| From Photoworkshop.com Education/Inspiration All photos ©Wayne Martin Belger
In the centuries to follow the camera obscura was used as a drawing aid for artists and amateur painters. In the 1850s, a Scottish scientist, Sir David Brewster, was one of the first to make pinhole photographs and possibly coined the word "pinhole.” Pinhole photography became very popular and extensively used during the 19th Century. In the 20th Century, mass production of cameras and advances in film technology pushed pinhole photography into obscurity and potential oblivion. By the 1930s the technique was virtually forgotten. The mid-1960s saw a renewed interest in pinhole photography and hinted at a renaissance in the field. Today, numerous sites devoted to the technique can be found on the Internet. Not only has pinhole photography found new adherents, there is also a resurgence of interest in creating pinhole cameras.
Belger is a man who knows his own heart and who intends to express that knowledge regardless of outside commentary. Swimming against the powerful stream of popular notions, he brings his personal visions to reality. He states on his website http://boyofblue.com, “The creation of a camera comes from my desire to relate to a subject. When I choose a subject I spend time studying it. Then I start visualizing how I would like a photo of the subject to look. When that’s figured out, I start on the camera stage of the project by collecting parts, artifacts and relics that relate to the subject.” Some of the materials that go into the creation of his cameras may include, “…aluminum, titanium, copper, brass, bronze, steel, silver, gold, mercury, wood, acrylic, glass, horn, ivory, bone, human bone, human skulls, human organs, formaldehyde, HIV+ blood… all designed to be the sacred bridge of a communion offering between myself and the subject.”
Another of Belger’s cameras is built around a piece of steel from the South Tower of the World Trade Center, given to him by a rescue worker at Ground Zero with the comment, “Make an altar of this.” He did. The aluminum casing for the camera has pieces from the Koran, the Bible and the Torah inset into the aluminum of the camera’s body to symbolize the legacy of the prophet Abraham, shared by all three religions. The Bible and the Torah were from the late 19th Century, the Koran was from the mid-20th Century. Belger's been using this camera for his "Sons of Abraham" series, picturing clergy holding their sacred books, outside their places of worship.
Many of Belger’s cameras are controversial, such as the Third Eye Camera that he created “….to study the beauty of decay.” He used the 150 year old skull of a 13 year old girl that was part of a doctor’s anatomical kit. It was found, abandoned and forgotten, in an attic. In creating an altar to this lost child, Belger feels he is honoring her and her memory. Most of us have seen those roadside memorials to people who have been killed in automobile crashes. Belger created his Roadside Altar Camera to photograph these shrines that memorialize the dead. The GPS location provides the information which is used as the title for the images.
Another camera incorporates the heart of a human infant. The heart was found in a garage that had once been an anatomy lab which had been closed since the 1940s. The heart inspired Belger to create the "Heart" camera, which he uses to photograph pregnant mothers. He recounts that this project also helped him “…explore my relationship with my twin brother who died at birth.” Some people may be dismayed at Belger’s use of human skulls, organs, bones and blood. But his finished cameras and the images they produce demonstrate his obvious sensitivity to humanity and the human condition.
The images he has captured with this camera have an ethereal beauty that takes pinhole photography to a new and wondrous level. Belger’s on-site resume hints at his interests and skills: camp counselor, stock boy, professional treasure hunter, child recovery, rock climbing instructor, scuba instructor (Dive Master Training), L.A. Kings Pro Hockey team (mascot, Kingston), Anaheim Mighty Ducks Pro Hockey team (mascot, Wildwing), hockey player, studio musician, professional touring musician (Wicked Tinkers), artist, machinist, manicurist. He is a photographer who has been crafting cameras and images for a number of years. His work seems to have solid roots in the past yet he doesn’t hesitate to use modern materials and techniques all shaded by a sense of mystical wonder.
JERRY CURRIER INTERVIEWS WAYNE MARTIN BELGER
The cameras and the images you create seem to embody this same sense of magic and awe. The bio on your website offers some interesting insights into your personal philosophy regarding the creation of your photographic images, “The tools I create and work with are pinhole cameras. With pinhole photography, the same air that touches my subject can pass through the pinhole and touch the photo emulsion on the film. There’s no barrier between the two. There are no lenses changing and manipulating light. There are no chips converting light to binary code. With pinhole what you get is an unmanipulated true representation of a segment of light and time, a pure reflection of what is at that moment.” Was this philosophy prompted by any specific event or series of events?
Over the years I’ve studied many different questing systems. I like “questing systems” rather that “belief systems” because belief is stagnant. In my studies I became fascinated with alchemists and the alchemy of metal. To this date I have used 10 different metals and many relics in the construction of my cameras. All the cameras are altars designed for the quest of and communion with the subject for which they were created.
Could you share with Double Exposure readers how you decide on a subject? Is it shape, form or is the physical aspect only part of your decision? Is there a mystical element in your choice of images and the resulting cameras? WMB: When it comes to my work I’m quite self-centered. My subjects are chosen purely on my desire to learn about them or learn about myself. An example of one subject direction I have focused on in the last few years, is important peripheral occurrences. Important subjects with epic history that are seen and not acknowledged. For instance, four people are in a car, traveling on the highway at 75mph, having a conversation. They pass a roadside altar with three crosses. All four people pass the altar, continuing their conversation without a bump in the dialog. Yet everyone of them, for a fraction of a second, saw the altar and thought, “What happened? Who was killed? When did that happen? Who put the altar there? Family? Friends? What is this feeling inside me?”. The only evidence that the event was witnessed, is the car is now going 65mph! I wanted to learn about this peripheral occurrence so I made a camera to be in relationship with that subject. It has been a fascinating study of people creating beautiful altars to loved ones at the location of their loss. Creating something beautiful from something tragic, passion from pain and being involved with full spectrum that life is. It’s also been a study of how people separate themselves from nature by hiding the natural process of birth and death. Separation from nature has also been the focus of the Deer Camera, Untouchable (HIV Camera) and the Heart Camera. With the Roadside Altar Camera, I have shot about 200 photos of altars. I now know quite a bit about this important peripheral occurrence.
WMB: I did walk through an art school once for a friend’s graduation. That’s as close as I got. A friend of mine that is a very famous painter went to a big art school. He said the main thing he learned in art school was how to rebel against art school. Luckily, he was able to pay back the $100.000.00 in student loans. Most others are still struggling to do so. But they do have a degree that states that they are a “Fine Artist”. My formal training came from my parents. I was gifted with a family that never viewed my ideas, desires or motivations as strange, wrong or undoable. With the knowledge that anything is possible at a very young age, a strong desire to investigate life and dreams and the motivation to do so is normal. I’ve always had the desire and support to investigate the infinite spectrum that life is and I was given the tools to do so. One of my favorite tools was an encyclopedia set that my Mom ordered when I was 4 or 5 years old. Every month a new book would show up. What was in the books ended up being the primal sparks of what I do today. I remember reading about wizards and alchemists and deciding, “That’s what I want to be when I grow up.” Interestingly in an article about my work in the September 2007 issue of B&W Magazine, the author Richard Pitnick stated, “The decidedly gothic apparatuses embody Belger’s philosophy of the camera as a kind of alchemical resonating chamber, where space and time, matter and memory intermingle and are transformed by light to reveal the threshold of eternity.” I guess sometimes old sparks start fires…
WMB: The pinhole does give (depending on the focal length) a beautiful natural vignetting that has the feel of vintage photography. I have a collection of a few hundred vintage photographs, so I’m sure that has had an impact on what is aesthetically pleasing to me. During the shoot of a subject I don’t really try to emulate the past as I’m trying to be with my subject in the now. In the darkroom I do try to blend what is aesthetically pleasing to me, like vintage photography, if it works with the subject. But with every photo the priority is keeping the integrity of the subject. JC: Your on-site resume indicates that you have had many varied interests. Professional treasure hunter and manicurist stand out as examples. Do the experiences provided by these multifaceted interests affect your choice of subject and camera? WMB: Sometimes, but not often. The Dragonfly Camera was definitely created from my experience with child recovery. I usually don’t go back into the arenas of my previous experiences. They all offered amazing building blocks in my personal history and all those blocks are used in whatever I’m doing. But if I feel I’ve learned what I wanted to in that interest or subject, I’m usually looking for the next journey. JC: I wonder if you could give us some insights about your thinking and the reasons for the creation of the two “skull” cameras?
I had a doctor look and she said the skull was female and about 13 years old. Before she came to me, she was in an attic in England for about 80 years with a lot of other bones. I had the skull for about 4 or 5 months before I had a clear vision of the subject we would investigate together. The subject focus for the Third Eye Camera has been the beauty of decay. Light and time enters at her third eye, hitting the film inside. I surrounded her third eye with silver and gem stones so she is seen as, and feels beautiful. The photos from her have been amazing. Things end up on the negatives that weren’t there during the shoot. In one photo of a decaying boat in San Francisco bay, a child’s face can be clearly seen in the upper right hand corner of the photo. In another, a spider web pattern around a fountain in New York. I’m never really sure what we’ll get on the negative.
Yama’s eyes are cast from bronze and silver with a brass pinhole in each. The pinholes are placed exactly where the skull’s pupils were. Inside a divider runs down the middle of the skull creating two separate cameras, resulting in a stereo camera. A finished contact print, mounted on a copper plate, is inserted into the side of the camera. A copper and brass stereo viewer is mounted in the optical department of the skull to view the copper plate and see what Yama saw in 3D. It is the closest thing to looking through someone else’s eyes. JC: I see you are a Master Diver. Did any specific diving related event influence your decision to make an underwater camera? WMB: Well, diving on TV. About three years ago I was watching a National Geographic program that showed scuba divers diving beneath a frozen ocean. The still ice on the ocean’s surface didn’t allow the sun’s rays to flicker below, removing the distinctive signs of underwater photography. Leaving the divers hovering in a vast void surrounded by what could have been any medium of space. Fascinated by the image of the “void,” I wanted to recreate that image within my own work. Without the ice cap the only way this could be done is was with long exposure times, letting all the sun’s rays blend together. This quest led to the creation of “Yemaya”, the first (that I know of) underwater 4”x5” pinhole camera. It’s also the world’s most impractical camera. The first photo it ever shot was on the deck of a sunken ship at a depth of 105 feet. To get that one photo required two deep dives at 105 feet, two tanks of air, about four hours of swimming in 56 degree water and a healthy case of nitrogen narcosis at the bottom of the ocean. But the photo came out beautiful. I think the effort was well worth it.
JC: You have also been a hockey player and a mascot for two professional hockey teams. This leads me to ask a tongue-in-cheek question: Have you any plans to create a camera to photograph a hockey related subject? WMB: Hmmm…maybe I could do something with all those teeth I found on the ice.... More of Wayne’s cameras and examples of the images he creates with them may be seen on his website boyofblue.com Wayne is represented by Etherton Gallery, Tucson, Arizona and The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, California. © Copyright 2002 by Photoworkshop.com |
