Experimental
Work
In-Camera Photomontage Series
Living in a neighborhood in Chicago during 1979 that was going through urban renewal, I was influenced by the many caution symbols marking the construction sites. The following images were created in-camera on color film with a technique utilizing multiple exposures and masks, color gels, and a light box with layers of ground glass to diffuse the light into gradients. Each image required 30 or more separate exposures to create the final composition.
Stop-Motion Sequence
For this study, the subject was photographed on black-and-white film using a vintage Nikon camera with a motor drive. the frames were printed in a darkroom using traditional techniques and digitized on a flatbed scanner. The digital images were later imported into Adobe Photoshop, manipulated, and colorized, then imported into Adobe Premiere Pro and edited in the following video. The subject is a television producer who used the final sequence for their production company signature.
Motion Studies
Based on the work of Alexander Girard, these studies were designed to teach Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects to Media Design MFA students. After learning about Girard and his work as a designer, students were given JPEGS of his artwork to trace as vector files in Adobe Illustrator. By tracing the JPEGs, the students learned how to use Illustrator's pen tools and shape builders. The layered vector files were then imported into Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics.
Some of the images that students traced from Alexander Girard's work included matchbox covers from La Fonda Del Sol restaurant, a tray from the Vitra collection, and a Girard illustration that was inspired by his folk art collection. Drawing in Adobe Illustrator and creating motion graphics in Adobe After Effects prepared students for later work when they are tasked with converting their own sketches into vector files and animating their artwork.
Pinhole Photography Workshop
The work shown below are examples from a continuing education course I developed for instructors to learn the basic principles of photography. Building cameras out of cans and boxes requires an understanding of how light is transmitted through an aperture and how the resulting image will be composed on the surface of the photographic medium. Creating different shapes for the cameras allowed the students to experiment with composition on different subjects. Students were first taught the principles of pinhole photography, then were assigned to work in teams with the different cameras.
