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Light Leaks Issue 12

L o w

F i d e l i t y

P h o t o g r a p h y

Evidencef

e jinterview

Chris Bennett

cDIY

Flipped-lens Hawkeye

ySHOwcases

Rebecca Tolk, skip smith

lGaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Toy Box

The Blackbird, Fly

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Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks L o w

F i d e l i t y

jthe first word

2009: Habits Worth Keeping

P h o t o g r a p h y

Issue 12 Contents

3 The First Word By Steph Parke 4 Treadly Speaking

Contributing Writers | Steph Parke, Tread, Dawn Boswell-

Evidence: What are your Images Proof of?

Challand, Elizabeth Soule, Aline Smithson, Wallace

By Tread 6 Trippin’

Billingham, Brett Johnson, C. Gary Moyer

Thailand: The Land of Smiles

Design and Production | Michael Barnes

By Dawn Boswell-Challand 8 Interview

E-mail: lightleakspress@rogers.com Web site: www.lightleaks.org

Lonely America: An Interview with Chris Bennett

Fax: 1-866-220-0480

By Elizabeth Soule 16 Gallery

Little Zoo series was showcased in LL9, has joined the team as

time. I like to ramble. I tell stories all too frequently that

an editoral assistant with great ideas, quick wit, and downright

consist of “Wait. What was I just talking about?” and “What

cool-ness. In addition to her behind-the-scenes work, she also in-

was the point of my

terviewed Chris Bennett

story?” It’s ironic because

for the issue.

and welcome Elizabeth!

elementary

school,

Thanks,

my teachers would voice concern to my parents

Before I close and send

because I never spoke,

your wandering eyes into

and now I can’t shut up.

the rest of the magazine,

I worked at a department

I wanted to thank our

store with my best friend

guest

for a few years after high

Dawn Boswell-Challand

school and she and I

and Brett Johnson, and

would get separated on a

our

daily basis. We eventually

Rebecca Tolk and Skip Smith for working with

contributors

Showcase

Artists

Printed in Canada

EVIDENCE: Photographic Proof

turned to walkie-talkies,

by The Lowe-Martin Group

Photo Editor, Aline Smithson

and then new jobs alto-

us this issue. I also want

gether. I’m not sure if

to extend big thanks,

there’s a place for it in the

hugs and mugs of beer

Guinness World Records,

to our mainstays Aline,

but you should see the

Tread, Wally, and Gary,

length of some of the

and our editors Janet

www.lmgroup.com

40 Showcase

Rebecca Tolk 44 Showcase

Skip Smith 48 Technique

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Penny and Mr. E. for

long-winded. Just ask my

your constant hard work and willingness to deal quickly with deadlines and my wordy emails. And of course, to you, our subscribers, our readers, our

52 DIY

Flipped-lens Hawkeye

By Brett Johnson

But today, I’m drawing a big blank on what to babble on about

fans, our champions, thank you for your support. We couldn’t do

for this first issue of 2009, a new year that surely brings new sets

this without you.

of personal goals and new experiences. At Light Leaks, this issue brings about the contributions of a new photographer who we

54 Gary’s Toy Box

BBF: The Blackbird, Fly

Cover Photo By

e-mails I’ve typed. I am

patient husband.

By Wallace Billingham

have a habit of building clocks instead of just telling the

Happy 2009, friends!

are very excited to have on board with us. Elizabeth Soule, whose

By C. Gary Moyer

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

binterview

Lonely America: An Interview with Chris Bennett

Interview by Elizabeth Soule

as a freelance commercial photo assistant for about two years in Chicago, Santa Fe, and Portland before I started Newspace. ES: What photographers and/or filmmakers influence you? CB: I’m inspired by someone new every day but the core of my

I sat down with Chris Bennett, founder and executive director

Elizabeth Soule: What is your photography background?

of Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Oregon, over e-mail and coffee to learn more about his personal work, as well as Newspace, one of the Portland area’s largest photography resource centers, and what it means to the community. Here’s what he had to say.

Chris Bennett: Once my high school would allow me to take photography classes (sophomore year), I enrolled and never looked back. After high school I went on to earn a BFA in Photography from Indiana University (1999). From there I worked as a course assistant at the Santa Fe Photo Workshops for two summers, and

inspiration would be: Thomas Joshua Cooper, James Fee, Bill Viola, Terrence Malik, Carleton Watkins, Robert Frank, Doug & Mike Starn, Francis Bacon, Pentti Sammallahti, William Eggleston, and Alec Soth. ES: Tell me about your series Broken Cinema. How did it come about? What inspired you to create it? CB: I came into possession of the camera I use to create it and that’s what really started it all. In 2001, the last summer I was working at the Santa Fe workshops, I bought a camera off someone I worked with there. It was a specific Kodak Brownie model that accepts 120 film. No not many of them do. I began using it, just shooting and testing it out, not having a specific project in mind. Over the years I’ve kept shooting with it,

Swifts

occasionally hanging groups of images up for a show here and there wherever I was living. It was not until a few years ago that I decided to really focus on using this camera to create a larger body of work that I now call Broken Cinema. From 1999-04, I was making a lot of Super 8 films and not making as many still images. Around 2004, I drifted back into shooting more stills and away from the moving image but I felt I wanted to somehow carry over the feeling and aesthetic of my Super 8 films into my still images. I had tried experimenting with enlarging some single Super 8 film frames but they were too grainy and hard to work with because of their size. I started going through the negatives I had shot with my Brownie. They are essentially 6x9 negs and are similar in dimension to that of a film still. I started cutting them out individually and enlarging them with a 4x5 glass carrier so I could have the thick black edges, which help create a floating, almost projected look to them. Through these extended sequences of still images I hope to create an experience that could be considered cinematic in conception.

Hart, MT

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Smokestack

Issue 12, Evidence

Trees

Ruby Ranch

As far as subject matter goes for this series, I do not focus on one specific thing. I try to

and every cell in my body. In addition, I think both memory and oblivion are important. Filming

capture patterns of light and shadow, creating places and things seemingly lost in time.

is a contradiction; I am very much stressed and focused at the very moment of shooting, but at

Over the years I have traveled quite a bit and called many of these places home. These places

the same time, it is a very relaxed moment.”

became part of who I am today, engrained in my past and memory, the only physical visual evidence left of them is through my photographs. I remember them, dark, mysterious and

ES: What type of films do you create? What cameras do you use?

isolated. They are my private internal response to my external experience, moving across lonely American landscapes, which reverberate melancholy.

CB: I use Super 8 films with various cameras I have purchased at thrift stores and garage sales. I have never done any type of narrative film. I would say my films are experimental and

I really like to use this quote from Jonas Mekas when I display my images: “It is not my

collaborative. For most of them, I have collaborated with musicians where they write music for

business to tell you what it is all about. My business is to get excited about it, to bring it

a film I have made (“Stateless”, “For Jonathan”) or I create a film for a song (“In These Hills”,

to your attention. I am a raving maniac of cinema. I capture what I see with my eyes into my

“Offshore”), but I don’t like to think of them as “music videos” as that is such a generic and easy

camera, and in doing so, I use all my body – not only my eyes but my brain, my heart and each

type of classification.

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

p q cGallery

EVIDENCE: Photographic Proof

Gallery Editor, Aline Smithson

his round of submissions was proof enough that you have been collecting evidence from all over the world. Unfortunately your gifts of observation were too great for the amount of available pages and

some great images got bagged and put into storage. I wish we could have showcased all the photographic proof and I thank you for taking the time to submit.

The evidence you obtained ranged from losing a bathing suit, belting out a karaoke number, finding something out of place, observing how we have affected the world around us, or how time has changed the man-made or natural world. As photographers and documentarians, we have the ability to Something Left Behind, Christopher W. Luhar-Trice

The Crooner, Jim Pollock, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Starkville, MS, USA, www.cwtrice.com

Jim.Pollock@sbcglobal.net

Holga 120S

Holga 120N

Climbing Everest , Justin Lynham, London, UK

The Ruins of a Walled City, Patrick Walker-Kuntz

Yellowstone #1, Liv Naesheim, Los Angeles, CA, USA,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sadmafioso

Billings, MT, USA

ibelivn@yahoo.com

Holga

Holga 120N

Holga

freeze that visual evidence for further investigation. Gloves are optional.

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

Han Dynasty Tomb - Xi’an, China, Ernie Button, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Complexities, Ky Lewis, London, United Kingdom

www.erniebutton.com

www.flickr.com/people/kycamlewis

Holga

Holga120CFN with expired Agfa RSXII film

Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs, Chris Wardwell, Houston, TX, USA

Trecker Track, Stephan Kaps , Lindhorst, Germany

http://wardy.my-expressions.com

www.lomohomes.com/mephisto19

Holga 120N

Diana+

Totem, Eric Algra, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ericalgra.com Diana F (original)

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

Tricicle, Fernanda Montoro, London / Montevideo

A Little Boy Was Here, Alina Andrei, Romania

www.fernanda.carbonmade.com

www.alinaandrei.blogspot.com

Polaroid SX-70

Holga

Someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lost Her Head, Ewa James, Bollington, Cheshire, UK www.flickr.com/photos/ewaj Holga

Always Lost In The Sea, Arnaud Galtier, Paris,France

The Clue, MickaĂŤl Correia, Montpellier, France

http://www.lomohomes.com/agaltier

http://holgarama.blogspot.com

Holga

Holga 120SF

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

Eggs, Claire Smith, Boston, MA, USA

Homo Ouroborus, Jane Linders, St. Louis, MO, USA

Claire@plymouthgrating.com

http://www.freewebs.com/janelinders

Polaroid 680

Holga

Back Porch Robbery, Lori Bell, Santa Maria, CA, USA

Prosperoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Elisabeth Jaquette, Cairo, Egypt

www.loribell.com

http://roboticdeer.wordpress.com/

Diana F with AG1B flashbulb

Holga

Trap, 2008, Blake Andrews, Eugene, OR, USA blakeandrewsphoto.com Diana+

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

Bath Time, Adrienne Defendi, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Important to Plan(t) Ahead, Sean Rohde, Phoenix, AZ, USA

www.adriennedefendi.com

http://moominsean.blogspot.com/

HolgaSF

Holga 120SF

Evidence, Rado Velev, Sofia, Bulgaria http://rado.st Holga

Slippers by the River, Mindy Nardone, Freeland, PA, USA

In the Forest, Iva Peele, Ancramdale, NY, USA

mindy110@ptd.net

www.ipeelephoto.com

Holga 120N

4x5 pinhole with 56 Polaroid film

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

kshowcase

Rebecca Tolk

Carnival

Daffodils

Cherry Blossoms

Popcorn Solstice

Jacquieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cherries

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

sshowcase

Skip Smith

Saint

Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pocket

Bridge Astoria

Chetzemoka

Boca Grande

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

wTechnique

Baby, It’s Cold Outside By Wallace Billingham

s I write this, it is a whopping three degrees Fahrenheit

get a touch of condensation when you move your camera from

outside (-38C) and winter has officially arrived here in the

inside where it’s warm to outside where it is cold, inside your car

Northern Hemisphere. With cold weather like this it is

where it is warm and back outside. One way to solve that problem

tempting to stay inside where it is warm, but to do so would be to

is to use plastic zipper bags with a silica gel packet in them. Just

miss out on one of my favorite times of the year.

put the camera into the bag and seal it. It is also better to keep your gear in the trunk of your car where it is colder. Another cause

Photography in winter can be a challenge. Cold weather can and

of condensation is keeping your camera inside of your coat where

will play havoc with batteries and all things electronic. Of course

the air is much warmer and moist. One thing I also try to do is

when you shoot with plastic toys that’s something you don’t really

when I load up the camera, I don’t advance the film all the way

have to worry about. I am sure that long ago in Hong Kong when

to frame one. That way I can trip the shutter a dozen or so times

the people at the Great Wall Factory were putting together the

to warm it up and make sure all is moving well. Another trick is

Diana they must have had cold weather in mind to design such

to use the lens cap (you did keep it, didn’t you?) and fire off the

a nice piece of cold weather gear. While you don’t have to worry

shutter with the lens covered. If you’re in the middle of a roll and

much about electronics when shooting with toys in cold weather

you find yourself with a sticky shutter, your best bet is to sacrifice

there are a few other things you need to keep in mind.

a frame and keep on firing the shutter until it hopefully clears. It is also possible that your shutter is on the verge of failing or just

The first and most important thing is to keep yourself warm and

needs a good lube. In the article section of toycamera.com, there

safe. In cold weather frostbite and hypothermia are major issues

is a great article written by Mike Barnes on how to lube and repair

to worry about. I can tell you first hand that frostbite is not fun.

a Diana shutter.

Everything your mother used to tell you is true. Wear a hat, dress in layers, and keep your feet and hands warm. Insulated boots and

Now that your shutter is working, it’s time to think about making

gloves are a must. I find chemical hand warmers to be a godsend. It

good exposures. Winter exposures can be tricky. On the one hand

is also very important to keep yourself hydrated, and if you venture

the sun is much weaker than in the summer. On the other hand

out alone make sure that someone knows where you are going and

snow and ice are very reflective and can easily cause massive

when you will be back. One other tip I learned long ago is to wear

overexposure. There is no hard and fast rule of thumb here besides

wool socks, not cotton. If your feet get wet, cotton will make your

experience and experimentation. As usual with toy cameras a good

feet colder but wool will keep them warm.

400 speed film is a pretty safe bet.

Once you have yourself taken care of you can begin to think about

One other thing with the Diana and other cameras with a metal

your cameras. While there is often nothing electronic to fail, cold

shutter release or other metal parts is that during cold weather

weather can take its toll on your camera. One thing I have noticed

your fingers can freeze to them, so keep your fingers and your

when it gets cold out is that toy camera shutters can often get

cameras dry.

sticky, which will lead to overexposure and blurry pictures. It seems

like the Diana and her many clones are often especially prone to

I have also experienced several other oddities over the years with

stick when the mercury drops. One reason for this is that you can

film in cold weather. The first was having film break on me. This can

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine

Issue 12, Evidence

oSneak Peak

Issue 13: Road Trip

Road Trip: people and places along the way. Your one best shot of something youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve captured while traveling east to west, north to south, or out the car window, from the mundane to the meaningful. Sign up for our newsletter at http://www.lightleaks.org/mail.html for updates.

Issue 12, Evidence

Light Leaks Magazine