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These pictures are all performance-art photographs; no Photo
Shop or multiple exposures were used in their creation. They’re all taken at
night with long single exposures lasting from 45 minutes up to six hours. I
use a large-format 4x5 view camera with 20 square-inch negatives. After I
open the shutter of my camera, I enter the frame (sometimes accompanied by
my wife Ingela) and become a performer within the scene. Because I’m using
low-intensity moonlight to slowly illuminate the nighttime scene, I am able
to journey in front of the camera without the negative being able to record
my movement. In order for you to see my presence in the form of a “Spirit
Shadow”, I carry a small portable lighting device hidden in my hand and
stand facing a wall where I want the shadowy figure to appear. I quickly
create light onto the wall and partially block the bounce of this light
trying to reach back to the camera with my body. This creates a black
silhouette surrounded by an illuminated aura. The moonlight slowly
transforms the black silhouette into a translucent shadowy figure and builds
up the light level of the entire scene over the course of the lengthy
exposure. Since the negative can’t see me moving around, once I create one
“Spirit Shadow”, there’s nothing to stop me from creating more “Spirit
Shadows” on the same negative.
To create a “Spirit Image” where the body is partially seen,
I light up just a portion of the body.
My “Star-Trail” photographs are between five and seven hours long and record
the movement of the stars across the night sky. During the exposure, a
lantern often illuminates objects in the foreground.
copyright Robert Kawika Sheer
2000-2007
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(310) 398-1899
Robert@SheerEntertainment.com
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