snapshot of a campus

A Snapshot of a Campus At the end of November I was approached by the Higgins School of the Humanities asking if I would be interested in doing a portrait project for them. The curator had seen some of my work and was particularly interested in my “Farewell Portraits” and wondered if I could do something similar for them,, to sort of kick off their semesters Dialogue Symposium which was titled “What’s the Difference? Thoughts on Diversity and Inclusion”. They wanted me to photograph as many of the students that I could, which then would then be displayed in the common space where the events would be held that semester. 

Right around this time I was reading Christopher Bonanos book “Instant : The story of Polaroid” and there is quote from Edwin Land in there that says something like (paraphrased here) "A new kind of relationship is brought into being when members of a group are photographing and being photographed and sharing photographs. It turns out that buried within all of us, there is a latent interest in each other. There is tenderness, curiosity, excitement, affection, and companionability; a good-humored delight in each other."  And that would be the inspiration for the project. 

I said I would be delighted to do the project, I sent over the quote from the book, and insisted that the shots would be done with my SX70 and all shot on Impossible Silver Shade film. With that the project was born, “A Snapshot of a Campus”. 

Each of the photos was taken over three days, 199 photos at around 3 minutes a piece, on the Clark University Campus. Shooting this many portraits in such a short amount of time really made me come to appreciate the medium even more. The material itself becomes an unexpected collaborator in making something beautiful. Where I have to surrender to the process and let myself be delighted and excited by what (literally) develops in the taking and making of the portrait. The instant photograph by process alone becomes a more artistic endeavor. The requirement to surrender total control pushes the making process to be more akin to my experiences in sculpture or Japanese calligraphy. Where the materials themselves have something to say and to bring to the party. In the letting go, it lets the film have the ability to show or reveal something in the portrait subject that I had never noticed before that moment.. 

A technology originally intended to speed up the process of photography, today, slows us down. The shutter snaps, a blank square of film emerges. We watch and wait. Contained within those few minutes is the possibility of surprise. Each photo shot with Impossible film is a unique piece of art—a singular, tangible expression which emerges, literally, from the light in which it was taken. 

We then took a selection of those images, around 90 of them, and blew them up to 2’x2’ prints and tiled them on the wall of the Dana Commons at the university. One of the best parts was to be able to let people play with cameras and take shots of their own, with the help of Impossible project. Many people at the opening, and during the shoot, were astonished to find out that you could get new (Impossible)  film.