Backstage Kokoro
A "behind-the-scenes" look at selected images in my Kokoro project —
Content, photographic notes, EXIF data, creative process, miscellaneous commentary, and original digital captures. And now with additional audio comments about selected images!
From Kokoro #046 - Poe in Pictures
This place gave me the creeps just walking into it. It was one small room in a large complex that was an abandoned oil pump factory in Lishui, China. Several of the larger building had been converted to art galleries hosting a major photography exhibit, but others — like this one — were open, but dark and intimidating. I have no idea why I went in, but I did. I remember being fascinated by the light coming in through the hole in the ceiling and the fall leaves on the floor. As creepy as it was, I photographed it and got out as quickly as I could.
And that's one of the things that I find interesting about photography in our time — its ability to allow us to collect so freely while we are out photographing, with no idea why we photograph something. Now that I've found a place for this image, I'm really glad I made the effort to photograph it. If I hadn't — because I had no use for it at the time — it would not have been available to me in this project, now 6 years later.
I've said elsewhere that if I never made another exposure for the rest of my life, I could still actively produce work by just mining my archives. This image and its use in this installment of Kokoro is a great example of what I mean.
Original digital capture (downsized for the web)
1/6 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 400, Panasonic DMC-G1, LUMIX G VARIO 14-45/F3.5-5.6, 23 mm
This place gave me the creeps just walking into it. It was one small room in a large complex that was an abandoned oil pump factory in Lishui, China. Several of the larger building had been converted to art galleries hosting a major photography exhibit, but others — like this one — were open, but dark and intimidating. I have no idea why I went in, but I did. I remember being fascinated by the light coming in through the hole in the ceiling and the fall leaves on the floor. As creepy as it was, I photographed it and got out as quickly as I could.
And that's one of the things that I find interesting about photography in our time — its ability to allow us to collect so freely while we are out photographing, with no idea why we photograph something. Now that I've found a place for this image, I'm really glad I made the effort to photograph it. If I hadn't — because I had no use for it at the time — it would not have been available to me in this project, now 6 years later.
I've said elsewhere that if I never made another exposure for the rest of my life, I could still actively produce work by just mining my archives. This image and its use in this installment of Kokoro is a great example of what I mean.
Original digital capture (downsized for the web)
1/6 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 400, Panasonic DMC-G1, LUMIX G VARIO 14-45/F3.5-5.6, 23 mm