A roll of color 35mm film dedicated to the abstract idea of capturing spontaneous moments of "solitude". I find the very "practice" of landscape photography to be both therapeutic and meditational. Most of the images were made as soon my visual field and mind perceived a sense of "solitude" by what was "seen" and "felt". After the images were made into prints I used the best ones to then create short sound clips using acoustic guitar and ambient field recordings. The goal was to amplify the feeling of solitude by involving another sensation, in this case ears. Furthermore, each image and sound clip were the result of improvisation both in the original capture of the image and my musical reaction to it. Therefore, one could say the the work has a strong sense of "reciprocal determination" or "free play" not unlike jazz. The sound was recorded using the voice memo on my iphone 5. This was only after I spent a few hours composing music using software but determined the work deviated too much from it's original spontaneous nature and decided to keep things much simpler.
Camera: Minolta x-700
Film: Fuji Natura1600
What I learned: This project was very fun and effortless to shoot but much harder to edit and create since the idea was very "conceptual" and "subjective". Furthermore, there was some issues with film choice. After seeing the final results it quickly became apparent that Fuji Natura1600 does a very poor job with the colors blue, green and red. Many of my original shots had these colors as I find them very soothing but the film just seemed to desaturate them. However, the earth tones in the film are outstanding so that was a positive result. In essence. taking a word and using it to inspire a whole collection of photographic motifs is very challenging but extremely rewarding and fun to try. Furthermore, adding sound to the work is a field with which I would like to continue to pursue and hopefully develop into some type of "in-person" sound installation that can be seen and felt on a much more amplified level. In the meantime, this project feels inadequate or incomplete but I am glad I pursued it.
The Results:
