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Tekhne:
Diana Photographs by Jonathan Bailey

January 26 - March 25, 2001
I have come to believe that a photograph bears only a casual and indirect relationship to the event which was in front of the camera when the shutter was released. This is a realization I've come to as a result of my involvement in photography. It was not a premise before the fact.

This realization has been very liberating! My photographs have been released from having to be "truthful" or "factual." The photographs may now be viewed as "a thing seen" in their own right, rather than a photograph of a thing seen. Transformation has been allowed a voice.
These photographs are all shot with a $2.00 plastic "Diana" camera which is essentially a toy. These cameras were often given away as carnival prizes and sold in "Five and Dime" stores until they ceased being produced (in Hong Kong) in the early 1980s. Completely made of plastic, including the lense, the Diana has three focusing positions, three aperture settings and a single shutter speed. It is only slightly more sophisticated than a "pinhole" camera, and its imagery is, in fact, similar in appearance.

I have been using the Diana camera, often alongside more traditionally "serious" equipment, since 1979. It is a tool that permits little control when taking the picture and so allows for (indeed, necessitates) a more spontaneous and intuitive approach to making photographs.

The soft and dreamy, "another time/another place" feel to the resulting images has a strong resonance with images from the 19th century. This sympathy with antique imagery is further enhanced by the split-toning processes I employ, many of which date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I have an abiding interest in 19th century photography and spend a great deal of time looking at photographs from the medium's earliest days. I first began toning my photographs as an alternative to printing them in platinum or albumen, two common processes from the 19th century. I couldn't afford the start up costs to try these alternate printing processes, but felt strongly that "straight" silver photographs lacked the depth and nuance of tone and detail that I'd come to love in those early prints.

I am delighted with the results from these various toning procedures. In fact, I am getting results which I never could achieve from the historic processes in quite the same way. There is a transformation away from "the literal and the obvious," into the realm of "image and the imaginal" which I find very satisfying. I try to use photography to show me what other possibilities might exist in how we see the world around us.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Marcel Proust
Jonathan Bailey is a self-taught photographer. He received his degree in Human Development from the University of Vermont, with a special emphasis on small group dynamics, but he has spent the better part of almost three decades honing his photographic craft. His extensive travels throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe have afforded him the opportunity to view and contemplate many important bodies of art, photography included.

He grew up in Vermont and has lived in Maine for the almost twenty-five years. Working in restaurants as a means of financial support has allowed him to keep his interest in photography unencumbered by financial pressures. In addition, Bailey spent five years (1986-1991) in a thirty-one foot boat which he rebuilt-- fishing 600 lobster traps from April to January each year.

His photography has always been focused on black and white images, even though he admits to often being left unsatisfied by "straight" silver prints. Over the years he has placed his images into homemade books, collaged them, and has even made paintings from them. He has worked extensively with 8x10 and 4x5 view cameras, as well as traditional 35mm equipment, but prefers using the inexpensive toy-like “Diana” camera.

All of the photographs in Tekhne have been shot with this $2.00 camera. Tekhne (tek-nay) is the Greek root in the word “technology.” Today technology is commonly understood to reference machines and instrumentation, and is often thought of in relation to progress or to the “advancement” of humankind through unanimated or inert devices.

This present day understanding of technology contrasts with the ancient Greek interpretation, which encompassed a broader meaning including “an art or craft, art skill, cunning of hand, craftsmanship, an artful device, or a method of making or doing.” It is against this backdrop of multiple messages that Jonathan Bailey presents this exhibition of low-tech “Diana” imagery.

Many of the forty photographs in this exhibition were made in Mexico over the course of Bailey’s seven visits there since 1981. He first selected the Diana camera for his Mexican travels for its light weight and the unlikelihood of its being stolen. He had no pre-conceived idea beforehand how well suited the imagery would be for the subjects he would encounter in Mexico.

According to Bailey, the Diana is an especially unique camera to use on the streets because people generally perceive this camera as a toy, and do not become self conscious the way they do when a more sophisticated camera is being used - especially when that camera is being held by someone foreign. This has allowed Bailey to work at a very close range on crowded streets, and have a minimal impact on the scene. He frequently shoots without putting the camera to his eye to further avoid making people uncomfortable. He is not secretive about taking the pictures, but simply prefers to remain respectful and unintrusive when recording his subjects.
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