From their introduction to the public at the beginning of the 20th century well into their heyday in the 1950’s the motion picture became the visual element to reach the public at large with a force that was rarely matched. As technical aspects were refined and film upon film emerged moviemakers strove harder and longer to produce more sophisticated movies in terms of style, storytelling and camera work. However by and large I was not raised on the classics of the golden age of filmmaking; rather I grew up with my father watching science fiction and lower quality productions on late-night television, VHS tapes and later DVDs. These “B-Movies” were the nostalgic core of my youth and while they may be obscure I strive to give them new meaning through their interactions with each other and by virtue of their still nature.
Film-stills exist in a dichotomic state. On the one hand they are the condensation of thousands of pictures in a given movie into a single moment while simultaneously being removed from any context; for these images there is no past and no foreseeable future, all we have is the moment represented by the still. By virtue of this fact the source of these stills becomes unimportant, as they eventually detach from whatever movie they belonged to to become their own entity. Also, these are not the promotional stills Hollywood sought out. Rather I’ve found the moments between moments: casual glances not meant to be stared at, an image that didn’t stay on screen long enough, the slight turn of a head etc.
By making the moving picture still and reinterpreting these scenes through the gum bichromate process I seek to show an alternative view to these movies, a reimagination of what these movies and their images can mean.
