Holga

The images in this section were created using a $15 Holga toy camera that's all plastic.Its lens is famous for its low contrast and lack of sharpness, and the camera is prone to mysterious light leaks. While this sounds like a recipe for disaster, it actually is the reason why this camera has such a cult following (just do a Google search for "Holga camera" and you get 250,000 hits!).

I use the Holga to capture moods and feelings. A sense of mystery and a sense of place. For example, for my image of four people walking in Death Valley's Mesquite Flat dunes, and their shadows cast across the expanse of sand, I decided to forgo the technical perfection offered by my larger cameras and simply grab the Holga to capture this perfect (and fleeting) moment in time. The Holga, with all its optical imperfections, creates an image that is completely timeless. It is as if we were allowed to peek through a tear in the fabric of time and catch a glimpse of the past or the future. Something familiar yet strangely distorted from our perfectly focussed reality.

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