JIM PROVENZANO

Quiet Ride. 
Polaroid 250 camera, modified with pinhole.  Polaroid type 665 positive/ negative film (focal length 102mm, f291.

Leaving Manhattan.
Polaroid 250 camera, Type 665 positive/negative film, modified with pinhole.  Polaroid type 665 (focal length 102mm, f291.

The Ferry Commute…Waiting.
Polaroid 250 camera, modified with pinhole.  Polaroid type 665 positive/negative film (focal length 102mm, f291.

Artist’s Statement/ Pinhole photography has an uncanny ability to capture time and space in unique ways, but what is most special is its ability to express atmosphere or mood through the transition of tones and the softness of lines in the photograph, much like the pictorialists achieved in the early 20^th century.  I spent many years commuting either to school or to work from Staten Island to Manhattan aboard the Staten Island Ferry – a “timeless” 25-minute ride.  I decided to photograph these voyages with a modified Polaroid pack film camera (Model 250) and a store-bought Leonardo 4X5 camera using both Polaroid and negative film, almost always in black and white.  Commuters can be a funny lot with their fixed daily routines, conveyed by their disappearing into the crowd or “getting lost” in the suspended time.  These pictures predate September 11, 2001, and the image Leaving Manhattan shows the Twin Towers, which, as a lifelong New Yorker, are etched into my being. 

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