Photography Beyond Technique: Essays from F295 on the Informed Use of Alternative and Historical Photographic Processes

MYSTERY, MEMORY, AND NARRATIVE

Martha Casanave

Explorations Along an Imaginary Coastline began innocently enough with a foray to the coastline one day in 2000. I was in a depressing photographic hiatus, and a friend twisted my arm, scolding me for doing no photography, and persuading me to go out with our 4x5” pinhole cameras. “Out? Did I hear you right? But, I’m an indoor photographer! I don’t do landscapes!” He told me to “stop whining; doing something was better than doing nothing.”

We went out. Generally, I am bored by the natural scene, but I soon realized that the pinhole camera, with its short focal length and placement directly on the ground, doesn’t see or produce anything like a natural scene. I allowed myself to move things around: ...