Seán Duggan

It is known.

…the photographs are more than just image elements in the scene: they are the visual representation of my actual memories of where I was and what was happening when I made them. 2/2

A Photoshop composite image by Seán Duggan showing different rooms of a house, each containing a different memory of an experience at the seashore. On the left side is a curving staircase, and overlaid on this is a partially transparent image of a woman sitting on rocks gazing out to sea at a passing sailing ship. In the center room are scenes of people playing in the distant surf and in the room beyond that, a man fishing from the beach. On the wall on the right side we can see into a long hallway with a bright light at the end. Overlaid on top of the hallway is a scene of a sand castle with two children playing on the beach. At the top of the image a delicate curtain of surf flows onto the top edge of the scene.

The Architecture of Memory
This is an "old fashioned" Photoshop composite, made w/ layers, layer masks, & blending modes; there are no AI elements in this scene. I am not against using AI-generated elements in my composites but since this is an image about memory… 1/2
#Photoshop #composite #memory

A black and white partially sepia-toned pinhole photograph by Seán Duggan showing the aftermath of a flash flood in Death Valley National Park, California in September 2006. A car is seen partially buried in rocky sediment that is nearly up to the top of the tires. In the extreme summer heat, the ground around the car has already been baked dry.

After the Flood, Death Valley, 2006
(pinhole photograph)

One from the photo wayback machine: The flash flood had happened 4 or 5 days before I arrived. In the summer heat the ground around the car was already baked dry.

#pinholephotography #blackandwhitephotography #filmphotography #deathvalley

A square format black & white photograph taken in Miami Beach of a woman riding a Vespa-type scooter, stopped at a traffic signal. Behind her is a white building with three French doors and a sign that reads "The Meridian Hotel".

Meridian Hotel, Miami Beach, 2024
[Lubitel camera]

#blackandwhitephotography #filmphotography #lubitel #lubitel166b #mediumformat #120film #miamibeach #streetphotography #analogphotography

It was a great experience to return to the same location at Point Lobos on the central California coast to find the perfect tide pool and finally have another go at this image. See more of this series at seanduggan.com/artifacts-of...

It’s not the first time I’ve returned to a location, or tried a different location, to re-photograph an artifact 1, 2, or even 3 years after the initial attempt. At over 15 years since I first tried this image, this shot is the new record holder.

I could have fixed it w/ Photoshop compositing, of course, but one rule of this series is that the artifacts are never composited into the scene; they are always photographed at the location. That’s part of the creative challenge that I enjoy about this series.

Sometimes the magic doesn’t work out the first time, especially with a wooden box pinhole camera with no viewfinder. And when shooting film in such a camera, you don’t realize a shot didn’t work out until long after you’ve left the scene.

This image from last July was made over 15 years since I’d first photographed the compass in the tide pools at Weston Beach in March 2010. And while that photo was tantalizingly close to what I had in mind, the compass was half submerged in the water and the compass markings were obscured.

A black & white, partially sepia-toned pinhole photograph by Seán Duggan showing a small compass submerged in a tide pool next to several sea anemones. Shells and limpets cling to the rock surfaces above the waterline. In the far distance, fog shrouded trees and hills and can be seen. This image is from the series 'Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin".

A behind-the-scenes view of a wooden pinhole camera photographing a small compass submerged in a tide pool and surrounded by several sea anemones. The photographer’s hand can be seen reaching in to steady the camera against the rocks.

The Compass
(pinhole photograph from the series “Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin”). Follow the link in my profile to see more from this ongoing project.

#pinhole #pinholephotography #fineartphotography #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhite

An in-camera double exposure by Seán Duggan showing a late 1800s oil painting in an ornate gilded frame of a sailing ship departing a harbor, combined with a scene in a museum gallery of several people looking at the art on the walls. On the right side of the gallery is a large sculptural street lamp from 1916, that has the appearance of a lighthouse guiding the ship out of the harbor.

Setting Sail, New Year’s Eve
(In-camera #doubleexposure)

In your voyages this year
may you have fair winds and following seas,
good fortune and wonderful discoveries,
A guiding light to safe harbors and desired destinations,
and special people to accompany you on the journey.
Happy New Year!

A map of Santa's Village, a Christmas theme park that opened in 1957.

@teresaazul.bsky.social Yeah, the exit sign on Hwy 17 is the only trace left. We have 16mm color home movies from visits to Santa's Village.

A black & white infrared photograph by Seán Duggan of a giant metal candy cane at the abandoned Santa's Village theme park. The candy cane is seen in front of towering redwoods trees, with some of the tree limbs blurred as they were moved by the wind during the long exposure.

A black & white infrared photograph by Seán Duggan of Santa's House at the abandoned Santa's Village theme park. The view is looking up at a large pocket watch-style Christmas clock hanging in front of the house. Instead of numbers, the 12 months of the year are marked on the clock face. The big hand is set to December, and the small hand is set to April.

A black & white infrared photograph by Seán Duggan of the Toy Factory at the abandoned Santa's Village theme park. The building is a Swiss chalet style and there are two large wooden gears on the outside of the tower.

A black & white infrared photograph by Seán Duggan of the entrance to a fake ice cave at the abandoned Santa's Village theme park. Large "icicles" hang down above the entrance to the cave. A single steel rail that once guided a sleigh ride pulled by two reindeer can be seen leading into the tunnel.

"The Last Days of Santa’s Village"
Scotts Valley, California
In 1989, 10 years after it had closed, I photographed the abandoned Christmas theme park w/ black & white #infrared film. See the full set at my website: seanduggan.com/santas-village

#photography #blackandwhitephotography

Time Traveling...
It's Friday night, and the first night of a lengthy winter break, so I'm taking advantage of that to revisit a significant photo project from many years ago.
More to come....

#analogphotography #filmphotography #infrared #bwinfrared

Black and white photograph by Seán Duggan of an elderly man with glasses in a suit jacket standing in the doorway of the house where he was born in Galway, Ireland, 1986. The wall of the house is gray stucco and there is a window on the right side of the scene. He is framed by the doorway, lit by bright sunlight that is accented by deep shadows that surround him in the doorway.

Galway, Ireland, 1986
This is my uncle Paddy Duggan, standing in the doorway of the house where he was born. Both he and his brother Walter never married and they lived there together for many years.
#galway #ireland #blackandwhitephotography #portraitphotography #lightroom #filmphotography

Thanks!

Congratulations! It's a beautiful image!

One of those is finding a shot and then waiting for something interesting to enter the scene. Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s always worth a try.

A black and white photograph by Seán Duggan of the broken head of a roman statue where the top half of the head is missing, leaving only the nose and lower portion of the head. In the blurred background are bookshelves and a man pausing to look back at the carved stone head.

Contemplating a Broken Head

Museums are some of my favorite places for street photography. It's not photography out on the streets, of course, but I find that I use many of the same methods.

#blackandwhitephotography #streetphotography #museums #fujifilmx100v #gettyvilla

For this shot, I would take a photo of the museum guard, then walk to the far room in the adjacent exhibition to photograph the Buddha. I did this 4 times before I got the result I was looking for. I'm sure the attendants were wondering what I was up to walking back and forth all the time!

A black and white in-camera double exposure by Seán Duggan of a Buddha statue and a view of the room at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art where "Island Universe" by Josiah McElheny is installed. A museum guard is seated on a chair and in the double exposure he appears within the lower part of the Buddha statue, appearing to look at the shadow cast by the Buddha's hand.

Waiting within the Buddha on the shores of the multiverse
(in-camera #doubleexposure)

I enjoy the site-specific creativity that comes with in-camera double exposures. It’s a different way of seeing since the two photos need to be taken sequentially w/ the camera I am using (a Fuji x100v).

A black & white photograph of a modern, concrete house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. The structure is one of three homes that comprised the David Lynch compound. This house was also featured as a location in his film “Lost Highway”.

"Dick Laurent is dead."
IYKYK…

Exploring the Hollywood Hills this afternoon.
#davidlynch

A large suitcase packed with many strange and varied items, including two life size human skull replicas. On the top of these items is a note to the TSA inspectors, informing them that the contents of the suitcases are for a photography workshop.

It's time for my annual message to the TSA about the large suitcase full of strange items that I'm taking to #AdobeMAX for the "Lightroom Mobile Photographic Treasure Hunt" pre-conference session that Katrin Eismann, Chris Ayers & I will be leading. Might make an interesting airport x-ray scan.

The poster image for a tutorial on masking techniques in Adobe Lightroom called "Create custom masks for precise image adjustments", showing a man in winter clothing standing on the surface of a frozen lake, looking at mountains in the distance.

Masking in #Lightroom gives you an amazing amount of control over adjustments that you can apply to specific parts of a photo. If you want to learn more about the #masking possibilities in Lightroom, check out this excellent tutorial from Brian Matiash. #photography
www.adobe.com/learn/lightr...

A black & white photograph by Seán Duggan shows a view looking up at a large stone structure in Prague, 1997. A diagonal line that suggests a wall next to a staircase leads upward to the right. In the center of the image at the top of the structure, is a large, shallow bronze dish, like something where an eternal flame might be placed. To the left of this bronze dish the lower legs of a person in white pants are seen draped over the wall.

Prague, 1997
The pedestal for a massive statue of Stalin that was blown up in 1962 as a result of the de-Stalinization reforms. Today there is a giant metronome where the statue once stood. A plaque at the base reads "In time, all things pass."

#prague #blackandwhitephotography #filmphotography

A black and white photograph by Seán Duggan of a curved lamp post centered over the towering shape of Mt. Shasta in the background.

Lamp Post and Mt. Shasta
Weed, California
#shasta #mtshasta #volcano #blackandwhitephotography #landscape #landscapephotography

A view of a light box for viewing photographic negatives. Several rolls of medium format black and white film are coiled on top of the light box along with some photo processing envelopes.

It's always a good day when a batch of processed film comes back from the lab! In this case, 7 rolls of medium format B&W: 5 rolls from my pinhole camera, 1 from a Lubitel, & 1 roll that was found in an old Voigtländer twin lens reflex that was given to me.

#filmphotography #analogphotography

Photograph of a wooden pinhole camera on a tripod, set up at low tide among the uneven and rocky terrain of tide pools at Point Lobos State Park in central California coast. The back leg of the tripod is extended all the way, while the two front legs are set to the shortest length.

Finding the perfect placement for a tripod in challenging, uneven terrain is a very satisfying thing. Taken earlier this week at Weston Beach at Point Lobos, taking advantage of low tide for some new pinhole photographs.

#pinholephotography #pinhole #filmphotography #pointlobos #tidepools

A black and white photo by Seán Duggan looking up at an upside down old wooden church, balanced on the tip of the church tower. In the background is the edifice of a more modern building that is much taller than the inverted wooden chapel.

Inverted Church, 2016

One for #ThrowbackThursday from my "Hollywood Boulevard" series: A large installation promoting the premiere of the series "Preacher", based on the cult comic series of the same name.

#blackandwhitephotography #surreal #hollywoodboulevard #hollywood #preacher #church