Brittny Dayes

Par·al·lax (păr'ə-lăks') n. The difference between what is seen through the viewfinder and what the camera records on film, caused by the viewfinder being separate from the camera lens.

In Parallax, a series of photographs of speeding trains, I set out to capture the moment the train passed me. As I shot those particular frames it was as if time was standing still. It was at that point, in that vortex, that I chose to capture when a moment begins and when a moment ends.

These images are soft and have a painterly quality creating a surreal focus. What was captured by my camera and reflected onto the film became the print that you see. To me, it is essential that the print is the true record of my experience; therefore I do not alter the base of the image.

I have chosen to keep a rectangular image as a way of also representing the shape of my subject, trains. The long narrow form follows through in all of the images. The movement of the train is represented by blocks of light and dark. This contrast represents the light and air and all that is in between my lens and the subject. The light source is the light from the platform, from the side of the train, and from the train doors opening and closing. Once the trains moves the side of the train captures the light and is reflected out to me.

In the moment that the train passes by me and the breeze hits my whole body, I feel as if emotions have been lifted from another person and somehow imposed upon on me. As this takes place, I enter the train and let it take me on its path to the next destination where there will be another encounter that will be calm and static at the same time.

I have created images of trains. I see trains moving by me, swiftly, steadily and rapidly. I also envision their slow transformation to calmly morphing shapes that illuminate the landscape.

Parallax explores movement, stillness, and the light that is created by ghosts of the past.