RALPH HOWELL PHOTOGRAPHS

RALPH HOWELL

San Antonio College Exhibition: Full Circle

Artist Statement

The future of photography seems to rely on rapid advances of the high tech camera and its ability to produce rigid, optically uniform modes of seeing. Working in the opposite direction to this mentality, I have become fascinated with the idea of constructing simple, low-tech pinhole cameras in an attempt to see and understand that which has been hidden by conventional representation. The Hegelian interpretation of the thesis/antithesis mechanism and Carl Jung’s conscious/subconscious dichotomy of the psyche seem to connect with my interest in pinhole photography. I perceive the pinhole as a “seeing eye”, a single hole sieve that filters information. The sieve is a metaphor for the conscious/subconscious mind that, in the conceptual framework of Claude Levi-Strauss, filters “raw” information into a “cooked” reality. The human mind has the capacity to perceive and form perceptions into thought and image and to then reflect upon both itself and its products. This concept is the basis for the Mirror Reflection series: the pinhole camera’s “self-portrait” is an image of creator reflecting on its creation. In this way, it becomes a metaphor for the human consciousness. I am also concerned with the pinhole camera-as-object, as a ‘ready-made’- the pinhole camera being as important as the images it creates.

Bio:

Ralph Howell is a fine arts photographer and teacher in San Antonio who has constructed over 85 pinhole cameras from founded objects that take unusual images without lenses or viewfinders. His artwork has been recently featured in the PBS series, EGG the Arts Show. He has conducted numerous workshops in pinhole photography, alternative processes, and 3-D photography throughout the United States and Europe. He received his MFA at the University of Texas in San Antonio, has an extensive exhibition record, and has been a recipient of several grants in art and education.

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