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In the aftermath of 9/11, I became obsessed with photographing people in gasmasks.
This is explained better in the IX/XI gallery here (If you look at the third image, “Kelly,” you might notice she is on top of the same stairway, which looks quite different after tilting and shifting with my large format camera). Fear, NYC was photographed on the roof of the building I lived in in Fort Green, Brooklyn. It didn’t make the cut because I wasn’t happy with the way the trim on the out of focus buildings in the background (mostly right side) rendered. It looks Photoshopped to me, but this is a straight scan of the negative right out of the chemicals (Apologies for the condition of the image—if you look closely, you can see dust, etc. on the negative from the scanning process—It hasn’t undergone the 1-2 hours of painstaking spotting (cleaning) that an image I plan to show would receive). This was photographed with a Linhof Technikardan TK45 4×5″ camera and a Schneider Super-Symmar XL 110mm F5.6 lens—a truly outstanding optic. From the looks of the scan, and without digging out the original negative, I’m almost positive this is Ilford HP5+ film, roller processed in Kodak HC-110.
The model was my always-willing-to-submit-to-whatever-crazy-photographic-idea-I-wanted-to-try friend Baan Jung–a very talented artist and all-around wonderful person. Sadly, we’ve lost track of each other. If you read this Baan, get in touch!