The making of reveal

Camera
reveal was photographed on a four by five inch field camera; a Gandolfi - a wooden camera made by the Gandolfi brothers in London. I used a large format camera so I could optimise the quality of the photographs. By using a large camera like that one could involve the sitters in the creative process, enabling them to come behind the camera and view the image on the ground glass.

Intensity
I used the four by five (inch) camera and exposures were typically one second, sometimes slightly longer, which is quite a long time for someone to sit still and gaze intently at the camera. This is a device used in olden portraiture whereby the intensity of the gaze of the sitter looking at the camera is exaggerated by the length of time they have to hold still and focus.

Collaboration
The colour photographs were taken as observational pictures by me, although some people decided that they would be in control of that as well, so I was quite guided by the amount of input each person wanted to give.

Process
At the end of each shoot I’d process and make contacts of all the pictures and send each participant a copy of the work we'd co-authored.

Permission
When I was explaining the work to different groups of people or individuals, I stressed the fact that they would be in control of the use of the image all throughout the image’s life, whether it’s in the context of this website or whether it’s in future exhibitions, I’d always ask their permission whether it could be used.

Thanks
I particularly enjoyed meeting all the people and having them show me their city and their lives. I feel particularly honoured by that and it’s an experience that I'll always remember.

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