The Art of Strip Photography

Photographic images can, apart from their capacity to show, convey an experience, a quality that has seldom been recognized. In this book the artist and photographer Maarten Vanvolsem explains how the strip technique can tell a different story of time and space in photographic images, a story that leads to new expressions and experiences of time and movement. The strip technique itself seems to be neglected in the debate on time and photography, although it has a long history. Its use is widespread and, especially in recent years, more and more artists rediscover the technique. Based on an historical overview, a knowledge and understanding of the technique, and experiments with the building of cameras, this book will propose a new use of this forgotten art: a use in which the temporal terms ‘speed', ‘rhythm', and ‘pace' are of more value than terms so often associated with photography such as ‘freeze', ‘split second', or ‘capture'. Within the book one can find more than thirty artists using the strip technique for their artistic practice. A lot of the artwork produced goes beyond traditional photography and the standards set by the photo industry. The research also reveals the extent to which artists use the technique to rediscover the time-based possibilities of the photographic image.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

"The Art of Strip Photography" was written by Maarten Vanvolsem.

Maarten Vanvolsem is Lecturer and MA course leader for photography at Sint-Lukas Brussels, University College of Art and Design and Research Fellow of 'The Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Art and Visual Culture' at KU Leuven.

Yes, "The Art of Strip Photography" is part of the "Lieven Gevaert Series" series. It's book 11 in the series.

Introduction

1. Strip Photography and its Historical Context: A Camera Mechanism (Invention and Re-invention)
1.1 Panorama Photography
1.2 Photogrammetry
1.3 Peripheral Photography
1.4 The Photo Finish
1.5 Other Fields of Use

2. The Strip Technique
2.1 Shutter Technique
2.2 Film Movement
2.3 Exposure
3. Photographers Working with the Strip Technique
3.1 Photo Finish on Halfway Course
3.2 Boosting the Knowledge of the Strip Technique
3.3 The Panorama Image as a Time Span
3.4 Creative Use of the Strip Exposure
3.5 A Moving Camera
3.6 Stereo Strip Photography
3.7 Great Britain as Breeding Ground
3.8 Video Technology and Strip Images

4. Experiencing Time in a Still Image
4.1 Forgotten Possibilities of Photography and its Technique
The Dominance of the Snapshot
Perspective and the Renaissance Doctrine (Perspective and Unity of Space and Time)
Theory and Technology
Strip Images Complicate the Picture
De Duve's Space-time Construction
4.2 Reading a Non-still Image
"Reading" the Image
The Image: A Score of Time
Perspective
Rhythm
Sharpness
Music Score

5. Moving the Camera Towards Another Expression
5.1 Shift in Artists' Use of the Strip Technique
Non-scientific Use of the Strip Technique
Aesthetic Use of the Strip Technique
Meta-photographic Use of the Technique
5.2 Moving the Camera: Solving the Paradox in Dance Photography
The Paradox in Dance Photography
Silent Move
5.3 The Intrinsic Time of a Work of Art

Color Images
List of Images
Notes
Bibliography