Rustic, dilapidated buildings in the desert southwest serve as both setting and metaphor for this series of nude photographs made with a large format pinhole camera. The images are meant to suggest and comment on a multitude of human social aspects and conditions, symbolized by the depicted female forms, whose nudity strips them of social identity and implies vulnerability. The nude figures create a visual dialog with the abandoned, decaying buildings that serve to remind us of the state of decline that we are all experiencing on a personal, cultural, and global level. The dying structures are sometimes portrayed in an anthropomorphic manner, personifying them and linking them to the fragility of humanity.

A 4x5 inch, wide-angle pinhole camera was used to help create a primitive, dreamy, and almost surreal atmosphere. A lack of complete sharpness, infinite depth of field, and natural vignetting (light fall off toward the edges of the image), are attributes of the pinhole camera, which is little more than a box with a laser-drilled pinhole, instead of a lens, to project an image onto the film inside the camera. This, along with various in-camera multiple exposures and blurring effects, help to symbolically express my visions of conflict, emotions, and desires within a social, physical, and psychological context. I strive for images with graphic formal values as well as strong narrative content that is left open to the interpretation of individual viewers.

Wayne  Norton