As the time flies by, I practice focusing on the now, which helps me appreciate how precious these moments in our lives are. To be alive and living your life, doing whatever it is that makes you happy is a good thing. Recently while on vacation in Sedona, Arizona, I created a series of photographs that I became very excited about. The photos were taking while hiking through the woods with my wife, daughter and sister in law. As the late morning sun started to shine through the canopy of the trees we hiked along the trail and passed pine trees, alligator bark junipers, sycamore trees, small bracken ferns, patches of moss, lichens growing on the walls of the rock... it was in my opinion beautiful in so many ways. To be hiking in a beautiful place with my family while creating art was as good as life get for me. Out in nature, communicating with your family, telling stories about the pas and talking about the what the future could be. I wish I could bottle these moments up in a jar and save them for later so I can remind myself that life really is good and worth working hard at what we do so we can have these moments again. To believe in yourself that whatever you set out to do, you can do it with hard work and practice. To learn from your mistakes and know that the rainy days help the plants grow and keep green. Life is a cycle of ups and downs, good days and bad days. But regardless of what kind of day we're having, it's up to us to make the best of it. To put our chin up or hand out so we can be a positive loving person that wants to live their live the best they can. When we're down we hope that others will reach down to help us up and when we're up remembering to reach down to those who are not.
I am blessed to be able to do what I love to do for my job. To create photographs that help people remember how wonderful life really is. That spending good times with friends and family is time well spent. So I want to take this moment to thank all of you out there that believe in me as a person and as an artist. I appreciate your support and wish you well in the year 2012. Life is what you make it, so get out there and do what you do the best you can and I'm sure happiness and prosperity will come your way.
My son being patient while we composed this portrait together. I like how he has this look on his face as if he's looking into the future
Experimental camera technique to give the effect that the viewer is traveling through space and time.
Sometimes people that we don't know come to us in need, how do we know they're not angels in disguise?
My daughter touching the bark of a Alligator Juniper (Juniperus deppeana)
My mind wandering through all the tiny little plant places of this moss growing on the wood and rocks on the ground of the forrest
Carpe Diem - Meaning: "In Horace, the phrase is part of the longer Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero – "Seize the Day, putting as little trust as possible in the future", and the ode says that the future is unforeseen, and that instead one should scale back one's hopes to a brief future, and drink one's wine. This phrase is usually understood against Horace's Epicurean background" - Source Wikipedia
Jean-François Noville is a pinhole (sténopé) photographer, actor/director living and working in Liège, Belgium and it's my pleasure to announce him as the December 2011 CK pinhole photographer feature on www.chriskeeney.com
I was born in 1968 and I'm basically an actor and a director at the Belgian National Theater since 2008. Photography has been a hobby for quite long, but a little bit more too since I now incorporate pinhole photography in my stage sets.
Pinhole is all about dream and imagination. I often go outside with some kids (mine and others) and shoot whatever we find and then try to tell stories while putting the images together… then mix the pictures again and start again for hours… I especially love the way the kids like to put the camera on the ground and shoot themselves lying or sitting on the ground; it brings the camera in a new perspective for me… and forces me to see the world from their point of view, which is also very fresh…
Most of the time, I love my pictures to be dirty with spots and dust, they are part of the imagination process…
I've been working on pinhole photographs mainly with non photographers… for instance, I've been working with kids on the idea of territory for the Liège photography biennale in 2010, and I also have been working on the concept of self portrait for Chechen asylum seekers in Belgium for a month… The workshop was an introduction to writing their own intimate story between here and there, the land where they try to live for now, for a while, and their home country they had to leave in a rush. They were pretty astonished to see themselves as ghosts on the pictures, this was somehow pretty similar to their intimate feelings as people living abroad with almost no status or no dignity;
Most of the times, these people don't know anything about photography, except that it's sophisticated and expensive, and that a good picture has to be clean and sharp… shooting pinhole proves the contrary within the hour and brings the process back to the basics : capturing light and shadows on paper and try to figure out what it could possibly mean… Traveling in another world made of mystery, nostalgy and melancholia…
CK - When I look at Jean-François' photography, I see images unbound and free to be as they wish to be. I see experimentation and playfulness. A photographic rawness that reminds us that an image sometimes feels good with the touch of a human hand. Letting life happen and allowing the creative spirit that is waiting to be set free from within us all. Reminding us that we may not know what happens in-between the spaces of time that we cannot see. That our creative expression is what sets us free and helps see the true beauty in life. Thank you Jean-François for sharing your inspiration with us all. And I wish everyone reading this a happy and fruitful new year! Cheers -Chris
All Images Copyright (C) 2011 Jean-François Noville and reproduced by permission
Jonathan Stead is a pinhole photographer living in Sheffield UK and it's my pleasure to announce him as the November 2011 CK pinhole photographer feature on www.chriskeeney.com
4 paper negative pinhole self-portraits photographs of Jonathan Stead
Artist website: www.jonathanstead.com
"I was at Uni studying graphic design and often like to incorporate my photography into project. I had just bough a DSLR and although found it amazing to learn with I quickly started to become bored with the sterile images it captured. I started to play with wide angle lenses and long exposures and one day while looking through photography books in the library I came across an amazing image that somehow spoke to me – the image was taken with a pinhole camera – ‘Er what I just spent £xxxx on a camera and all I needed was a tin and come paper or film!’ I was hooked.
For the entire summer I shot a tiny tin pinhole box and learned to develop my own film and I can honestly say that summer I fell in love with photography and that has led me down the very analogue route I have followed – I even have my own darkroom where I teach people various aspects of analogue photography. For a long time I did stray away from pinhole and began to make my own lenses and create unusual cameras, but pinhole is such a beautifully simple medium that I now use it when I just want some breathing space.
Most of the images here where taken on a recent trip to Split in Croatia, although I took a few different film cameras the elemental and slow process of creating pinhole images reflected the gentle and leisurely culture found in the Old Town of Split. I used a 5x4 zero image pinhole as I just love the large negatives and the feeling of working in singles rather than having a roll too blaze through or a ‘million capacity’ digital card. Each image is a one off, I don’t post process, I don’t worry about chemical stains I don’t mess with the crop, and there is something elemental about the feeling of taking images with a pinhole, something visceral and honest. There is an inherent purity that I like to keep part of the image. It is as much about relinquishing control as anything else. I count in my head, I used Ortho Film 25 ISO that I rated at 6 ISO and slightly pulled in the processing which gives unreal density and a huge amount of latitude.
Shooting pinhole makes you release what a plastic medium photography is, we become so used to 1/3rd of a stop adjustment (I only ever work in full stops even on my 35mm SLR) and talking about which lens is technically better and justifying spending £1000s on glass that sometimes that becomes a barrier to the photography. There is also something magical about seeing your pinhole negatives because you have never seen what you will get through a viewfinder. With most other cameras you look through the viewfinder, compose and shoot – you have seen a window into what you will capture, pinhole doesn’t give you that, even after lots of shooting it still surprises me by how much is in the frame or how a very busy place become deserted.
When I first started I remember using a light meter for every shot (now I take one at the beginning of the day and double or half from there depending on the light) and worrying that I would be a few seconds over or under on a two minute exposure! It took me a while to realize how flexible exposures where and how instinctive you could become. Further more, this has rippled through the rest of my photography – I always shoot on manual and use my light meter once or twice a day and have become good at being aware of changing light and adjusting my exposures to suit.
Pinhole teaches you many things that make good photography – patience, a more acute awareness of your surroundings and simplicity."
CK - I've been giving a lot of thought to photography lately... not to say that I normally don't think about photography. But just like anything in life sometimes you fade in and out of the things you're passionate about. I guess that way you don't burn out on it. I've been working on re-inventing myself keeping my creative edge sharp and interesting. Jonathan's thoughts and photos on pinhole photography kept me thinking along those lines. To find the things in life that excite you... then going out and actually doing them. Things that inspire you to create and express yourself. Thanks Jonathan for text and photos and I wish you all the best with your own creative journey.
