My inspiration for this shoot was two-fold: the movie, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and the cover of The Industrial Culture Handbook. I have long loved the high contrast, black and white, cyberpunk / industrial aesthetic. I’ve been exploring the use of multiple exposures in my portraiture for long enough that I’ve figured out how to achieve this effect, in-camera.
There is a machine shop in the building where my studio resides. The shop is a time capsule, with the grease, metal, and wood making a patina potpourri. I frequent the shop because they make me custom metal plates to mount projectors onto tripods. The other day when I was there, I asked if they minded if I took photos of their machines. They gave me an odd look, so I explained that I intended on using the images as a base layer to make in-camera multiple exposures. Looking even more confused, I decided to show them a few examples on my phone. They shrugged and said I could shoot whatever I wanted.
An hour later I met with @stefparrott and made a series of multiple exposures with my @canonusa EOS R5. My favorite feature of the camera is that it allows me to select an image from the memory card, overlay it on my viewfinder in Live View, and make a second exposure (this isn’t an ad, FYI). Multiple exposures allow me to quickly create a breadth of wildly unpredictable compositions, bearing the brunt of the creative decision making.
I find it a helpful exercise to remind myself of the gritty realness of the world that existed long before the airbrushed, auto-tuned, computer-generated media that daily confront me.
