Born in Portland, Oregon, Michael Vanderzanden received a BS from Southern Oregon University in 2006, while studying studio photography and Philosophy. Having traveled from the Southern hemisphere in Melbourne to SE Alaska, while building cameras and shooting along the way, his work has attempted to exploit surrealist themes present to an existentialist backdrop through creative manipulation of the photographic medium. More recently, his camera has been focused on the urban landscapes of his hometown Portland. Cameras include; Pinhole 4"x5", paper Pinhole and Nikon N65 35mm w/ standard lens. Printing techniques include: Digital, gelatin Silver, Van Dyke and Palladium processes.

Pinhole Overlay Studies:[(o)]

These prints are studies that engage the history of imaging. I began by shooting in Portland and Seattle with my hand built 4x5 pinhole camera. I find the pinhole is best suited to develop the perspective line I’m after. The prints were made with the Van Dyke process and then ‘toned’ using gouache to provide atmospheric illumination. This technique is similar to an early hand dye process used for nature photography and portraiture.
In the ink overlay phase, it was important that I draw over the images to emphasize perspective- line weight and dimensionality thus make a synthesis with Van Dyke tones and architectural geometries to form a space. They are literally second-degree camera obscura drawings.
The context and implementation of the work is contemporary in that they are vector-based images that may appear to be the result of CGI or the application of Photoshop filters. There is a dialogue about history here not to be missed- that the history of imaging gave rise to postmodern visualization through paradigm shift and repetition.

Drawings: [(o)]

This work aims specifically at transcending the stereotypes surrounding the mediums of drawing and photography by uniting their creative faculties. It keeps in line with traditional exploits of photographic imaging- the mechanical representation of light entering a camera- but has attempted to bring the realm of drawing into the three dimensional world in order to utilise its conventions for photography. The result is that the content of this photographic work can be viewed in the mode of a tradition it physically shares little in common with. The immediate effect of the creation of these images is highly transient. No tools were ever applied to a physical media in the traditional sense of the school of drawing. The lines that make up these 'drawings' are residual- they were elicited after the fact- and without the addition of a photographic medium, they could not exist as a completed and cogent form of expression. When I am in the creative process I don’t think of myself as “photographing things,” but instead, I try to conceptualize my movements as pencil strokes so that in actuality I am drawing on film.

Sketches: [(o)]

This work is a study of black and white imaging that attempts to bear the same dynamic relationship to its subject as that of live sketching. The images here are based in an intuitive grasp of object-as-subject conceptualization that is quickly recorded by building up lightcharge on a sensitized emulsion- much like one would build up graphite or charcoal onto paper. The images are a result of expressive control of the film plane itself during exposure, which provides for an intimate interaction between objectivity and a perceptualized moment of subject.

For information regarding prints contact: mvand@michaelvanderzanden.com

For a tutorial on the pinhole camera and creative process: [(O)]