Kurt Norlin - Boomtender 2 - 9 x 9 on 10 x 10 - C-print - $75

Kurt Norlin - It has been said that shadows are as important as highlights in photography. I believe that blur, as a creative element, is just as important as sharpness. It has been some twenty years since I first ran into images made with a "toy camera". These cameras were cheap plastic cameras produced during the 1950’s and 60’s as give away items. Many artists and photographers took up toy cameras, as well as pinhole cameras, as a means of making images that employed a more direct way of seeing. A approach that relied on personal vision rather than technical innovation. Many people, myself included, found these images perplexing and lacking in the expected qualities we associate with conventional photo imagery. However, during this period I became more and more interested in the essence of a place, rather than the pure descriptive fact. To that end, I started shooting with a toy and pinhole cameras to try and capture that essence. While I still continue to take many photographs with my Holgas and pinhole cameras, more recently I have been working with a Olympus E-P2 digital camera fitted with a Lensbaby and plastic optic. I wanted to retain many of the qualities that I had come to admire in toy camera images, but with the ease and flexibility of digital capture and post processing. All of the images in this show were shot using this combination. - Kurt Norlin Albany, Oregon 2013 - kurtnorlinphotography.com