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I’ve always been a huge fan of Panoramic photography, and I really like to engage in it when I travel. I captured the image above at Multnomah Falls just outside of Portland, Oregon. No, no Photoshop, it actually was that green there.

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This panorama was taken out of the window of a friend’s apartment in Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. That gorgeous red building in the foreground was a brewery at one time and is now a cultural center. I only spent three days in Berlin after a week working in Oberkochen and Munich, and would really like to go back.

Both images were shot with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 and stitched together with Kolor’s AutoPano Pro—both were shot handheld, no tripod.

 Travel Panoramas.

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Sadness On Her Face is a photo of a woman I once knew. She was a neighbor, and we would go out drinking often. But underlying her normal outgoing and strong personality, ever so rarely I would sense a hint of sadness, a wearing-down. It was never something you could grasp looking head-on. But if you paid close attention, you might catch it as her words in a sentence trailed off, or in a slightly too-long-held look as she glanced out a window. She was a stunningly beautiful African-American woman, and I photographed her a lot. I had quite a crush on her–alas, it wasn’t reciprocated. As I look back at those images, they are mostly just snapshots of her across a bar table or in a restaurant. But this photo is different.

Technically it’s a wreck. It’s massively underexposed, hence little detail—and no focus point to speak of. The composition shows no real rhyme or reason. But the camera caught that briefest moment of sadness I could sometimes feel. I knew it the moment I saw the negative. The camera can do that—it can snatch out a slice of truth about a person that you aren’t usually privy to; it can snatch out a slice of time that the eye normally would miss.

I moved out of that neighborhood and never saw her again. I wonder if she is happy.

Sadness On Her Face.

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I shot the film set shots during the filming of the noir film A Little Silence by Nathan Milford. The film was shot in 35mm film, which is a rarity for low budget indie films. This particular shoot was an all night event during winter in NYC. It was chilly. Production was wonderful and provided heat pads for boots and gloves. We were in a very beautiful section of the West Village in Manhattan. But there was one thing that I immediately fell in love with:

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The wardrobe–Zoot Suits and all. The period clothing was wonderful. The gangster and the goil above looked pretty much as I’d imagined them in 1930′s New York. Even though the film was shot in color, I really liked the black and white renderings.

The shoot went well, with the typical bits of hurry up and wait and much discussion about creative detail. We did have one snafu: even though the production had a permit to be in this location, one of the locals didn’t take kindly to being woken up at 3am. Who could blame him? That neighborhood must have a film crew shooting in it at the least monthly, maybe more often. But, the director talked him down carefully, and we moved a bit further down the land and went on with the work.

The were shot with my Leica M6, and probably a mix of Tri-X and Neopan 1600.

Noir Film.

The post From The Archive: Noir Film Shoot — A Little Silence appeared first on The Decentered Element.

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The photo of The Aerial Dancer was taken at small independent dance production. I don’t recall any of the details such as the name of the show or when it was, but it was in a tiny space converted into a theatre in one of the endless hidden buildings in Brooklyn.

The performer was perfect as she flew towards the audience—she had a gaunt, harsh look that brought to mind a witch or a disturbing puppet. I originally titled the file “Freak Fly.”

Aerial Dancer.

The post From The Archive: The Aerial Dancer appeared first on The Decentered Element.

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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!

Fear, NYC.

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I shot this totem pole in the late ’90s in Viewpoint Park in West Seattle. It was shot on my all-time favorite (but a pain to work with!) film: Kodak HIE Infrared. Looks like with a Canon 24mm lens on my AE-1P. Interesting story: one day a crew with a crane pulled up and removed the pole. Stolen. Just like that. It’s back in place, and it has been restored. Quite a beautiful piece of work.

 Totem pole.

The post From The Archive: West Seattle Totem Pole appeared first on The Decentered Element.

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I shot some set photos for a small horror movie production called “The Arm.” I’m not sure if it ever made it to the screen… Leica M6, Neopan 1600 pushed a stop, DD-X developer. Yep, that was a real ax. Fake blood, but real ax. Stand back… there wasn’t a lot of room as this was in a basement in a building in Brooklyn. I love the change from stillness to motion to psychosis.

Triptych.

The post From The Archive: Triptych From The Production Of “The Arm” appeared first on The Decentered Element.