Trashed Cars // Clouds and Trees

10 Jul Trashed Cars // Clouds and Trees

As mentioned before, I am head over heels for the process of photomerges without leaning on Photoshop. Sans Souris kicked it off, and the love has grown to include merges of other kinds – for instance, what happens when you sandwich negatives in a scanner? The output is no longer analog, but you are still working in the same manner as you would at an enlarger, with the photo captured in pixels instead of on paper.

Photo: Arizona’s endless clouds meet Alexandria’s stormy weather. (Trashed Cars :: Two. 2007)

Trashed Cars is a set of photos created in this manner – I merged b/w negatives for the set of smoky, film noire inspired shots. The photos were taken in Phoenix, Arizona and Alexandria, Virginia, and were particularly chosen for the close relationship between cloud formations and smoke from steam grates. The streaks are actually from the light catching on windshield wipers at night, and the graininess is thanks to the ever lovely 3200 film.

Photo: Savannah’s bridges are defined by the lights of DC. (Clouds and Trees :: One. 2007)

Clouds and Trees came about in a similar fashion, but deals more with the dynamic created by combining negatives of different spatial layouts. Lines to infinity are cut off by bisecting verticals and horizontals. The odd geometric shapes were created by filming moving light at night (does anyone know the technical term for this?) – in this case the streetlights flying by while driving across Memorial Bridge in DC. These shots were combined with photos from the waterfront in Savannah, Georgia. These shots were all digital (shot with my Canon Rebel EOS) and were layered in Photoshop.

I think what baffles me in both sets is that the quality of light is consistent, but only one set works with pixels as the original photographic data.