Projects - Ghost Town (2014-2016)

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Dave Hogan Photo: Cynthia Hogan
Narrative

Dave Hogan - In college, I remember being told that photography and cinematography was "painting on film with light." Just as a sculptor will manipulate a medium or a painter will use different brushes to apply paint to a canvas, so will a photographer or filmmaker use lenses, aperture size, exposure time, and film speed/resolution to achieve a result. Sometimes we are painting with light on a CCD* rather than film, but the point remains that photography is unique in that it can be as much a technical documentation of reality or an abstract representation of emotion as one desires.

For me, the moving or still images I capture are an attempt to share a personal experience. Although sometimes I lean towards documenting something from my perspective, I usually try to convey an emotion that I felt via a two-dimensional image. Sometimes this takes the form of a wide-angle view that captures an entire scene. Sometimes, it's a macro close-up of some minute detail that caught my attention. Other times I'm fascinated by some spontaneously occurring symmetry or juxtaposition. I almost never stage a scene.

When someone looks at my imagery and indicates that they are experiencing the same feelings I did when capturing it, I feel that I have succeeded. However, it's also satisfying when someone sees something that I did not see. It can be something that I overlooked, or the observer may be seeing a new reality created by my manipulation of light. All captured images, whether moving or still, are documents of reality but the nature of that reality is up to the observer to determine. It's interesting to unintentionally create a reality that I may never have been aware of, but for the fact that someone shared their impression with me. "Painting with light" not only provides a nonverbal form of communication, but can create an endless hall of mirrors as each observer finds their own realities in a photograph or a film.

*CCD stands for charge-coupled device. It's the chip in the camera that converts the incoming photons into electron charges. These electron charges are then transferred to the storage device as a digital image.

NEW PROJECT Rambling Man by Dave Hogan