Artist Statement
My photography examines the passage of time. With the aid of a digital slitscan camera of my own invention, the horizontal axis of the image is rendered as a time exposure. A single sliver of space is imaged over an extended period of time, with moving objects inserting themselves into the data stream at different speeds and directions. The result is a swap of the dimensions of X and Time. Counter to the classical rules of photography, still objects are blurred and subjects in motion are rendered clearly.
Process Statement
Instead of mirroring the world as we know it, this camera records a hidden reality. The apparent "distortions" in the images all happen in-camera as the image is being recorded. There is no Photoshop manipulation. These "distortions" could really be described as a more accurate way of seeing the passage of time, although unfamiliar to our traditional concept of the depiction of time and space in art. In other words, this camera is recording a reality that exists, but one we cannot see without it.
Ansen Seale (b. 1960, Texas, USA) is an artist based in San Antonio, Texas. His time-based works of photographic art have been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally and have been collected by corporate, institutional and private collectors. In 2009, he received the Bernard Lifshutz Award in the Visual Arts from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio.
Seale works with a special digital panoramic camera of his own invention. His camera has the ability to capture a vertical slice of the scene over and over in rapid succession, in effect, swapping the horizontal dimension of the photo for the dimension of time. Instead of mirroring the world as we know it, this camera records a hidden reality. The apparent “distortions” in the images all happen in-camera as the image is being recorded.
The surprising visual result of this technique is that unmoving objects are blurred and moving subjects are rendered clearly. This is no trick, but the rules about what a photograph is have been changed. In this form of photography, abstraction is the norm, not the exception.
Seale is recording a hidden reality. Like a microscope or telescope, the machine expands our ability to perceive more about the nature of reality. The apparent “distortion” of the image all happens in-camera. Manipulation is unnecessary.
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