Over the last couple of years I have been very privileged to enjoy some exchanges and conversations with a truly unique and iconic writer. Dr Rhinehart has provide me with some gratefully received feedback and encouragement in my mainly well intentioned but disorganised creative output. As I’m not currently relying on my more obtuse tinkering for income I can be more random than some. And in many ways I don’t need a dice to decide which way I’m going dive because my attention is so divided and my memory so inconsistent that every waking moment brings it’s own surprise.
I have a number of notes and a schema that plan out a dice driven drawing system. I might use these to illustrate my next musical experiment. The ‘No Direction’ thing I recently made was a good example of random connection. It might not have the bravery of throwing a dice into an interpersonal relationship but with the freedom of no commercial market to rely upon one stepping stone often leads to opportunistically chosen second stones.
I did recently promise Dr Luke a page link and I tried it but it looked wrong so until I sort it it out, this is where I’m at. In the process of trying to work the link thing out I did discovered the Diceworld documentary on YouTube which is linked in sequence below. If you aren’t aware of Dicelife or the Diceman, please have look. I read the book many years after it was published when I was at Art School. It wasn’t on the official reading list but together with listening to Captain Beefheart & watching Eraserhead it was in the loop.
I have no idea why I may have missed this previously. It’s a wonderful film, honest, insightful and humorous. Dr Luke….. thank you for your engagement. I really am very honoured.
adrian4 
Holga Camera Adventure
I bought a second hand Holga back in 2013. I took a few shots in Dartmouth but only finished the film last week at Cresswell Crags. Like my previous analog adventure I was very much trying to mess with the system. I read a good quote earlier this week ( and I paraphrase) “Photography is unique as an art form in that it’s principle elements are light & time”. The only omission here is chance. Even the most technically skilled photographer relies on the vagaries of the moment and hedges his bets by taking multiple images.
My practice for what it is, relies very much on the later and even more so in this set. The 120 film used in the Holga allows for up to 16 shots and my intention was very much to create images that incorporated multiple fleeting impressions. With this as the prime directive and no preview possibilities, chance rules. So, as I’m sure Luke Rhinehart would agree, you choose your weapon, roll the dice and live with the consequence. The only hope is that the vague transforming vision that exists utterly without substance in the mind can translate into the capture of nothingness on film.
As it turns out, other that a little post processing Snapseed editing for sharpness, contrast & grain, these are the images and I’m really quite happy with them. I think they are mysterious and ephemeral exercises in the light/ time/chance juggling. In at least one image two different locations are pulled together almost seamlessly. Like failing memory their resonance ceases to rely on truth or accuracy but on deeper responses. They have the appearance of ‘evidence of ghosts’ pictures or the forensic inquisitions of sci-fi investigations.
A quick thank you to Photo Nottingham who developed the film and Pete who scanned them for me. If you click on the images they will open up to full size.
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Filed under Comment, iPhonography, Photography, Uncategorized
Tagged as B/W, Chance, Cresswell Crags, Dartmouth, Diceman, Film, Holga, Luke Rhinehart