Lens based presentation october 2013

Keith Carter 

65 year old Texan based Keith Carter produces monotone photographic images in a surreal dream like style. His use of harshly contrasting dark and light areas and difference in focus and depth of field give the images a feel of being stills from a movie. Through this technique we get the opportunity to add our own story or narrative to what's going on. 

Carter spent a long time hunting out towns in America with strange names including 'Paradise' and 'Earth'. He visited each town and took just one photograph with no preconceived idea as to what he was going to capture. These images are intriguing to look at and are a document of the lives and happenings in small American towns. The figures are frozen in time, suspended in the surroundings they occupy and Carter uses his technical skill to portray American life as it happens. The images could be from any era though as they have such a timeless feel showing us how these towns haven't changed over the decades. 

Each of Carter's images contains a certain amount of strangeness. Simple subjects are printed in such a way that they have a dark, edgy, haunted look with a hint of creepiness. The pictures serve to remind us of times gone by in our lives, memories recalled from small details in the back of our minds. childhood adventures or even nightmares. Reminding us of friends we had as kids who disappear as time goes by but are always there, somewhere in our thoughts. Carter achieves this so well in his pictures which strongly feature children and the way they play or interact with each other. 

 

I tried to reproduce an image in carter's style as part of our lens based projects. I stayed away from photoshop and breathed onto the lens before shooting, creating the blurred edge, then tweaked the colours to get a sepia tone. I got Amelia to look away from the camera as I wanted to ask the questions 'What's she looking at, Whats happening over there?' I used the little playhouse in the background as a substitute for the wooden houses the American families occupy in Carters images. 

I'm pleased with what I achieved in the image. The only possible change might have been to print it in black and white and give it some real darkness?