In Camera

Photograph made using two mirrors that enable the camera to view itself as the camera is being shot through the back using a handgun placed inside the bellows of the 10 x 8 inch camera. The main orange flash is the exposure made by the gun as it is triggered inside the camera and facing the 10×8 inch sheet of color film. Susan Sontag , Walther Benjamin and Roland Barthes amongst others discuss the idea of the camera as gun and the concept of shooting a subject using light rather than bullets. In this experiment the two subjects, Camera and gun are bought together with the gun placed directly inside the camera. The 10×8 inch large format allows enough space for the additional equipment to be placed without interfering too much with the final image quality.

2012

The diagram here gives a schematic layout that produced the in camera photograph with the original concept of a hole made by the physical bullet passing through the film combined with an image of the bullet as it emerges from the back of the camera itself

Using a similar set up to the first image above this photograph, although blurry, shows a small cloud of smoke to the left of the orange/red flash which is the smoke from the gun exiting the camera back and just to the left of the smoke the bullet can be seen.

Arm (in camera)

This photograph literally shows the operators arm and shirt cuff with the hand inside the camera operating the gun trigger. The hand is taped to the camera bellows to keep the light from entering the camera. The gun is placed to the side of the camera interior so the film can capture enough of the image and the gun is aimed directly at the camera lens from inside. The remarkable thing about this image is that there is indeed any image at all. Most of the lens is destroyed and can be seen exploding from the front of the camera. The small amount of remaining lens is just enough to capture the event via two mirrors which gives the view point from the side. The bluish grey fogging on the lower part of the image is due to the light leaking and exposing the film. In camera was the culmination of two years of work and placing the gun within the camera was the final and most extreme experiment bring that project to a close.

2012