The MacFilos article on Stephen Jenner’s OCOLOY experiment has been an unexpected success, with over 2,000 page views in the first day. It has brought a very interesting response from Hilary Wardhaugh in Canberra, Australia.
Hillary took an entirely different view of OCOLOY. I suppose you could call it OCOF36, the art of taking one camera, one roll of film and 36 photographers. According to Hilary the experiment went well but, unfortunately, the chosen camera (Hilary doesn’t say what it was) broke down at photographer 28. So it’s more OCOF28 until a second match can be arranged. Says Hilary:
I have an exhibition showing in Canberra Australia called The ONE Project. The concept being, 1 camera, 1 roll of film, 28 photographers. Each photographer had 1 frame each to make a portrait and pass the camera on. The photographers involved found the process terrifying yet liberating. The film was processed and prints made from each digital file, without any photoshop other than dust-spotting and normal adjustments for colour and contrast.
The reason we only had 28 photographers is the camera had a technical issue two thirds of the way through the roll of film. Anyway, we have had great reviews and it has been a successful exhibition. I am currently making a photo book of the show and will blog the images and stories after the show is finished.
I have suggested to Hilary that she should put together a piece for Macfilos with some of the 28 entries. Should be interesting and it’s another fascinating challenge for anyone who has 35 friends capable of pressing a camera shutter.
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I have been reading her blogs on this subject Mike I haven’t completed yet, but I was struck by this pithy summing up from Hilary:
"The essence of this project was to develop the concept of a portrait prior to making the exposure and for each photographer to consider all aspects of the exposure; technical, compositional, emotional prior to making the exposure. It requires the photographer and the sitter to connect (without blinking!).”
The camera used was one of my old cameras, the Nikon FM2 (a fine beasty) with a Fuji 400Pro Colour roll of film.
It’s a very interesting concept.
Interesting. I haven’t had time to find the link yet but I will surely read. I should have thought to add the link to the article. Perhaps you could send it to me by email. Perhaps we should try this experiment with one of my Leicas, preferably one with a light meter(!). All we need to do is find 36 photographers. That’s a tall order, even with all my friends. We need a suitable occasion to get them all out. There’s also likely to be a lot of note taking to do. Fun thought.