Out that it was missing the requisite neutral density center filter. After purchasing a used panoramic camera, I found “The initial image was taken during the spring semester of 2011 while I was the director Still, I didn’t abandon function for form: Most of theseĬameras are fitted with a high-resolution German or Japanese large-format lens capable Many of my later Franken-cameras were created Since cameras are objects that connect our eyes, our minds and our hands, Often it is the design and finish that truly make an object My Scandinavian heritage, but I tend to believe that all utile objects need this aspect Them not just as photographic tools that produce artwork, but as sculptural objectsįor a long time, I have contemplated the form of cameras beyond their function. Rebuilding cameras on a larger scale opened another horizon for me: I began considering Re-machined lens tubes fitted with super-wide lenses, and the cameras stayed set on In the case of several of my Franken-Graflexes, I simply Maybe it is just that they have such an extended depth of field thatįocusing is not necessary. I should add that I am a wide-angle lens freak. Of these cameras allowed for easy dismantling and re-integration of dissimilar parts.Īn added bonus: the increase in negative size naturally yields sharper images, as XL, which had been engineered for military use in the Vietnam War. I began modifying larger-format cameras like the Graflex Though my early camera modifications were simple ergonomic tweaks, it emboldened me Eventually my tinkering yielded a solution Had to completely remove its back to load film. It was a revolutionaryĬamera that was also an ergonomic nightmare. Often don’t feel right in the hand or they don’t function exactly as a photographer I bought a Nikon F camera just like one used by Hemmings’ character.ĭespite all the research and development done by camera designers, their products The movie made me want to be a photographer. Solve the mystery by blowing up his negatives until the prints become enormous black Redgrave’s bare breasts I was transfixed watching David Hemmings’ character try to Mod London who finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery. The plot involves a fashion photographer in The film had some brief nudity and was banned by the nuns in my school, which wasĪll the motivation I needed to see it. Me into a showing of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up. I can trace my passion for cameras back to the 1960s, when my older brother smuggled That’s the exciting thing about film photography for me there’s always a surprise. There’s also an unplanned element: the beam of light coming down from the upper-right. Paper is peeling off, but it says HOME, and I thought it was an interesting dichotomy. It’s freezing cold, in the middle of a blizzard, the billboard “The complexity of this piece just blew me away when I saw it. Know if it’s because these cameras/sculptures look a bit scary or because I resembleĪ mad scientist when combining all the odd bits and pieces to bring these one-of-a-kind My students have dubbed them “Franken-cameras” - I don’t Inside the Ames School of Art’s sculpture studio you might find some recent examples That deconstructing and reconstructing objects provides. Result is an assemblage or a found-object sculpture. Other times I concentrate solely on conceptual and aesthetic notions: the Sometimes the motivation is to improve on the original design of something, fromĪntique Italian motorcycles to a renovated 100-year-old building on Bloomington’s I take everything apart and put it together in a new Wanted to have a bicycle, I had to build one. Making things from scrounged parts was a necessary skill for us. In their original form and sometimes according to my own design. Later I learned to put things back together - sometimes Often I would takeĪpart alarm clocks or other mechanical devices just to get at the little gears, which Harness and leashed to the clothesline, I would pull a Houdini. Moments after I was buckled into my child Hello, my name is Kevin, and I am a compulsive tinkerer.īy all accounts I have always been very adept at taking things apart. Key parts of his Franken-camera project were supported by the Transforming Lives campaign'sĮndowments that support faculty and student research and artistic initiatives. Story and art by KEVIN STRANDBERG Strandberg with one of his "monsters" - which is both a sculpture and a working camera. From IWU Magazine, Fall 2014 The Franken-Camera Project From the sublime to the ridiculous, Professor Kevin Strandberg transforms pieces and
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