Specifically, the Medium

Aperture & Distortion by Grant Gomm

In Ian Rhuter’s video Silver & Light, Ian examines the process of wet-plate photography by converting an old delivery van into one large camera.  By covering a sheet of metal with chemicals, then exposing them through a giant lens, Ian creates beautiful images.  He says,  “The reality of the situation is that at this point it costs me five hundred dollars to take a single photo. When I shot my first wet plate image, and to hold something tangible that’s not a negative, it’s not a print.  And it was  so beautiful in my hands. It’s like I create this with silver and light.”  Converting a van into a camera, and spending $500.00 on each picture is not an efficient way to capture an image.  But there is something more to what he is doing.  His process, as he mentions, is really hands on – it’s “tangible.”  But it’s also not just about the process either.  Perhaps there is something intangible we create within us when we examine the medium itself that we choose to express ourselves and our art.

Scott McCloud’s work, Understanding Comics takes an interesting approach at examining comics by creating a comic about, well, comics. His piece is about defining what a comic is.  He says, “If people failed to understand comics, it was because they defined what comics could be too narrowly!”  He then compares comics to such things as the Bayeux Tapestry, pre-columbian art, and Egyptian hieroglyphics.  What better way to discuss a medium than through the medium itself?

In my piece, I examine photography and digital manipulation through photography and digital manipulation.  Originally I started out with an idea inspired by Andy Warhol’s Eight Elvises, and Ian Rhuter’s wet plate photography, and decided to make an image of a series of cameras each shot at a different aperture, lined up next to each other similar to Warhol’s piece.  An old Nikon 35mm film camera was cast as my subject, according to plan.  I took a series of locked-down pictures from a tripod mounted DSLR of the old Nikon in whole stops from f/2 through f/22 (f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, and f/22).  Those familiar with photography will understand that by also decreasing the shutter speed in whole stops, I was able to maintain equivalent exposure.  Therefore, the only differences between each picture is the depth of field.  But when it came time to manipulate the images in Photoshop, my original idea went out the window.  I wanted to say more about photography than just examine the aperture.  So I decided to make a picture with many ways to look at photography.  

In my finished work above, the cameras are positioned to create a chase scene that is reminiscent of a Star Wars battle of x-wing fighters being chased by ti-fighters.  Each camera image is placed in a layering manner from left to right, and front to back, as well as large to small.  On the right side of the image, the larger cameras represent a larger aperture and more light, more exposure.  The cameras on the left represent a smaller aperture, accounting for their size, and less light, or a darker exposure.  In the analogy of the Star Wars chase scene, they can be recognized as being on the “dark side”.  

Further, the lenses and cameras are distorted. Sometimes we like to say “the camera doesn’t lie,” but the reality is that often the lens of a camera can in fact distort the truth.  And then finally, there’s the chase.  It seems that each photographer is chasing the next, fighting for “the money shot.”