Am I a Gamer?

Synasthesia, (check out his photo set Abandoned Haven) on flickr, asked me "I am curious how you came about your decision to experiment with your GBC (Gameboy camera). Are you a gamer?"


Two Jennifers, taken in 1999, probably scanned from the Gameboy Color.

I am a gamer, sort of. My gaming experience goes back to Pacman on my son's computer. When I tried my nephew's Tetris on the old grey brick Gameboy, I was hooked on the Nintendo. I was happy with Tetris for years. Then I got hooked on the Zelda games. I do have a few other games, but don't play them much. There are times when complete absorption in solving puzzles is a nice distraction from the stress of life. I also like to read, knit or watch movies in the evening, so I don't think of myself as a hardcore gamer.


Jeffrey, taken in 1999, probably scanned from the Gameboy Color.

About 9 years ago I bought my first gameboy camera on ebay. They seemed expensive when they first came out, so I was pleased to find a used one. I took some photos and scanned them into my computer, but then did nothing with them. Recently I was asked to participate in an online exhibit of downloadable, assemble-it-yourself artist's books. I have been experimenting with ttv and pinhole photography, so the Gameboy seemed like a good camera to use to make a quick trial book. (The exhibit will be going online soon, I'll announce it here.)


Florence - my 92 year old mother-in-law.

The simplicity of the Gameboy photos make me focus on the big picture (pun intended - the Gameboy picture is tiny on the screen) and details are not relevant. I find it all freeing in some way. It's a camera I carry around to take quick snapshots. They doesn't have to be straight or perfect. It's a moment in my life. Sometimes it's a moment of thinking "those old chairs are actually appealing in a rustic way." Or "that ladder looks beautiful in the sun." Or that moment of tenderness you sometimes feel when you look at people you love.


Jim and Florence

Gameboy Camera Tutorial

Two chairs, taken with Japanese version of Gameboy camera.

I put a five page Gameboy camera tutorial on my website. Since then I have discovered the Japanese version of the camera. As you can see above, the images are four shades of brownish orange, not the green and blue of the American version below.


The sun creeping across the floor.


Same image in greyscale.

Solargraphy

My first solargraph scan.

Joanne Koltnow sent me a link to an site on solargraphy. It's such an amazing process. You expose a piece of photographic paper in a pinhole camera for a long time - weeks or months - depending on the size of your pinhole and your patience. Then you remove the paper in dim light and scan it. No chemicals! Repeated scanning degrades the image pretty quickly.

The images can be expressive and dreamy. Great potential for an artist's book. They are negatives, but can easily be inverted with photo editing software.


Second scan. I didn't make notes, but I think I hit the "auto" setting this time. Also made the selected area smaller to keep the scanner from running so long and shining excess light on the paper. The third scan was terrible - I increased the resolution so much that the scanner kept pausing, which made bands as the paper got bluer. My fourth scan was a much darker blue, and most of the details were gone.

All these images are from one piece of photo paper. I took them with my oatmeal pinhole camera, the pinhole was about .33 mm.

Neo-Vintage Photography workshop

Karen takes a digital photo.

The first Sunday of this month, Linda Stinchfield and I presented some techniques and gadgets -- ttv (through the viewfinder), Gameboy, Lensbaby, and zoneplate/digital pinhole -- to the Bay Area Book Artists. It was a fun day, and I think we piqued some interest.


Karen, Meggie and Diane working on a set-up.


Part of the enthusiastic BABA group.


Joanne is an accomplished photographer. On the left is a contraption I made from expanding gutter material.


People brought treasured toys and objects to photograph. They seemed to say a lot about their owners.


All these toys have both obvious and more subtle meanings.


Isn't he sweet?


An Ansco Panda. It has a medium sized viewfinder, isn't it nice looking?

BABA book share meeting in gameboy camera photos

Thursday we met for the bimonthly book share meeting.




Lots of interesting discussion, before, during and after the meeting.


There is always a little time for socializing.







We meet in a Foothill college classroom, this one seems to be a geography class.




The hallway. Cubberly is a typical California grade school (now decommissioned). The halls are covered walkways, but open to the air.
You can view larger version of these photos here.

Added January 24: Actually Cubberly was a high school, the grade school is nearby.

Dreams as Inspiration and Primitive Wire Edge Bindings

Making a primitive wire edge bound book.

My book arts group, the Bay Area Book Artists, is a volunteer run organization. We are affiliated with Foothill College, in Los Altos, California. Most of our classes and programs are presented by members. On Sunday I did a short workshop for them. First, as part of a series on content, we discussed using dreams as inspiration for artist's books. I was worried about this part. I hadn't taught (actually I just lead the discussion) anything thing like this before, and was afraid no one would want to talk about their dreams. It was a great group, there were about 20 people. Many of them had dreams to share, and there were all kinds of approaches to looking at the dreams. It seemed we could have talked much longer than we did, but we had to move on.


Then we made book models using a wire edge binding technique. I wanted to show the BABA members this because it seems to have so much potential. They are a very creative group, so I think they will take this simple version and make a bunch of great books. I'm hoping to see some in a few weeks at our Book Share meeting.

Check out the gallery on the BABA website. There is also a BABA flickr group here.

Happy 2009!

The new year starts with some grey and gloomy weather here at Studio 19. But it's cozy inside. I'm surprised how many people tell me they read (and enjoy) my posts. Thank you. I hope you all have a Happy New Year, with plenty of time to make art and plenty of time with the people you love.