Pittsburgh
Staccato
Many parallels can be drawn between music and
photography. There are similarities between notes in
musical counterpoint and the relations between picture elements
in images; there are similarities between musical composition and image composition.
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 motifs then shapes them into phrases and
finally movements, I began with the architecture of
Pittsburgh, exploring various interpretations, creating
associations between light, shadow, proximity, and point of
view. Then I developed a composite of
related photographs all made from subjects found in and around
Pittsburgh. These images evolved into the
series Pittsburgh Staccato.
--Allen C.
Benson |