Superfly

Superfly, 1987 Federalington, WC

Back when we were young earnest street photographers we prowled the urban environment for any sign of interesting subjects. It was like hunting for elusive prey. Often we would spy upon some interesting denizen or two but were too timid to approach them for a photograph. Sometimes the scene was too risky. However, as depicted here the desire to be photographed met the desire to photograph. This gentleman had just walked out of a store and feeling good about his apparel and seeing Mr. Ed Porter with a camera asked to have his picture taken. This photo has never been published until now.

Super-8 Constructions

A field report fresh from the research labs. Query: how best to repurpose imagery trapped in dangerously soon to be obsolete information technology. Case in point: Super 8mm film. Each frame is in itself valuable and informative, when strung together in a sequence at 18 frames per second-the human visual perception system interprets a moving image.

Diametric Blues

The story of living down and out in washington DC in the '80's. A montage of street photography by the Kinorama Imaging Division and Music by Lee Hiway Productions. Winter 2010

follow up to...

Kinorama says:

BTW--its in Philadelphia
Posted 11 hours ago. ( permalink | delete | edit )

dullshick says:

Aha! Thanks for the thoughtful reply. We certainly share an interest in the "built" landscape, but I'm hopelessly wrapped up in particulars. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm fixated on the physical place because I'm interested in the people - Who built/used/adapted/abandoned this unique structure? Where did they go? Who lives here (or near here) now? Who will use (or flatten) it in the future? Anyway, thanks again for the compelling images...
Posted 3 hours ago. ( permalink | delete )

Kinorama says:

Again, thank you for your thoughtful comments. It means a lot to me because up until the advent of things like flickr, much of my work never gets seen.

I am thankful that my image triggered the thoughts that you expressed because, those were mine too but they occurred in the span of the moment when I first captured the image while in the physical environment.

Later on when this series started to gel for me I started to ask the very questions you raise about who, what, when, what will happen. I hate to take credit, but often my camera destroys places that I photograph. Or put in another way I (like many other photographers working in this genre) perceive fragile or transitional subjects and capture them before the inevitable wrecking ball of entropy comes along. I used to bewail the demise of things like interesting signs buildings, etc. Now with the internet, online photo collections, the ubiquity of digital "everyman" is a photographer--I am free to move on to other problems. Thus my desire to push the "Hidden Washington" series out of my archives and into cyber space.

The reason why I resist explaining geographical locations for this body of work is that I am in a struggle to wrestle my photography out of the realm of depictions of specific things and into allowing specific things be the voice for something deeper.

That is why I am so grateful for your comments because you have allowed me to understand where I need to go next through this process of explaining my process.

Your statement "'...I'm fixated on the physical place because I'm interested in the people - Who built/used/adapted/abandoned this unique structure? Where did they go? Who lives here (or near here) now? Who will use (or flatten) it in the future?" expresses exactly what I am working on, but have not had the words until now.

More Conversation

dullshick says:

Where is this? This isn't DC, is it?
Posted 2 days ago. ( permalink | delete )

Kinorama says:

Thank you for your interest in my work. I understand your desire to know where this is, but that is not the right question. Knowing the physical location will form an image in your rational mind and keep you from "seeing" the image I created. It is like the difference between hearing and listening. The answer is in the title.
Posted 24 hours ago. ( permalink | delete | edit )

dullshick says:

Fair enough. I'm not much for listening, but I do like interesting pictures - particularly of DC buildings, which is something you seem to have a knack for. Anyway, it's a fascinating picture (whether or not the structure itself is or was in DC).
Posted 19 hours ago. ( permalink | delete )

Kinorama says:

Thank you for your question. I understand where it comes from, and your question is one I get a lot for this series of work. Perhaps my answer sounds a little flip, but I have thought alot about your question. It is akin to asking someone "How are you?"--a way to broker the space between two strangers to allow further engagement.

The question: "Where is it", leads to the question "what is it about"--and that is what I am exploring. I find spaces and places such as this one in every city, so for me physical location is secondary. Except, the series "Hidden DC" that attracted your attention--those images are my first serious photographic work, and it was consciously documentary with an aim to presenting the subject matter 20 years in the future. I purposely photographed subjects that were nostalgic, historic, or appeared to be so.

This work here is the byproduct of a psuedo historic--documentary style that purposly evokes time and place while trying to be universal to the range of the american urban landscape.
Posted a moment ago. ( permalink | delete | edit )

One Year Anniversary

Industrial Church

A Flickr question: Where is this? This isn't DC, is it?
I said: Thank you for your interest in my work. I understand your desire to know where this is, but that is not the right question. Knowing the physical location will form an image in your rational mind and keep you from "seeing" the image I created. It is like the difference between hearing and listening. The answer is in the title.

FBC Rapid Response Truck

As a Subsidiary of the massive global conglomerate FBC, the American National Standard stands ready at a moment's notice to launch into action with our fleet of Rapid Response Units.

Deep Archives Project

Above: Kinorama Imaging Department, ca. 1988

(due to lack of finances the FBC Real Estate Division was

never able to purchase this building. However we claim

virtual ownership of this edifice by right of having

photographed it before its destruction)

Dear Patrons,

The Kinorama Imaging Division is pleased to announce the initiation of the Deep Archive Project. Our Aim is to present the fruit of over 25 years imaging documentation by Mr. Ed Porter. Thanks to innovations and structures present in today's internet environment we feel that the time is right to engage in a scanning project to dig deep into the substantial image resources stored in the Kinorama Image Archive.

We face a time and attention challenge to sustain this initiative to its conclusion. However, there is a wealth of unpublished images in the archives that thanks to the capacity of online presentation, we feel that the time is now to bring these images to a greater audience. In the past only a select few of "fine art" images have been offered to the public in gallery of exhibition settings. The forum for presentation of this initiative will be the online photography site on Flickr.