advancing film without tripping shutter

[rob3rt5]

In the 80's I saw a photographers work that remains forever fixed in my imagination. I can't remember his name but he shot one image over an entire roll of 35mm (I assume) film. The images were static with one side stretched the length of the whole roll. I believe he shot a cover shot for Jean Michel Jarre's "Zoolook". Does anyone know how this was done (how to modify a camera to do this) and who this guy is/was? Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[David William White]

The 'smear' is so selective on that CD cover that I'm sure this could not be done in camera. I would guess it could be a either a physically manipulated Polaroid, or some other selective panning of the paper during the enlarging phase.

 

[rob3rt5]

The cover art is infantile compared to the work that I'm really looking for which spans the entire roll of film (stretched limbs, eyes ect.). I know that the pieces I'm referring to were done directly to the negative because I saw them numbered in sequence without any interruption of the image.

 

[rob3rt5]

The artist that shot the cover is not, I think, the same artist that shot the rolls of film I'm talking about but, the effect is roughly the same only more so.

 

[David William White]

Ok, so kind of guessing in the dark here, but how about this:

Assuming typical manual film SLR:

Advance film to the end with the lens cap on (so no exposure), then switch shutter to bulb (mirror up, shutter open). Take lens cap off, depress the transport release on the bottom and rewind the film manually. The film will stream back across the open shutter. That would smear the scene across the entire roll.

Jeez, I think I'll try this sometime!

 

[alanrockwood]

I'm not sure what photo you are talking about, but could it have been taken with a panorama camera? Some of these devices were mounted on a tripod in such a way that the camera was rotated on the tripod synchronously with the movement of the film. The focal plane was screened off except for a very narrow slit. It was kind of like a focal plane shutter, except instead of the slit moving across the film, it was the film moving across the slit.

 

[pelerin]

Hey,
As they say, "back in the day," Cokin used to sell a kit for converting your 35mm camera to be used with a slit shutter. The slit was a plastic cap that fit the thin rail at the rear of the cokin holder. Combining objects in motion with still ones (and varying the direction of the motion w/ relation to the direction o fthe films movement) produced effects like you describe.
Best

Celac

 

[ic-racer]

Sounds like a slit shutter camera. There are some examples on this page of a home made slit camera with 120 film: http://www.vintagebus.com/gallery/subcat/art-deluxe.html

 

[bsdunek]

You may be refering to a 'strip camera', where the film moved to follow the action. Like this: http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/2043
I remember when Marty Forsher, a well known New York camera repairman (far more than that!) was making these.