Unaltered: Studies with Film and No Batteries

My work reflects the belief that all phenomena witnessed in the world are part of a physical reality. These photographs were taken with completely manual cameras and were not digitally altered.  I view each exposure like a science experiment involving light, refraction and a chemical reaction that alters the film over time.

While conducting these experiments, I seek results that contain the aesthetic elements that I am drawn to: clean compositions with definitive fields of color and patterns that are purposefully placed to create a dynamic collage.

Because my photographs relate directly to a light event, the result is a reality that differs from a painting or digitally altered photograph. I make conscious choices to reduce the arbitrary in order to express a vision. This vision is ultimately realist, empirical, and devoid of the “hand of God.” This is because ideas of a spiritual world are, to me, misunderstandings of experience. In my photographs, therefore, the perceived elements are the result of the physical and nothing more.

Virginia Waterfall: Taken in Shenandoah Valley National Park, this composition of color and light features the blur of moving water over a four-second exposure.

City Moon: Taken just as the moon pokes above the rooftops in a back alley in Philadelphia, this 30-minute exposure contrasts the rigidity of the city with the ephemeral qualities of nature.

Sky After Storm: Taken from a hilltop in Northern Pennsylvania, masses of dissipating clouds create this composition. The color in this piece is affected by a chemical process called cross processing that is preformed at the time of film development.

One Star: Not many stars are visible in the Philadelphia night sky and this solitary streak was most likely caused by the bright glow of a planet. The exposure was six hours from my back door in the art museum area.

Country Road: Taken in a small town in Berks County, this one-minute exposure features the streak of a car’s taillights passing in the stillness of the evening. The colors in this picture are the result of florescent street lamps that cast a greenish glow.

Moonlight Fishing: Taken at dusk and during mid-cast, the composition of this piece features the moon and a lone fisher that seem connected despite the vastness of the space that separates them.

Danko’s Night Out: I set this exposure while my friends and I searched the Vermont countryside for my friend’s runaway dog Danko. Again florescent lights cast a green glow and the movement of the earth over five hours turns the stars into streaks.

Canada Night: This six-hour exposure was taken while looking out across a frozen Lake Ontario during a night in February. The orange glow visible on the other side of the lake is artificial light emanating from a city, but gives the appearance of sunrise.

Mike Coll lives in Center City Philadelphia where he is earning a graduate degree in Environmental Studies from The University of Pennsylvania.  He spends most of his days outdoors while working for a non-profit land trust.  Photography has been his art medium of choice since graduating from Kutztown University in 1998.