Hard-Hearted Sentiments

Final Photo Project: Hard-Hearted Sentiments

This series of photographs uses long exposure to explore the idea of capturing a moment that never occurred. It’s a sentiment coined by the photographer Robert Polidori to explain the contrast between long exposure photography and life reportage. The images were taken under a strict set of rules that dictated the form of each photograph:

·      All shots must be taken at eye level, utilizing a tripod

·      Shots must be taken between the midnight and 4am

·      Fixed, 30mm lens to be used for all shots

·      Shots may only use native light sources

·      Consistent aperture of F8.0

·      Consistent ISO of 100

The only setting that was allowed to vary from picture to picture was the shutter speed, which typically ranged from five seconds to two minutes. The exposure time allowed me to remove any images of people, while still leaving traces where they had been. The series starts from my bedroom and moves further and further away from this origin with each photo.

In addition to physically moving further away, each photo also becomes more and more emotionally detached. Despite living in Austin for almost five years, I have never formed any sort of emotional attachment to the city. In fact, the closest I’ve come to making such a connection would be my connection to my flat, which I consider little more than a bed and television. Still, the view from my bed, facing my small screen is still the closest thing I have to an oasis in this city. It is the origin from which I start each day. The photos move out from there, starting along familiar paths and ending up in spaces I’ve never been.