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I’ve been spending the past few months pointing a film camera at people as part of my first year studies at SPAO and will be showing the results at the SPAO College Diploma Exhibition No. 21, opening 17 April and running to 17 May.
Some of you will see familiar faces. Some of you will see yourselves.
Here’s Zak, photographed on 4x5 HP5 pushed to 1600 at f45. If you know this face, you’re already part of the story. If you don’t, come see it in person.
SPAO Photographic Arts Centre, Opening 17 April. Follow for details.

Sharing some recent work ahead of my critique at SPAO later this week.
As I dive deeper into the photographic arts, one of the key learnings for me is to view the negative (or digital file) as the raw material. Think of it like sheet music. Hand the same score to five musicians and you will hear five different performances. Photography works the same way. The negative is the sheet music, the print is the performance. Photography is the capture, photographic art is the print.
Here are two performances of Bill.
On the left is a close portrait in the spirit of Platon. On the right is a 24-frame frontal grid inspired by Maggs. They are meant to be viewed together. The close portrait looks directly back at you. The grid invites you to do the looking.
At first glance the grid can seem repetitive, almost mechanical. It isn’t. These are 24 separate frames exposed on film in a single sitting. Small shifts appear as you spend time with them, and while you are studying the grid, Bill is studying you.
Enjoy the performance. Let me know what you notice.

Sharing some recent work ahead of my SPAO documentary critique next week.
Here’s Mark, a frequent face on my feed, shown two ways: Platon on the left, Arnaud Maggs grid on the right. The close-up stares straight at you while you’re busy decoding the grid.
Try swiping back and forth a few times and then just sit with both for a minute. Things shift when you linger. Curious what you notice. Drop a comment if something clicks.
I’ve got three more of these coming over the next few days, worth seeing as a set.
All shot on film, partly because feeds are drowning in AI slop and partly because photography is proof someone was here. Film insists on that.