Saint Celluloid

Saint Celluloid portrays the iconic film star archetype as fleeting ghosts trapped within a screen and glimpsed as passing phantoms. The effects for this series were created by making several short moving portraits on video which were then looped on a movie screen. The screen was covered with sheer veils which were manipulated as the moving portraits were captured in long exposure with several of the images being photographed and then re-photographed through handmade distortion devices. This series of self-portraits explores my perceptions of the vulnerability and immortality of the film star as well as the potentially oppressive and regressive culture of fame. These images were inspired by the idea of instrumental transcommunication (ITC), a term coined by Ernst Senkowski in the 1970s to refer to communication through any sort of electronic device between discarnate entities and the living. For me, they are similar to the imagery which appears in the hypnagogic state, like flashes of lightening, before disappearing into the black screen of the subconscious.