Theodore Street “Structure is a static concept of a process frozen in the specious present" In 2007 I began using an 8x10 view camera to photograph interventions that I had painted in abandoned structures. This process culminated in two photographic projects that I later titled “Interventions” and “Dark Star.” Several images from both projects were made in a structure located at 11376 Theodore Street in Moreno Valley, California. All of the images in the Therodore Street project, presented here, were made in that abandoned house. In early 2009 I began experimenting with a robotic camera mount, called a Gigapan. One mounts a digital camera on this device, programs the field of view, and then initiates a sequence of exposures. The Gigapan assist in precisely scanning the scene making overlapping exposures. For each Gigapan image presented here there are anywhere from 70 to 120 images made over a 15 to 20 minute time frame. These images are subsequently seemed together into one view using digital stitching software. When, after my initial set of photographs with the 8x10 view camera, I returned to Theodore Street I found that the space had gone through a significant transformation. Subsequent to my initial, and generally abstract, painting individuals later inscribed the space with a broad range of graffiti and energetic marking. I returned to the house on multiple occasions, over several years, making Gigapan scans of the interior. Each Gigapan image is titled with the location, date, and time frame of the exposure. Generally within these images there is an act, or presence, which functions as an anchor within the temporal sequence of the scan. I am this presence within the Gigapan scans, both implied and literal. I last visited the location a few months ago to find that the structure had been torn down and all traces of the structure had been removed. Now there is only this echo. John Divola |