Carnival (1982-1983) was sort of a logical next step after my December project. Parking lot carnivals create momentary and temporary changes to the landscape. They randomly appear and then disappear as abruptly as they arrived. This was again a seasonal project that had built in constraints on when subject matter was available, this time restricted to summer weekends. There was also a bit of Figures and Spaces in this series, as I wanted to return to elements of chance and rapid composition that are a part of candid street photography.
My use of willful motion blur dates to my earliest photographs. My first photographs were made using a hand me down 8mm movie tripod that I used to make long exposures of my friends. I liked the way faces and gestures were transformed. Here I think it helps me visualize my experience of brief, noisy, chaotic moments and fleeting, wordless interactions.
I started these the summer before I began my graduate studies at The University of Michigan. As the fall season began, parking lot carnivals disappeared and I started grad school. I made a decision then to change my photographic approach to challenge myself. I wanted to test myself and explore new territory, so I began working in color with a toy camera.
The following summer I returned to the Carnival project and added images to it. My daytime photography continued in color.
