Getting Serious with a Toy Camera, Photographs by John Armstrong
Opening reception Thursday, July 20 at 6 p.m. Artist talk at 7 p.m. Exhibition on display through August 31.
Artist Statement:
I am a photographer who is happiest wandering around or traveling with a camera in hand. I like to photograph provocative, ironic or humorous subjects and situations. In addition, I often photograph images with text or words in them. Anything that grabs my attention is fair game. For this show, we’re only including photos that were taken with a $30 Holga plastic toy camera. Some of the prints were made in a traditional photographic darkroom with various techniques and some were printed through Photoshop in a digital darkroom.
While I photograph with several kinds of cameras, I first started using a toy camera about 10 years ago. I was going on long cycling trips and wanted a film camera that was light-weight and that if broken or stolen wouldn’t cause a financial hardship to replace. I’d seen the square, vignetted photos made with this kind of camera and liked the “dreamy” nature of the photos. However, while the allure of this camera for some photographers is the very soft, low contrast, odd color photos they produce, I decided I wanted to make photos that were technically as good as I could get – I wanted the challenge of correcting as many of the shortcomings of the camera as possible.
Using a toy camera can be both exhilarating and disappointing. Sometimes you can pull an excellent print from the Holga negative and sometimes you can’t. And for me there is seldom the chance to go back and take the photo over again. With no digital review screen on the film camera, I never know how my image will turn out until I develop and scan the film into my computer and print the photo.
BIO:
I am a Chicago native who has lived in Seattle since 1973. I earned a Ph.D. in Fishery Science from the University of Washington in 1977. While largely a self-taught photographer who began photographing in earnest in the late 1960’s, I am currently mid-way through the Certificate Program in Fine Art Photography at the Photography Center Northwest in Seattle.
My major achievements over the years include: a grant from Artists Trust in Seattle, having my photos permanently included in many public and private art collections, being selected as one of the artists whose work is represented by the Seattle Art Museum’s SAM Gallery, having 19 of my photos selected to completely cover each door on the top floor of the Hotel Max in Seattle, and having some of my photos exhibited in the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery (late 1970’s). I have also had several of my photos selected as the “image of the day” on various web sites, (including Smithsonian magazine, Curious Animal and Your Daily Photo)), won numerous awards in juried shows, been included in many gallery shows and have self-published four photography books.
John Armstrong
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