During our workshop together, we spent the first few hours preparing a section of our workspace to black out all the windows. We used the white walls (that we usually use for exhibitions) to single out a space to create our camera. We used cardboard, black card and duct tape to collage around corners and difficult places to board up. From here, we cut two circle holes in the cardboard that backed onto the windows, here we could place two large camera lens to control how much light we could let in. Using a whiteboard, we pinned A3 size photographic paper to act as out sensor, from this our “RAW” files were A3, meaning we could re print these much larger than we can we normal photograph and it would still retain all its information.
We spent the afternoon taking solo portraits of everyone, Brendon operated the shutter speed and we lined up outside ready for our classroom camera photo. Each portrait took between 5 - 7 seconds to capture, so we had to stay really still for that time. I remember it being really windy, so a lot of portraits were slightly blurry as their hair was blowing all over the place. We took all 29 exposed sheets and developed them inside our ‘camera’, with the correct chemicals to develop, stop and fix. We used red head torches to see what we were doing will developing, then hung them to dry over lunch.
Our final image making process came with a group photo of our class, we spent some time gathering props and costumes to make the image as memorable as possible. We had masks, ladders, cones, signs and multiple other items we collected from around campus. By this time in the afternoon and being mid November it was getting dark quickly, so out shutter speed was almost 12 seconds. We held our group portrait pose for two photos, but we found the first one came out much better, so we chose this picture to be a part of our exhibition, along side our individual portraits. For this exhibition, we removed the cardboard covering the windows to let enough artificial light in from outside, tied two lentos of string between two pillars, and hung our work we had created during the day up. We talked about our time, the images and our future aspirations all together, Brendon gave us advice in the real world and what the best way to keep inspired is.
Finally, in the evening Brendon Barry gave us a goat lecture talk in our lecture theatre. Currently based in Devon, Brendon Barry studied in Exeter with further education taking place in Plymouth. Barry stated in is talk how he was fascinated by adventure books when growing up, and they inspired him later in life to pack up his belongings and travel across America. He spent this time photographing with a medium format, documenting the people and landscape as he travelled. A few years later, Brendon started lecturing at Exeter collage, and while this limited his creativity, Barry stated how he enjoyed having the school holidays to be able to go off on adventures again. In one half term, Brendon Barry created his first large format camera (16 x 20) after designing multiple prototypes and MOC ups. The second camera built worked much better, but could only be used at night and had a very long shutter speed. Brendon Barry took this camera away to Europe with a few dozen film strips, and while there were many set backs, Barry concluded this trip was the real start of his career as a camera maker. Back in the UK, Brendon set out to create as many image making devices as possible; made from Lego, Enlargers and Logs, his career really kick started from here. The pivotal point in Brendons process as a camera maker came he brought an old caravan to renovate. I’ve always wanted to purchase an old VW Camper van and travel around the UK in it, but Barry went one step further and created a camera inside the caravan. He traveled all over the UK to exhibit this extensive camera to schools, communities and governments and really grew his following as an image maker. In the summer of 2019, Brendon travelled to New York to work along side Favourite Child Collective to transform the 46th floor of 101 Park Avenue, Manhattan into a 360 degree camera. Along side the help of a local collage, the team blacked out all the windows to create a large darkroom, they then cut holes in the new walls to let light leak in and onto photographic paper. From here, the exposed sheets are developed in the same room and negatives are created, they held their own exhibition in this space that caught the attention of multiple magazine and publishers in the area.