Except for the most practical reasons (speed, ease and economy) I had no enthusiasm for digital photography until I started working on this set of images. All are created by moving the camera whilst the image is being captured. The results do not emerge entirely by chance: decisions have to be made whether to move the camera from the left or the right (and how fast, and with or against any movement in the scene), and/or whether to loop, twist and shake the camera. The automatic focus and exposure aids also very often need to be tricked, and working from a moving platform creates an even more interesting set of variables. Some uniquely digital effects are created – the ‘strobing’ of some frequencies of light, for example, particularly those showing as amber or orange.
The images were created between November 2008 and November 2009 on a pocket-sized Panasonic DMC-FX35 in Jakarta. The raw images are sized at 3648×2736 pixels and weigh in at around 4 MB. The 16 images presented here are drawn from a set of 60. Other than a resize to 800 pixels wide, none have been manipulated in any way and are presented in their original orientation. Were I to continue in this direction, I’d be inclined to try and create a greater tension between the abstract and the figurative: to create images that have the drama and easy allure of these, but which are more tightly tied to time and place.
