Pittsburgh
Staccato
Many parallels can be drawn between music and
photography. There are similarities between
musical counterpoint and the relationships between elements
in pictures; there are similarities between instrumentation
and the defining characteristics of cameras.
I began my work with pinhole photography
while studying traditional black & white photography under Dylan Vitone at
Pittsburgh Filmmakers. I experimented with
camera focal lengths, film planes, angles of view, and the
pinhole diameters--aspects of photography that are as
pervasive and variable as tonality and timbre in music.
Like a musician who
composes a motif then shapes it into a phrase and
finally a movement, I began with the architecture of
Pittsburgh, exploring various interpretations, creating
associations between light, shadow, proximity, and point of
view. Over the next two years I developed a composite of
related images, all made from subjects found in and around
Pittsburgh. These pictures evolved into the
series Pittsburgh Staccato.
--Allen C.
Benson |