WEIRD FISH & RARE BIRD: 2010

Andrew Davidhazy- Born in Budapest, Hungary on December 27, 1941.

"I don't exactly remember how I became involved with peripheral photography  but
it seems to me it was a natural extension of the early "linear" strip work that
concentrated on sports themes. I have been on a personal quest ever since to
popularize not only this application but several other derivatives of the
initial process.

As part of my MFA thesis I produced a small body of work based primarily on
peripheral portraits. While all my early work was done with 35 mm materials,
later on I developed a camera capable of using Polaroid "pack" type film and
used it to conduct workshops and demonstrations at lectures and conferences
nationwide. I also used it as a tool to draw attention to our School's booth at
major trade shows by making instant, on the spot, peripheral portraits of
anyone who requested a slightly distorted but always unique image of
themselves. After being spun around on a small turntable and, hopefully,
learning what peripheral photography was all about (in less than 5 minutes!)
they would get their portrait, usually laugh or smile at the unusual photograph
and disappear with it. After having taken thousands of these photographs I was
left with nothing to show for it.

I decided to do something about this and finally refined a procedure that
allowed me to "rescue" the paper negatives that one normally would discard in
the trash. These paper negatives are opaque and thus normally are not useable
to make further prints or enlargements from them. In a light hearted mood I
dubbed it the "Phoenix" process. I have made these Phoenix photographs now for
over 10 years and have amassed quite a collection of "alternative" portraits of
a large number of individuals.

I became involved with a very interesting application of strip photography as a
result of a "challenge" issued to me by a company that wanted to make decals to
be applied to a tapered, conical, teapot. Normal peripheral strip cameras could
not accommodate the difference in diameter of the top of the top and that of the
bottom. Blur would be invariably introduced at one or the other edge of the
photograph. These cameras could deal with cylindrical subjects but not conical
ones. I developed a fairly unique solution to the problem by designing and
constructing a strip camera in which the film moves in circular rather than
linear fashion. It is suitable for recording of surface detail of conical
subjects and also as a panoramic camera where the camera is tilted with respect
to the axis of rotation.

If you ask me why I make photographs my answer would be that it is a fantastic
way to make a living, travel, meet a lot of people, make unusual photographs of
willing models and provide food for thought and conversation wherever I make
them. I have particularly enjoyed the time spent with my students and colleagues
at the Rochester Institute of Technology."

Andrew Davidhazy

A peripheral photograph attempts to capture a 360° periphery of the subject.
Conceptually, this requires the camera to traverse a path around the subject. This is 
similar to strip photography that is used for aerial surveillance.

"The portrait here is done via another method: instead of rotating the camera, we rotate
the subject. The subject (I) is placed on a turntable and rotated in synchronization with a sheet of film
that is moving past a slit at the focal plane of a camera. Because of subject movement
and irregularities in synchronization, obvious distortions are present. The system
used is a low-budget solution: a Polaroid camera has been stripped of its shutter
and a slit was placed on the focal plane. A sheet of Polaroid film is pulled out slowly
through the slit and out of the camera at the same rate that a turntable is rotating (on which the
subject is standing)."