inner space...


A great lot of photography consists of what might be called "public space". This is that enormous domain of everything and everythingness, beyond immediacy, large and small and far. I would describe "public space" as that zone of subjects standing somewhere beyond 3 meters from the lens, and stretching to infinity.

Can infinity really be a subject? Usually not, or rarely an interesting one. So I generally prefer the photography of "personal space". This is where you step closer, and then closer again. Here one may find a sense of immediacy and intimacy with the subject, a human scale, something that happens within the reach of touch. For me, personal space is that zone well within 3 meters from the lens; within 2 meters is even better.

I get frustrated by equipment that keeps me any farther, and can't stand it when I get "minned out" (opposite of maxed out) by a lens. I sold an otherwise fine Super Ikonta folding camera for just this reason. It minned out on me.

Of course there exists yet another domain of photography, nearer still, even closer than "personal space". This is the zone of "inner space", and it is practically no distance at all. In fact, it is the absence of distance. It is closer than you think, within that tiny little gap between the ears, just behind the eye, all inside the head.

Lomé, Togo, June 2008.

Rolleiflex SL66, Fomapan 400.