The Czech photographer Miroslav Tichy

My friend, photographer Ron Klein, having just returned from a trip along the Siberian railway with a Russian cohort, brought a cardboard camera to an IAPP meeting some years ago. It was constructed during the journey and was a medium format, panoramic camera that made impressive images as I recall. It was a well constructed piece of work intended to make fine, conventional images.

Of course it is not uncommon for photographers to make their own cameras, whether they be sophisticated, special-purpose engineering marvels, converted mint tins or substantially modified extant cameras.

And then there are the various permutations of camera aesthetics that embrace all manner of imperfections from streaky plastic lenses to perpetual light leaks. But the story of Miroslav Tichy is especially fascinating. He apparently fully embraced bad cameras, improper technique and disheveled appearance in equal measure as the fundamental core of his creative expression.

Handmade camera

His cameras were made from collected materials and were often regarded by his subjects as clearly non-functional even as their image was being captured. He lived in Kyjov in the Czech Republic and was a trained artist who ended up living a reclusive and eccentric lifestyle free from the standards of society as he pursued his artistic endeavor.

He has recently begun to receive greater exposure and the following resources are a sample of the material covering his life and work. It is certainly worth tracking down further examples of both his photographs and his cameras.

Resources:

The artist's site

Michael Hoppen Gallery - Artist - Miroslav TichyTichy Ocean Foundation

Wikipedia

Extravagant Disorder - The Nation

New York Time - Art and Design

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The exhibition of Portland area pinhole photographers opens Friday, December 2, 5-8 PM at Brian Marki Fine Art. The gallery is located at 2236 NE Broadway.
Phone - 503-249-5659
email - art@brianmarki.com

Artists include: Rich Bergeman, David Brunn, Rachel Curtis, Don Jepson-Minyard, George Kelly, Darius Kuzmickas, Douglas Prior, Faulkner Short

I'll be giving a brief talk at 7:00.

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Copyright 2010 David Van Zandt

Violin maker, photographer and camera builder David Van Zandt is having an opening for his mainly photography work on Saturday October 9 from 6:00 to 9:00.
It's largely pinhole panoramic work. A man after my own heart . . .

The location is:

The Scoop @ Walters
6408 32nd Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107

(next to Rain City Video in the Sunset Hill region of northwest Ballard)

I'll likely be busy working on my house so drop by and say hello for me . . .

And don't forget to stop in the ShowPDX opening tonight here in Portland.

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I just received the current edition of the online publication Fraction Magazine which includes a wonderful gallery of work entitled Seeking Perfection: Traditional Apple Growing in Japan by photographer Jane Alden Stevens. Fraction Magazine is one of a growing number of exceptional online photography publications featuring work like Jane's series on these extraordinary Japanese farmers engaged in yet another inspiring traditional craft. Jane's photos in this exhibit consist of a mix of pinhole and lens-based work.

Rejected Apple, Fall, Aomori Prefecture

I originally met Jane after she purchased a Pinoramic 120 camera for a project she did on WW1 cemeteries in France called Tears of Stone: WW1 Remembered.

Jane shows a natural talent with the panoramic format and was inspired by the large number of WW1 memorials she saw on a trip to France to return and document them. The gallery of images that resulted from that trip can be seen at Jane's website.

Memento, Vermandovillers German Cemetery, France

Jane used an original model Pinoramic 120 model for the Tears of Stone project.

Jane Alden Stevens with Pinoramic 120

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"The Ruin" - Cartago, Costa Rica - P.90 photograph

I imagine that one of the reasons people travel is the chance - however small - it affords to see that you have ways about you that weren't all that apparent traveling only amongst your own tribe. Lisa and I made a medical tourism pilgrimage to Costa Rica recently and I was frequently aware that it was not my tribal elders that ran the place.

And there's nothing like getting behind the wheel of a car to give you a quick appreciation for that. Never mind the odd layout of streets and utter lack of street name signage in San Jose or the complete disregard for what signage there was come nightfall, one of the things that most tickled my cultural funny-bone was the presence of bus stops in the right hand lane along the main highway. Costa Rica is just similar enough to my own home turf to find it amusing that I had to be constantly on the lookout for pedestrians on the highway trying to catch a bus stopped in the outside lane of traffic. But then - I don't get out much . . .

So after quickly tiring from the thought of driving by yet another standard issue Costa Rican church (Italy spoils one for that sort of thing) I was completely delighted to stumble across the Romanesque edifice know to locals in Cartago simply as "The Ruin". This was clearly another kind of project and indeed it turns out to have been designed in the 1870's by the German architect Francisco Kurtz on a site typified by the frequent destruction of churches due to earthquakes. In keeping with tradition, this example was never completed because it was built on a site typified by the frequent destruction of churches by earthquakes. More recently the church grounds have been made into a very pleasant contemporary sculpture garden featuring one my favorite materials - rusty steel.

I consumed an entire roll of film with my P.90 while wandering among the Costa Rican couples and families who inhabit the grounds apparently oblivious to their original intended role as a place of worship and perhaps even the current focus on the display of rusted personal expression. Naturally I couldn't help reflecting on the Bungaloft remodel and its attendant seismic concerns as I worked to be inconspicuous with my very conspicuous wooden camera while photographing the roofless remains. My favorite image from that afternoon so far is the one above. I like the tree asserting its presence next to the timeless old structure and my own awareness that just below the frame is the veritable throng of visitors keeping their vigil beneath the beautiful stone walls.

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