William Livingston "Art of Commerce" Long Beach Museum of Art
2300 E Ocean Blvd
Long Beach, California, United States
DATES: Thursday, June 26, 2008 - Friday, September 26, 2008
Since I rediscovered the pinhole camera (camera obscura) in the early 1990’s my work has been an ongoing experiment in photographing movement in things both natural and man-made. Using the pinhole camera, a vessel stripped of all the latest technology; the 4 by 5 inch film is exposed simply by the amount of light allowed through the pinhole during the exposure. Because these simple devices have no viewfinder and no way to adjust focus, I am left to rely on a visceral feeling about the composition and resulting image. Unlike traditional photography with clear imagery and crisp edges, the long exposure times and a lack of optical glass in pinhole photography impart a softened, painterly quality.