Friday

I've been thinking about photographic composite panoramas. Generally, I'm compelled to take photographs for two reasons. The first is when I'm experiencing something I wish to share, or revisit, another time. The second is when I've noticed something interesting--an item or viewpoint--within a given environment. Lately, this second situation has resulted in these composites. This means I take a number of pictures in sequence and place them together into one image. I'm thinking I do this for the following reasons. It offers me a limited opportunity to recreate the environment in which my subject appeared. I assume that one of the interesting things about my subject is its juxtaposition with its surroundings so I try to present this context. In the process, however, interesting things happen to the environment. First, the notion of photographic verisimilitude is reduced as parallax warps my context into something new. Secondly, I am able to decrease my forced control over the viewer by manipulating the exposure and focal plane of individual parts. Imagine one example: a photograph, or photo-realistic painting, where the narrow depth of field forces tangential aspects of the image out of focus. Even attractive images made like this cannot naturally preserve environmental context. People do not perceive their surroundings in this way. Looking around a room, we perceive things in equal focus. Working within this illustration: I'm trying to capture the whole rooms around subjects that spark my interest. I'm also interested in how this process opens closed spaces (by distorting them) and how paneling reinforces vertical areas within these widened spaces. Anyway, I was thinking these things because I've been making these composites today. Check 'em out here. Lastly, some admin: our dear Ellie comes to town this evening, so I won't be updating again until Sunday. [Cavin]