[MUSIC] I've been interested in ways to create photographs that speak to more than a normal moment of exposure for many years. Clearly the element of time is so integral to photography both in the technical aspects and also in the creative approach to time as a meaningful concept that its part of every picture in some important ways. If you visit my website, you'll see quite a few examples of works from different series that I've made over the years. All of them having time as a central aspect of both technique and of concept. You can decide whether I'm a dilettante or a virtuoso or something in between. That's up to you but I hope you'll see that I've not made the same style of picture year after year. In various explorations that resulted in these finished projects, and also in those that never made it, this element of time as process and time as content has been a continuous thread. An early example, although not the earliest, of a series of photographs in which I was testing certain limits related to time was the Baker Woodlot Series, which I began in 1979. I was painting with light at night. In a wood lot, on the Michigan State University campus, where many of the trees bore painted numbers so they could be identified as part of a forestry research project by my colleagues in natural sciences. What does painting with light mean? Well, these photographs were the result of very long exposures. Some about eight minutes, under very dark conditions, illuminating the scene with a flashlight and with a photo flash unit, both usually covered by colored filters. The camera was on a tripod and I could walk around in a scene without fear of being recorded, because it was so dark. I could pop the flash and paint, so to speak, with a flashlight as well, over time, and build up exposures and be surprised a few days later after the film was processed. After making these for a little while, I became more intuned with the time of exposure, which allowed me to get more intuned with the element of time of growth, of death, of decay, and I was able to convey that time element in the best pictures. A more recent series of pictures, one that I've made over the last two years is entitled, My Paris. In these photographs, I do not have the camera on a tripod. I hold it in my left hand as best I can for about 15 seconds in a totally dark room. I'm right handed, it is a vintage 1979 Polaroid SX 70 camera. And I used a wonderful, impossible project film that has revived polaroid photography worldwide. During those long exposures, I direct a flashlight with my right hand. Lighting different parts of the scene for a few seconds each time and then moving the narrow beam of light onto another spot and then another and another until the shutter closes. What results are pictures that are a combination of still and blurred images because during some of those times I'm using the flashlight. I can hold the camera quite still but during other times my hand wavers. The pictures have a quality that is to me both magically expressive and at the same time, direct and descriptive of the objects. Well, what are they about then? Well, I have rented an apartment in the Marais in Paris each summer for several years. The environment is eclectic, romantic, nostalgic of another era yet of today as well. My Paris is more than just a place. It's a blend of mystery and optimism evoked by memories and hopes and dreams integral to the objects and to the man who chose them so carefully in building his environment. It's the discovery of a shared vision of a certain ideal. One that is based not only in a hope, but a longing for a time and life that was and could be again, good and true. In terms of time, they're both about the reality of past time and present time. But also about a hope for a time that represents a more optimistic, hopeful, positive sensibility. I happened upon this apartment just doing a random search. And also happened upon a man with whom I know I share so much in terms of values. My experience of living in someone else's world is becoming more and more common. As people take up residence with strangers through AirBnB and other services for short-term sharing of living space. How can you not be affected in your own life by adopting the elements of another person's life that are as personal as their home space? I hope that through creating pictures that have both a presence and a timelessness I'm able to convey something about a space and time that is both a reality and a fantasy. To unify with another person their hopes, their dreams, and to realize that they're also one's own through the chance adoption of this other person's home becomes an opportunity for me and I hope for the viewer to take flight in both imagination and in a tangible, personal, and emotional connection. In every sense, the photographs reflect on and reveal essential natures in the man who's domicile I share and in me. And in a place of imagination, a place in time which I call My Paris. [MUSIC]
