Homemade digital: Scanner photography!

Image and description by Michael Golembewski: "Another image from the RCA roof set. I especially like the motion on the bus. Camera: Magic Lantern Scanner Camera. Size:12MB Greyscale."

Michael Golembewski, an artist and interaction designer, currently living in Olympia Washington, USA, has been building, refining, and making images with what he calls "scanner cameras". Here's his account of the discovery:

"Several years ago, I built my first homemade digital camera. The idea was simple - I would take an ordinary flatbed scanner, and use it in place of photo paper with a large format camera.

"My first scanner camera was made from lots of duct tape, a cardboard box, and the cheapest flatbed scanner that I could find. I expected this to be a quick little art project, one that would take a week or two at the most. But when I got my first homemade digital camera to work, I noticed that some wonderful things were beginning to happen.

"The objects in the scene that were stationary photographed normally, while the objects that were moving were twisted and distorted into wonderful shapes. At first, I thought that this was a mistake, that something was wrong with my new contraption. But I soon realized that the motion of the scanner was meshing with the motion of the recorded scene, creating unexpected, yet predictable, results...

"I was tremendously excited by these developments. Instead of building a camera that mimicked the functionality of a traditional photographic camera, I had stumbled across a new tool for examining the relationships between time, motion, and image. What I though would be a two week art project has turned into one that has lasted for almost three years, and shows little sign of stopping."

I say, "Bravo and kudos, Michael!"

Check out his very cool web site at www.scannerphotography.com. And please enter your comments and thoughts here to share with other Lens Culture readers. Thanks!

Posted by jimcasper at January 25, 2006 09:29 AM