October 2015

This Month's Photograph   I took this photograph in Brussels. The paint and vines make this something beyond just a door. The combination of bright soft-edged painted colors and the vines give it the quality of a landscape that has magically appeared in an urban space. As a photographer, I am always seeking ways to bring out the extraordinary in everyday environments. In this photograph, I had some help from the homeowner, who had created this fantastic door. I like photographing the many ways people modify urban spaces to reflect their dreams and values.

September 2015

This Month's Photograph   This month's photograph was taken in the Boston Public Garden. This is the Boston Acro Play group. When I began photography I was most interested in photographing people I did not know, but I had no idea how to do so. And then I saw the photographs of Robert Frank showing everyday life rather than news events or celebrities. The next day I photographed a parade of children and their pets in Palo Alto, CA. I was disappointed with the results and threw away the negatives. My timing was off - way off. I realized that for the type of candid I was interested in, it was often critical to take the picture before the person could choose how to react to the event. I continue to photograph parades and festivals, but have become much happier with my timing and the subsequent results. Working close creates a dramatic perspective that is unobtainable by any other method, especially when using a wide angle lens. I am most comfortable using ones that have an angle of view of 84 -104°, working 3 feet or closer to my main subject. I don't pose them or talk with them while taking their picture, but they know I am there. The closer I shoot the faster I need to decide when to shoot and continue to only shoot before the person can make a choice how to react to my presence. "Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed." - Garry Winogrand

August 2015

This Month's Photograph I took this panoramic photograph in New York City on the Upper West Side. I have experimented with panoramic photography for a number of years, trying a variety of approaches. I created this photograph using a digital mirrorless camera mounted on a tripod with a Really Right Stuff Panoramic head and editing it with Photomerge in Photoshop. I also use the Autostitch application to create images that might be considered freeform panoramics. My iBook "Autostitched 1.0" is now available for 99 cents from the iTunes stores. It is compatible with iTouch, iPhone, iPad and MacBooks. You need to have an iPad with iBooks 2 or later and iOS 5 or later, or an iPhone with iOS 8.4 or later, or a Mac with OS X 10.9 or later. You can see more of my panoramics at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/sets/72157633709957926/ You can see some of my autostitched photographs at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/sets/72157633378139401 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/sets/72157633259245123

July 2015

This Month's Photograph This photograph was made in Barcelona. Making photographs in Barcelona gave me my first opportunity to explore using Autostitch outside of the United States. I like to photograph things I have never noticed before. Never having been to Spain before, there was lots to notice. The Autostitch series is an extension of my work with panoramic photography, which I began in the early 1970s by pasting darkroom prints together. I continued the work in the 1980s using a 35mm camera with a built in panoramic mask and then in the 1990s using a view camera with a custom-designed panoramic film slide. In the early 2000s, I began to cut and repiece photographs using Adobe Photoshop. For the photographs in this series, I use a variety of cameras, as well an iPhone and an iPad. Each photograph is composed of several smaller photographs electronically pieced together using an algorithm created by Cloudburst Research and offered in the apps Autostitch and Calico.  Perspective and texture play a central role in all of my photography. In this series, I have perspective options that I never knew were possible. I have always liked wide angle lenses, as well as photo compositing techniques that give a similar perspective effect to wide angle lenses. The algorithms in AutoStitch and Calico enhance the possibilities that I previously only began to explore with lenses and photo compositing.

June 2015

This Month's Photograph

This photograph is from Crane Beach in Ipswich, MA. I have gone to this beach every year since I have been a child. I have photographed this particular area many times over many years with a variety of cameras and lenses. In the summer this area is filled with picnic benches where people can purchase lunch. The shadows from the enclosure make interesting patterns on the people. The patterns of the shadows in this empty space are also equally as interesting without the summer benches and people. Lately I have been making triptychs in a wide variety of settings and am experimenting further into polyptych composition or compositions that are made in sections - primarily quadriptychs (4 sections), pentaptychs (5 sections) and hexaptychs (6 sections).  I am drawn to making these photographs for their ability to expand wide angle perspective in a way that is uniquely different from what is captured with a wide angle lens.

May 2015

This Month's Photograph As a child, I never understood why people made photographs, since they just looked like a record of what you could see with your eyes. I was more interested in creating images that looked different. During a visit to Times Square, my parents bought me a small novelty camera that produced circular photographs, which I thought would allow me to create unique images. However, I never actually got to see any of the circular photographs I shot, since the camera had an unfortunate voyage through a washing machine with my first roll of film. Unfortunately, my parents were unable to replace the camera. As a result, making circular photographs become one of my first objectives when I began to pursue photography as an adult. I like circular photographs, because they offer a deep, dreamlike perspective.  This photograph was shot in Acadia National Park in Maine, a place where I take photographs for at least a few days every summer. More of my circular photographs can be seen at:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/sets/72157600244893559/

April 2015

This Month's Photograph I began making panoramic photographs in 1974 after seeing the work of Art Sinsabaugh. I liked how he used a long horizontal frame to create a unique type of wide angle photograph. Sinsabaugh used a huge "banquet" view camera that shot 12" x 20" film. Long ago I tried to buy a camera like this and found it was not possible. Since then, I have tried a variety of approaches to achieve the same effect-including pasting darkroom photographs together, using cameras with manufactured and custom-made masks, working with a variety of panoramic stitching programs, and employing sweep panoramic. I currently work with the panoramic stitching applications Autostitch, Calico and Photomerge, as well as manual stitching in Photoshop and cameras utilizing Sweep Panorama firmware. I created this photograph using a digital mirrorless camera mounted on a tripod with a Really Right Stuff Panoramic head and editing it with Photomerge. More of my panoramics can be seen at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/sets/72157633709957926/

March 2015

This Month's Photograph I first became interested in the idea of using two or more photographs together after seeing Duane Michaels 1970 book "Sequences" and the 1940 photograph by Ansel Adams "Surf Sequence, San Mateo County Coast, California." While Michaels used multiple panel photographs to tell a story and Adams used them to show a sequence in time, I wanted to use them as a way to explore space in an unconventional way. I am drawn to making these photographs, especially triptychs, for their ability to expand wide angle perspective in a way that is uniquely different from what is captured with a wide angle lens.  More of my triptychs can be seen at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/sets/72157634890963838/

February 2015

This Month's Photograph This is a photograph from my upcoming exhibit of candid photographs at Middlesex Community College, where I teach. Paul Light - Candids Middlesex Community College Henderson Hall Bedford, Massachusetts March 2 to April 3, 2015   If you are in the Boston area, please come see my exhibit https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/…/72157650451361958/

January 2015

This Month's Photograph My earliest photographs of people were street candids. Occasionally, I made portraits of friends. This all changed after seeing the portraits of Paul Strand and Diane Arbus. I liked how Strand and Arbus photographed people in a simple and direct way.  My first 20 years of portraits were mostly of total strangers in Boston and Cambridge, taken as I roamed the streets creating photographs for newspaper and textbook publishers. I used as a neutral a background as I could find spontaneously. Most of these photographs were black and white. What I liked about creating these portraits was that the people interacted with me, influencing the way the photographs looked. In recent years, I have mostly photographed my students at Middlesex Community College. I initially began these portraits as a way to demonstrate to students how to photograph people. As time went on, I realized that these demonstrations offered another opportunity for me to the work that I so valued. In doing so, I found myself going back to where I started - with square, black and white photographs, taken outdoors, with direct and neutral backgrounds. You can see more of my portraits at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/sets/72157650122445296/