Spotlight 7 Week 36: DarkDaze Photography [Mildly NSFW]

This week's Spotlight Seven exhibition features Dark Daze Photography, as curated by Spotlight 7 alum Lou O'Bedlam. Dark Daze got his start as a child when he picked up an Instamatic and used it to shoot the wildlife near his house into his teens. Like many, the photography bug let-up but never went away, and DD returned to photography about 10 years later. In this excerpt, Lou asks DD about his experiences with different cameras, and the different styles they engender:

3) does the camera make the photographer? how have each of your cameras contributed to your style?
No. the camera is just a device to achieve something. But then again yes of course it does. At best it’s a healthy relationship, like all guitar players have their favourite ‘axe’ but they could all knock a decent tune out of any piece of junk with strings. I am very conscious of how differently I shoot on different cameras- for instance I hardly ever shoot digital on the street- I hate having a camera up at my eye, so I shoot on my bronica, with its waist level viewfinder. It slows me down, I don’t waste shots, I think about framing and almost never press the shutter. Polaroid frees me up, no-one ever gets intimidated by having a Polaroid taken off them- but again I shoot max 3 shots and if it doesn’t work then we finish for the day. Digital, I am in for the long haul, I may work for 50 shots trying to get one model in a set-up to move her arm to where it looks right to me. I tweak and I tweak and I tweak, and then just when its about perfect I tear down all my lights and my assistants look at me with hate, and we set up all over again. This is pretty standard. So my digital style is clean and precise, you wont find anything that isn’t meant to be there, my medium format is loose but composed, a lot of balance I hope.

There's much more to learn about DD in the rest of his interview. When did he decide to become pro, how he balances commerce with art, what he's gotten out of Flickr, and much more. This is one of our more in-depth interviews, and DD is hanging around to take questions, so you can't miss this. Please be sure to browse his photostream, and you can visit his website or order prints if you really like what you see. Enjoy! Oh, and spread the word about Spotlight Seven!