly or even reasonably clear. Many photographers recognize the value in lack of clarity for its unique relationship to the frame’s contents. In effect, decreasing lens quality can increase expressive potential. One way to produce images of diminished clarity is to use a plastic lens camera, and another is to diffuse your SLR camera’s sharp lens.

PLASTIC LENS CAMERAS

There are many types of plastic lens cameras, but the two most common are the Diana, originally introduced in the 1960s and no longer in production, and the Holga, introduced in the 1980s and still in production. Both cameras capture images that are highly regarded by some for their low-fidelity aesthetic; they maximize the serendipity of capture, producing images with light leaks, vignetted at the edges, and a reduced degree of clarity. These are all positive aesthetic advantages for practitioners who wish to use the camera’s ability to represent a subject less concretely or in this particularly stylized way. Remember that if you’re a digital photographer, then you can always shoot with these film cameras and scan in the negatives, or you could retrofit a digital camera with a plastic lens. It’s all about “the Lomo” effect (a particular brand of plastic camera—the Lomo Kompakt Automat—and urban slang for any plastic camera photography). If you’re really interested in exploring the depth and breadth of plastic camera photography, read Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity by Michelle Bates. It provides a detailed history and extensive technical information about plastic cameras (even retrofitting them).

Plastic camera images have distinct characteristics that make them appealing to a wide range of photographers from commercial to fine art. Because they generally don’t hold the film taut, the media plane is rather loose, resulting in an unsharp overall image. The exposure is usually slightly to extremely vignetted, darkening toward the edges, and often the lack of quality in camera construction leads to random light leaks. The plastic lens skews colors, causing them to be more intensely saturated than they would normally be. All of these are welcome advantages to plastic camera shooters who embrace the quirks to make truly singular images.

PHOTOGRAPHS © MICHELLE BATES; HOLGAMODS MODIFIED HOLGA PLASTIC CAMERA IMAGES.

Cheap cameras, rich images. This plastic camera phenomenon is evidenced no more strongly than in Michelle Bates’s photography. She is so passionate about plastic cameras that she literally wrote the book on them. And passion is contagious, because photographers across the spectrum use plastic cameras for fun and profit. She hopes for serendipitous lens flares and adds her own unique film-edge borders to the images using a handmade negative carrier as well. These images speak to how quirky, garish, bizarre, or just out-of-the-ordinary subjects spring to life when seen through a plastic lens. See more of her work in this chapter’s Portfolio Pages.

PHOTOGRAPH © ANGELA FARIS BELT, RAIN LEAVES, 2007.

Cheap cameras, intense images. This plastic camera image was made with a Holga camera with insert in place to make a horizontal frame. Characteristic of plastic cameras, the image edges are vignetted, and the entire image has a soft feel to it. Plastic camera images aren’t usually confused with documentary photography; they are generally used for more subjective forms of photographic expression.

DIFFUSION

Diffusion is another aspect of lens quality that should be discussed independently because of its specific, unique attributes. Diffusion shouldn’t be confused with lack of focus; diffusion softens specular light without reducing focus. It’s a fine line, I know, but even subtle differences in visual quality matter in photographic language, just as subtle differences in connotations between similar words matter. Diffusion can be accomplished in a number of ways, but most commonly it’s done with simple diffusion filters.

Essentially, diffusion filters affect bright lights by causing them to flare, thus creating a soft halo around the bright area. When shooting with diffusion filters, the highlight areas are affected most. However, the opposite happens when you take the same filter and use it to print in the darkroom; that’s because the shadow areas in a negative are the “thinnest” part of the film (less density), so they allow brighter enlarger light through. Therefore, diffusion used in the darkroom creates soft halos around shadow areas of the image. Diffusion shouldn’t affect sharp focus or image contrast.

There are spot diffusion filters with stronger diffusion at the edges and less toward the filter’s center, and there are graduated ones with stronger diffusion at one end that gradually gets less intense across the filter. Like any filters, you should limit the number you stack atop one another to three, because more than that will vignette the edges and reduce the image quality.

You don’t necessarily have to buy a diffusion filter; you can also make custom diffusion materials in a number of ways. You can find a piece of clear acetate to place in front of the lens; you can even scratch it if you like. Some people recommend spreading petroleum jelly onto an inexpensive UV filter, but I find that’s too messy; instead, spray hairspray onto the UV filter (this isn’t a filter you’d use for anything else) and you can wash and respray it at will. You can also add things like cellophane, thin nylon stockings, or any other translucent material in front of your lens. There’s no rule here, only methods that bring your images closer to your vision.

PHOTOGRAPHS © TINA LOUISE.

Lenses lacking quality. For these images the photographer used a Lensbaby (which has good optical quality when used alone) to skew the parallel plane of focus, but she added to it a single glass optic (left) to soften the image to a more vintage look. On the right, she added a pinhole optic to distort the smoothness of the image. Anything you do to the lens or place in front of it will affect the image quality; knowing how allows you to control its effects.

IMAGE © LINDSAY GENRY, 2007.

Diffuse now or diffuse later. Once you understand the nature of diffusion, its effects can help you to create a mood in your images whether in the camera or in the darkroom (traditional or digital). You can add visual weight to an image by diffusing the shadow areas into the highlight areas; conversely, you can create a more ephemeral feeling by diffusing the highlights into the shadows.

Diffusion carries connotations from dreamy and ethereal to sappy and romantic; very slight diffusion is often used in portraiture, in part to subtly smooth skin imperfections. The following images illustrate the diffusion effect; although they are digitally created, they compare to the effect you achieve using diffusion filters in-camera versus in the darkroom. Remember, half of being able to re-create a camera effect digitally is to know how it looks traditionally.

Lens Flare

Beyond the attributes of lenses, there’s one aspect of using them that, when it occurs, tends to vex photographers. It’s called lens flare—any non-image-forming light that strikes the lens and causes exposure to the medium. Lens flares can take the appearance of polygonal shapes (mimicking the aperture) and streaks of light that are either white or appear like a rainbow spectrum. Those kinds of lens flares are often welcome if they don’t interfere with the primary image contents. It is often an effect added in the digital darkroom as well. But another kind of lens flare is called “veiling flare,” and it’s almost always unwelcome; it appears as a very washed-out, low-contrast look across the image.

Lens flare, like every aspect of photographic language, can either add to or detract from your image, but knowing how it happens allows you to control it or avoid it. Lens flare most often occurs when you shoot “into the sun” or frame a bright light source inside the lens’s angle of view, but it can also happen when you don’t see the light source in the frame if the light is striking the front of the lens. If you want to try for lens flare in the image, then make several attempts varying your position slightly while keeping the light on your lens. If you want to avoid it, the first option is to recrop—that is, move. But if you have the image framed the way you want it, you can also add a lens hood or shade (or even use your free hand) to help shield the front of the lens. If a lens shade is too long for the focal length for which it is intended, it will cause edge vignetting (as will your hand if you’re not careful). You can avoid or embrace the vignetting too, knowing that you don’t have to shield the entire lens, only the glass in the front of it.

As an element of photographic grammar, apertures, lenses, and focus act as image quality control more than any other element. From wide views to narrow ones, from deep to compressed space, from crisp sharpness to soft diffusion—these are all attributes of the same element. Focus and depth of field direct the viewer’s eye in a controlled and meaningful path throughout the frame and emphasize the aspects of the frame that are central to communicating the meaning of the image. Radical manipulation of lens attributes such as plane of focus and diffusion are prevalent in contemporary fine art and advertising photography, pointing to this element’s significance as a sophisticated tool for visual and communicative expression to a wide range of viewers. Conceptual use allows you to utilize focus on its continuum from concrete imagery whose authority and specificity feel indisputable, to seductively ethereal imagery that only hints at its content as it highlights form and color.

PHOTOGRAPHS © ANGELA FARIS BELT, 2009.

Happy accident rainbow flare. Walking through my backyard woods I turned a corner into the sun and was struck by the light and the color of the aspen leaves just in front of me. I decided to take a snapshot study (left) hoping that if I didn’t shade my lens I would get some lens flare. Exploring different angles and distances, I finally made the image on the right, complete with a huge half-moon rainbow lens flare. It worked so well—the halo edge of light surrounding the aspen leaf, and the rainbow cradling the leaf in a similar shape came together to make a photograph that expresses both the intensity of the light and the beauty of the leaf that struck me to begin with.

CHAPTER EXERCISES: USING APERTURES AND FOCUS TO COMMUNICATE

These exercises will help you “focus on” (I couldn’t resist) camera focus and how to manipulate it. It will also help you answer questions about elements like clarity, depth of field, plane of focus, and softness that are important aspects of photographic image making. Can an out-of-focus image enlighten us about a subject? Can a pinhole camera image, with its lack of sharpness but infinite depth of field, offer new perspective about a specific topic? As you proceed, remember to stick with the chosen subject or concept you’ve been shooting for the previous exercises. For these exercises concentrate on what the notion of “focus” has to say about your subject or what your subject has to say about focus. As another challenge, try to work in a “series”—that is, a group of images that all work together. If you find a technique that really works for your subject, then continue shooting that way until you have perhaps four successful images.

1.  Depth of Field Series

Make a series of photographs with your camera set at its closest focusing distance.

Look through the lens and compose your images based only on the sharply focused aspects of the frame in relation to light and shadow rendered in the rapidly diminishing depth of field that you see. Use close to the widest aperture (f/2, 2.8, 4) available on your lens in order to limit your depth of field to what you see through the lens.

Next, with your camera on a tripod, compose an image with content in the foreground, middle ground, and background. Focus in the middle and, using equivalent exposures, make a range of images in one-stop increments from your largest to smallest aperture.

For added complexity, you could create limited depth of field images to be printed as diptychs, triptychs, or multipanel panoramas. As in the previous chapter exercises, plan the gestalt images in advance so that the results are more predictable. Still, work in a series, and edit four to six successful multipanel images to print.

2.  Out-of-Focus Series

For this exercise, make a series of photographs with your camera set to a focusing distance that renders the scene out of focus. Don’t change your distance from your subject until it’s in focus! Look through the lens and compose based only on the light and shadow that you see. Use close to the widest aperture (f/2, 2.8) available on your lens in order to limit your depth of field to what you see through the lens. Print a series of three to five of them, being sure to consider how their subject matter relates as a group.

3.  Plane of Focus Manipulation

For this exercise, you’ll need access to a Hasselblad Arc Body or Flex Body, a Lensbaby, a large-format view camera, or even a vintage camera with an adjustable bellows. View the scene through the lens, and begin adjusting the bellows or lens plane until the plane of focus looks interesting to you. Don’t over-analyze it—make intuitive decisions based on the appearance of the image in the viewfinder or ground glass.

Approach this exercise as a series as well, and try to produce four to six images where the plane of focus manipulation adds to visual quality or meaning.

4.  Convert Your SLR Camera into a Pinhole Camera

For this exercise, you’ll want to do some independent research (beginning with Pinhole Resource, www.pinholeresource.com). Purchase a ready-made pinhole body cap, or buy an extra camera body cap and follow the chapter instructions about how to make one. Use it to make photographs of your chosen subject, topic, or genre. Think conceptually about how the extremely wide depth of field against the softness of the image can affect your viewers’ perception of your subject.

PORTFOLIO PAGES

The artists represented in this chapter’s Portfolio Pages engage in a wide range of photographic practices. They use traditional, digital, and hybrid media, and they consciously (visually as well as conceptually) address how the depth and clarity of focus affect the appearance and meaning of their photographs. The work in these pages is not about apertures or focus per se; rather, it uses the guiding principles of these technical devices as visual strategies to support or address their subject.

These images are intended to inspire creative thinking and critical debate about the content and subject of the work, as well as the use of apertures and lenses in relation to them. Additionally, think of other instances where still images use the depth and clarity of focus consciously, or reference them in the work in order to comment on their subject. How might increasingly conscious use of the attributes of apertures and lenses add dimension and meaning to your images?

LIFE–SIZE

ELEMENTS

Cynthia Greig’s work straddles a strange line between humorous irony and serious theoretical photographic study. She consistently uses photographic language to carry her messages in intelligent and visually interesting ways. In this series she juxtaposes miniature objects in the frame with their actual-size human users, forcing us at first to laugh, then to question our eyes, and finally to think about the nature of perception in general.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I’m fascinated by the fact that almost anything—whether sunglasses, a hypodermic needle, or a condom—can be found in miniature. I’m equally intrigued by the desire to collect such tiny replicas of normal-size objects. As a smaller-scale surrogate of the original, the miniature implies the existence of some kind of alternative universe where we—as larger bodies—are like gods, omnipotent and in control. For my series Life-Size, I use a 35 mm SLR camera with a macro lens to photograph my friends and family interacting with miniature dollhouse objects in their own homes and backyards. By exploiting extremely shallow depth of field I make the surrounding environment fall out of focus, drawing attention to the surface details of the tiny objects as well as the wrinkles, scars, and pores of my larger human subjects. In the darkroom I enlarge the negative so that the previously small appears to approximate the “life-size” in the final photograph. This dramatic shift in scale and narrow range of focus emphasize the resemblance of the miniature to its larger-size referent and at the same time upset our usual sense of order and proportion.

The resulting photographs show gigantic adult figures invading a claustrophobic world of Lilliputian proportions, awkwardly attempting to make these undersized objects function as if they were actual working possessions or tools. This intersection of scales disturbs the imagined perfection of a mini-sized fantasy world, eliciting humorous and absurd narratives that explore our desire to control and contain the unpredictable and sometimes overwhelming circumstances of life. By inviting the viewer to look beyond the surface and confront the betrayal of appearances, the photographs explore the relationship between how we see, interpret, and experience the world we live in. By making images that challenge our expectations, I’m exploring how perceptual experience shapes our understanding of the world around us and our concepts of what is real or an illusion.

Sunglasses, 2001.

Life preserver, 2003.

Gun (evidence), 2003.

IMAGES © CYNTHIA GREIG; FROM THE SERIES LIFE-SIZE; 16″ × 20″ BORDERLESS CHROMOGENIC PRINTS

PLASTIC CAMERA IMAGES

ELEMENTS

When you get down to it, plastic cameras really are fun. Combine that with the subject matter in Michelle Bates’s images, and you have a perfect combination. With subjects ranging from ironic to tragi-comic to humorous, she capitalizes on the serendipitous happenings that go along with using plastic cameras, such as the lens flare surrounding her Holy Cow. Her rough-hewn but rounded borders made with her own handmade negative carrier speak to the content of her images and give them a signature style.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Holga is my camera of choice. It’s a super-simple plastic box with a spring shutter and almost no way to adjust your exposure. It doesn’t roll the film on tightly, sometimes the back falls off, and the negatives are usually way overexposed or underexposed. On the plus side, they’re cheap and light, and the images they make have a look and feel wonderfully different from what you get with a “normal” camera.

With my first successful Holga image made in 1991, I discovered that the square-ish negative was a bit bigger than the standard size for its format (6 cm × 6 cm on medium-format 120 film). In response, I cut a negative carrier out of cardboard that follows the Holga negative’s natural edges, and I’ve been using that carrier ever since.

I’ve always loved the inherent characteristics of Holga images. They bulge outward like an old TV screen, leaving straight lines out of the picture completely. They vignette, drawing the eye into the center of the frame. The focus likewise falls off toward the edges, mimicking how we see the world through our eyes.

The themes I’ve made the subjects of my Holga images have changed over the years, but my Holgas always seem to like photographing quirky subjects. I have many images of carnivals rides, animals, fake animals, sculptures, parades, and other funky subjects that make people smile. Over time, though, I’ve pulled the Holga away from its traditional milieu to try to tease great photographs out of other subjects. These series include many city and nature photos, both scenic and abstract, and photos that focus on graphic qualities in structures.

The hit-or-miss aspect of this type of shooting keeps the intrigue in the act of photographing, breaking the expectation of predictability, and leaving room for unanticipated surprises.

Holy Cow, Eastern Washington.

Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle.

PHOTOGRAPHS © MICHELLE BATES.

BUNNY

ELEMENTS

Black-stroke borders and darkened vignettes draw you into another world inside Chip Simons’s photographs. This world’s odd, saturated color and strangely delineated quality of focus gives it the feeling of a fairytale, but the odd happenings occurring in Bunny might not only refer to the realm of fairytales. We could interpret them as a reference to the human condition—always chasing that carrot, the psychological weight of age, and the work and play we engage in as we pass the time in our lives. Either way, the framing, focus, and content of the images make for fascinating stories.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I love to run around with a shift/tilt lens adapter on my Mamiya RZ 67, especially with a 75 mm lens and 85b filter, and the auto prism. Though it is the world’s heaviest point-and-shoot camera, it frees me to be spontaneous with both exposure and focus. This led to a “shoot before I think” way of shooting; I let my body and my stomach feel what to do … then I snap the shutter before I let my brain compose or focus. This is how the Bunny series came about. It is a bit macabre, and melancholy, but it is also playful and innocent and fantastical. The soft focus, the vignette, and tonality add to their nostalgic and timeless impressionism. I think that selective focus is a bit like selective attention spans; sometimes my mind and I just like to wander and not focus on details … but rather take in the whole image and feel. Through these images, the viewer can do the same.

PHOTOGRAPHS © CHIP SIMONS; FROM HIS SERIES BUNNY.

PHOTOGRAPHS

ELEMENTS

Polly Chandler’s images have a true dreamlike quality created by the tilt and shift of view camera movements, but they don’t stop there. These quiet, ethereal worlds are encapsulated by rough edges of the world outside, signified by her full-frame printing of the Polaroid Type-55 film borders.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have always been drawn to expressing myself through an artistic medium, whether it is with drawing, printmaking, or photography. My images are not portraits, but narratives of my inner self. In searching for my life’s purpose, my work documents the exploration of my own identity. By combining figures with backgrounds, costumes, and props, I create works that are spiritual and allegorical. Seeking insight to who I will eventually become, I look for resolutions to unanswerable questions.

It’s important to me that my decisions in my image making are done in the field. Nothing is an afterthought; everything is done incamera. My photographs represent, among other things, my experience and interpretation of a particular place and moment in time. To manipulate the image later takes something away from that for me; it’s a sort of detachment from staying in the moment. It’s also a part of challenging myself as a photographer to create the image I’m looking for in the field and on the negative rather than “fixing” it later. I also print full frame to show that I pay close attention to everything in my frame, including the very edges; nothing is an accident. Shooting this way slows everything down and the subject has to pay close attention to the process of making the photograph along with me, making it a very collaborative effort.

PHOTOGRAPHS © POLLY CHANDLER.

THE WATERFALL PROJECT

ELEMENTS

Like he does with his photographs of New York City, Olivo Barbieri makes these huge waterfalls and coastlines seem like small models. His understanding of how plane of focus affects the appearance of depth of field enables him to transform our size-scale perception and look at things anew, in particular our own rather insignificant scale in relation to the natural world.

ARTIST STATEMENT

By means of aerial perspective and fading effects, I ask how much reality exists in our living system, or again, how far our perspective is able to comprehend what surrounds us. Probably these are questions without an exact answer, but they allow calling into question the logical relation that should subsist between human beings and our activities. In the end, the sense of living that we detect in the pictures becomes the topic of a critical assessment, of a philosophical approach where the human view negates its subjectivity and seeks for a painful, deep, desperate cynical objectivity.

PHOTOGRAPHS © OLIVO BARBIES; FROM HIS SERIES THE WATERFALL PROJECT; CANADA-USA, 2007.

TRACES

ELEMENTS

Sharpness and detail have traditionally been the goal for photographers, and making images out of focus most often accidental. But unintended outcomes, studied carefully, can lead to great discovery. Sean Wilkinson understands the nature of photographic language and knows that making beautiful, meaningful, successful photographs is done through seeing intensely rather than following tradition.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In making these pictures, I was interested in the suggestion of a thing rather than its description. Objects merge with their backgrounds, and light dissolves edges. I have deliberately sacrificed precision and detail in order to emphasize allusion and evocation. At the same time, I want the viewer to identify the subject matter sufficiently to discern, simultaneously, both its substance and its essence.

PHOTOGRAPHS © SEAN WILKINSON; FROM HIS SERIES TRACES; 18″ × 18″ CHROMOGENiC COLOR PRINTS.

DITCHES

ELEMENTS

Todd Dobbs makes landscape photographs outside the typical landscape genre. His 6 × 18 cm pinhole photographs are unique in their vertical orientation and that he includes within their frames all the evidence of human presence that most photographers would exclude. Although softened by the use of a pinhole, the images offer far more meaning than the expected river walk.

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a transplant from the Midwest, the Colorado Front Range is a fascinating foreign landscape to me, and much like the explorers before me, I am drawn to discovering new places and gaining a better understanding of my surroundings. In the process of this exploration, I became very interested in how early settlers to the region had a significant and lasting impact on the scenery of the area in the process of making it more habitable. Namely, in the creation and maintenance of the irrigation and reservoir system, which is essentially a complex network of man-made ditches.

The ditches were often dug by hand or mule-pulled plow; not until many years into the process would the steam engine help ease the intense labor, but only marginally. The goal was simple: provide year-round irrigation for farmers and protection from spring floods. Before the ditch system, the Front Range flooded every spring and remained relatively dry the rest of the year. As part of the ditch system, reservoirs were established to both save water for drier months and protect newly developing communities from the threat of a devastating flood. The water was diverted far into the eastern plains of Colorado using ditches to establish a large network of farming communities; to this day agriculture is one of the primary revenue sources for Colorado, just behind tourism.

While the goals of early settlers were a simple task of survival, the result visible more than 170 years later is one of immense beauty. Many Colorado “natives,” as they prefer to be called, take for granted this vital and necessary part of our ecosystem. With this project I am attempting to reacquaint the viewer with the beauty possible in the everyday utilitarian systems that we have created. The subjects I use are the ditches and the control mechanisms for Colorado’s most valuable natural resource—water. The camera I use is a simple box with a small hole, much like the crude tools of the settlers who first broke ground on the ditch system. As many scientists predict, our state will face an almost certain water shortage within the next 30 years; I hope to do my small part in recognizing and preserving these spaces before they again evolve, as humans continue to alter the ecology of our landscape.

PHOTOGRAPHS © TODD DOBBS; FROM HIS SERIES DITCHES; 3’ × 1’ OR 1 ’ × 3’ ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINTS ON CANVAS WITH VARNISH, GALLERY STRETCHED.

UNCANNY PLACES

ELEMENTS

As a means of exploring our world and interpreting its visible realities, photography is a powerful form of empirical research. In exploring very ordinary places, Virgilio Ferreira references lack of focus metaphorically through a different element of photography—time. Through multiple exposures he actually softens the line between discrete moments to allude to the magic of the photographic process and our individual experience of the world.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Uncanny Places project is settled on the expressive ambiguity of certain images, which are both familiar and foreign at the same time. In my view, these images evoke fragments of the contemporary world—a world of strangeness and similarity, hallucinatory, made of blurred and ever changing boundaries. My pictures aim to get away from that regulated world, without leaving it, but inspecting it.

The project deals with binaries such as the logic versus the magical, the rational and the irrational. Poetic experiments are created through an intuitive passage through apparently common places, with no compass; this deliberate aimlessness paves the way for moments of serendipity. Shot on various locations in Europe, the United States, China, and Russia, Uncanny Places meets with different trajectories combining several frameworks to include feelings of awe and fear, provoking memory and illusion, and giving off a sense of myth and fantasy—ll of which I try to recreate visually.

A double-exposure is intentionally used, in a very short time span, in the same image, for the same occurrence. This is to create a notion of continuity between “there” and “here,” where two points in time overlap in the same place. The presence of the two physical and chronological layers in the same image contradicts the ordinary flow of perception. These images were taken in medium format with the use of color reversal film, without resorting to digital manipulation, the analogical adding to the mystery of these images.

PHOTOGRAPHS VIRGILIO FERREIRA; FROM HIS SERIES UNCANNY PLACES; ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINTS ON 100% COTTON RAG PAPER, 20” × 20”.

THE WHITE ROOM

ELEMENTS

The selectively out-of-focus images by Victor Schrager might seem at first glance to be paintings. Indeed, in their lack of sharp focus throughout, they counter the usual still-life photography style, but they offer something new instead. They provide a fresh way of seeing, tied to unusual subject matter that transcends its own materiality to embody the form and shape that are these images.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Still life mines the inexhaustible plastic volume of space always available to me; the objects in the pictures are semiconductors of light: light as, light through, light in, and light on.

Light lubricates the interaction of objects in front of the camera with interstitial joy.

Focus sharp and soft, thick and lean, allows the visuality of the photograph to construct as well as describe.

The White Room is a Clean Room. Dark and darkness are no longer the underlying metaphors for photography.

IMAGES VICTOR SCHRAGER; FROM HIS SERIES THE WHITE ROOM; ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINTS, 35” × 44”, 2008.