Portfolio > on deaf ears (pinhole images)

The pinhole images in “on deaf ears” are a collaboration between Eric Renner and Nancy Spencer. Twenty years ago, we began constructing assemblages, many of which dealt with social issues of human rights, religion, sexuality, and stereotypes. On a lighter note, we also made assemblages dealing with Mickey Mouse, Elvis, Marilyn, and our own relationship. Our assemblages have been greatly influenced by passages in "The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" by Barbara G. Walker.

In the summer of 2001, we began photographing segments of our assemblages with a pinhole camera, thus creating a second body of work separate from the assemblages. We did not originally construct the assemblages with the intent of photographing them. In making the photographs and concentrating on small details, we realized there was the possibility of an altered context in making two dimensional images of our three dimensional assemblages. The pinhole images make use of color shifts due to long exposures (6-8 minutes), vignetting, and altered perspectives enhanced by our choice of placement of the wide-angle pinhole camera.

This body of work is on-going. We continue to build assemblages; some of them we photograph.

Technical Information:
These images were made with a 1.5" Leonardo 4x5 pinhole camera, originally printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper. The most recent edition of these images are archival pigment prints. Each image is 22”x28", in an edition of 7 each. Prices on request.

Birth
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Message
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Rare Birds
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Emerging Woman
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Elvis, Jesus, and Coke
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Evolushin
pinhole photograph
22"x28"
Jim and Tammy Faye — Heavenbound
pinhole photograph
22"x28"
Walking the Straight and Narrow
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Woman as Virgin or Whore
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Miss America
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Woman as Witch
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Prophet
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Monkey in the Box
pinhole photograph
22"x28"
Axis of Evil
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Devil as Bogeyman
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Man as Ruler: Dickbrain
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
White Man's Fear
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Seven Deadly Sins
pinhole photograph
22"x28"
Unclean —Leviticus 12:1-5
pinhole photograph
22"x28"
Golden Lotus Beauty Puzzle I
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Golden Lotus Beauty Puzzle II
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
White Hand
pinhole photograph
22"x28"
Winky—Carnival Loser's Prize
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Topsy and the Ghost of Jim Crow
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Sambo and the Ghost of Jim Crow
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
"Visca Versca"—Popeye
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Santo Mickey Raton
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Women Saved from Themselves
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
People as Pigs
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Onward Christian Soldiers
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Ticket to Auschwitz
pinhole photograph
22"x28"
Troubled Child
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Clipped
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
8/8/88
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Rainbow Serpent
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Skin and Bones
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
End of the World
pinhole photograph
28"x22"
Thirteen Moons
pinhole photograph
22"x28"