Ansen Seale, Strive

Slit scan images are produced by creating a thin vertical slit in a panel in front of the film. As the panel is moved horizontally across the film, light is projected onto the unexposed areas of the film. The process of exposing the whole frame cannot happen instantaneously, allowing for movements to occur while the photograph is created.

Unlike long exposures, which continually allow time to pass in their creation, slit scans actually capture many instants that are then arranged next to one another. A linear collection of moments are assembled together, which does not render a specific length of time, but rather describes a speed of time.

Ansen Seale, Temporal Form no. 10

Ansen Seale, Ideal Form

I find Ansen Seale‘s work to be really interesting. The simultaneous views are both fractured and continuous. This challenges standard instantaneous photography by offering a reading from left to right, which obliges a viewer to spend more than instant to view the image. I also think that the use of a canvas to eliminate perspectival cues effectively allows for the body to generate its own space.

Andrew Davidhazy, Slitscan 1

Andrew Davidhazy, Panning Peripheral Portrait of Annie, 1990

Golan Levin keeps an incredibly extensive resource about slit scan photographers here.

This entry was posted under Photography.