Nightwork 3.0

During the summer of 1977 I began the Nightwork series. I had been doing multiple printing for 7 years and I wanted a method of visualizing altered images where the entire alteration process could take place in the camera.

I like working in the dark. The camera sees a blank space until I light it. The angle, brightness and color of the light is carefully thought out. Each element chosen to be lit gets it’s own unique multiple lighting combination.

The camera process consists of a combination of two techniques pioneered by Gary Ruble in the early 1970s. The first technique is to make a time exposure with the camera placed on a tripod, the shutter set on the B setting (bulb) and the lens aperture set for maximum depth of field in a dark space. The second technique is a lighting technique. Ruble used a 2000-watt quartz spotlight, I use small hand held variable power Sunpak and Vivitar flash units set on minimum power. While the shutter is open I walk into the visual space hand holding the flash and lighting the space in very small segments popping the flash multiple times, sometimes 100 times or more.The flash is not connected to the camera. It is triggered by a button built into the flash unit. Many of my recent photographs are lit by blinking a high power flashlight off and on very quickly and some cases a combination of flashlight and flash.