Process Book
My
Fingers Between Your Toes
Work flow, research, ideas & inspiration
Work flow, research, ideas & inspiration
September 30/25
Diptic / Overkill
September 22/25
Kill your darlings
September 18/25
3D printed 4x5
- 125mm focal length- f/417
- 0.3mm hole
- 35–40mm lens equivalent.
September 15-18/25
Hanging out with Jthaw.me
I spent the rest of the week with my friend Jonny—redesigning and printing cameras, eating ramen, checking out photobooks, and watching skate videos. We fixed all the issues that came up with the 120mm camera we made back in January and built a new version for 4x5 film, based on my cardboard working model. Now I just need to test it out.Jonny had a great book about the skater/artist Mark Gonzales, and I stumbled across a quote from Ed Templeton that really stuck with me:
“Innocence and the untainted and truthful way of looking at the world are worth preserving. Photography is a child who can’t yet speak, pointing at something so her mother can see what she is seeing, what she is struck by. Children’s drawings are pure imagination, simple shapes and lines that represent something else, that is art in its purest form.”
September 13-14/25
Magnum workshop with Jim Goldberg and Alessandra Sanguinetti, London.
First, I want to start with a cheesy point about how privileged I feel. My partner is super encouraging and constantly pushes me out of my comfort zone, and I have amazing friends who will just host me and spend time making pinhole cameras and hearing about my project. This week I also got to hang out with my brother, sister, and their kids, as well as meet artists I couldn’t have more respect and reverence for.On Thursday I got to London and stayed with my friend Ellie. On Friday I made prints and we hung out, going through the project and eating pizza.
Saturday was the first day of the workshop. Jim Goldberg gave a talk about his work, followed by Alessandra Sanguinetti. I didn’t realize until almost the end of Jim’s talk that they’re married. His talk was unbelievable and, obviously, not nearly long enough. He started with his university work and then walked us through Rich and Poor, Raised By Wolves, Open See, Coming and Going, and a lot more in between. Regrettably, he couldn’t show us his current work because we ran out of time. The way he spoke was inspiring - you could feel how much he cared about the people in his work, how much he agonized over creating beauty with them and respecting them. Agony does feel like the right word, but in a possitive way.
There was a moment where he spoke about his divorce, and the pain just poured out in a way I haven’t experienced before - he is clearly really developed as a communicative person. Beyond the images themselves, the amazing thing about his work is the level of pure, passionate emotion his “subjects” write onto his photographs. Someone asked how he gets that kind of honesty. He said he could show them, but only if they were alone. He explained that he might start with a few set questions, (he mentioned something like when talking to the ‘poor’ group he would ask them what they would say to a rich person to make them understand how it felt being poor, and visa versa) he would talk with someone for an hour or more, and then guide them to write down the parts that felt most resonant. He showed us one image in Rich and Poor where a wife had written gushingly about her husband, while on the same photo the husband had written, “I have an average wife and an OK life.” When asked if the two of them knew what the other had written, he said yes, and it didn’t seem like it was an issue. That seems like something impossible for me to do.
Another cool insight was how he marked down his narrative on a piece of paper with maybe six phrases, in order of events or themes, so the story was clear for him and easier to shape into a book. He even ended up using some of those handwritten pages in Raised By Wolves.
During the break, Jim left out dummy copies of some of his books. This was incredible - seeing the first drafts of Coming and Going, with different image and text pairings. His process was fascinating: he made massive books full of collaged images and text, but since they were too unwieldy to send to publishers or drag around with him, he photographed the spreads, printed them cheaply as 6x4 drugstore prints, and taped them together into tiny managable books (6 inches deep though).
Next was Alessandra Sanguinetti, who presented in a very different style - more composed and intentional. I hadn’t engaged much with her work before, but she completely drew me in. She showed us an unbelievable body of work following two girls from childhood to adulthood on a farm in Argentina. I don’t think it’s published yet, but I can’t wait to see the final book or film. She also showed an image from inside a house; casually, she mentioned that she’d gone there to meet someone, no one was home, she pushed the door, it opened, and she saw this amazing living room - so she took the picture (large format, not a fast process). I love that unashamed way of working, not overthinking it and, of course, no one was harmed. I also realized, as she presented, that many of the images in Coming and Going were actually hers, which I found really curious and interesting.
In the afternoon we had group crits - eight peers and a tutor. My group was with Sarah Allen, head of program at the South London Gallery, also involved with Tate, Belfast Photo Festival, along with the Magnum education team. People engaged with my work, but the phrase Kill Your Darlings came up. The feeling was that with so many images, the narrative and impact were getting diluted. I asked the group to help me cut them down as much as possible, and they reduced 106 images to 50 - a really useful exercise. Overall, the feedback was that the narrative needed to be more explicit, but people connected with the concept and images. It was also interesting seeing how others presented their work, how we all cling to things or our darlings that feel important even when others don’t see it, and how the tutors gave thoughtful, gentle feedback.
On Sunday I had a one-on-one with Jim Goldberg for 40 minutes. He blew me away. I’ve tried to remember everything he said. He was passionately engaged with the concept and images, and his enthusiasm was incredible to receive.
The first issue he raised was the captions and storytelling. He turned to face the wall so he couldn’t see the images (I think as an exercise to focus on narrative) and asked me to read captions from the beginning, middle, and end. He was shocked by how minimal they were and told me no one would be able to follow the story. He pleaded with me - and ephasised to do it as soon as possible, ideally that night - to write the entire story from beginning to end and get it clear on paper.
He asked who my audience was. I said people who’d been through a similar transitional period, but he wasn’t convinced. He said that’s a hard audience to engage - everyone always thinks their own pain is worse, and if I wrote it all down probably they wouldn’t read it. He suggested instead that it’s a story of redemption. He also said there were far too many images: the story was there, but maybe in 20 or 30 pictures, not 100+. He urged me to edit it down that night. He was so animated. He made a point also for the first 20 images that its like ‘i’m sad’ ‘i’m sad’ ‘i’m sad’
‘i’m sad’ - and said he understood the sadness with the first image, he didnt need the others, they just weighed him down.
He also thought maybe there were too many nude images of my partner, and none of me. He picked three, asked me to choose the best, and when I did, he said it was his choice too, then discarded the others. He suggested I ask Maria to photograph me, warning that otherwise the gaze might feel too one-sided and maybe even exploitative.
We did the same with my section on death and grief. He had me pull them all out. He argued that some of the emptier images - rooms, mirror selfies - just didn’t communicate clearly. But he singled out one of Maria running through morning mist to the hospital, and another of us in the car on the way to our friend’s funeral, saying those were much stronger and made hime feel what I felt.
He compared my sequence to music: too many images in the same style felt like a monotonous song with a single note, and I needed high notes, low notes, and texture. He loved the pinhole cameras - he even asked if he could have one - and told me the obsession itself was great, that I should keep going with it. When I asked how long he would keep working on a project like this, he said to keep going through marriage, maybe even to having a child, keep going and dont worry about it. But above all, he emphasized editing. Learn to edit now.
He said, “Do it for you, Maria, and your kid. Don’t worry about the viewer.”
He also mentioned that including too many images that highlighted the pinhole cameras through their asthetic risked losing the emotional momentum of the story. And if he were to show the cameras themselves he would maybe just show them at the end. In the intro, mention the cameras briefly, then move straight into the story. Dont let them distract.
You can tell from my unhinged writing how massive an impact this had on me. It was amazingly helpful. Such an intense 40 minutes, and incredible to receive the thoughts of such a passionate and deeply caring man.
September 10/25
This week has been a huge learning curve, with a very fast turnaround. Tomorrow I’m heading to London for a Magnum workshop with Jim Goldberg and Alessandra Sanguinetti. I got back to Athens from the island with just six days (while also working my regular job) and managed to develop six rolls of film, eight sheets of 4x5, scan, edit, and get everything draft-printed.
I never feel completely ready, but I will say that having the workshop as a goal has really pushed me to raise my level - both in developing the project and in image-making itself. It feels like a huge step to have finally realized images that I’ve carried in my mind for years but never had the courage, or wasn’t quite ready, to make. Now I feel as if I’ve stepped over a line in the project, moving into a new phase
August 13/25
River of Info
It’s been a week, and I don’t seem to have created anything I’m happy with yet, and it’s getting to me a bit. I’ve been talking to my partner and my friend Ellie about the process.Maria used a really nice phrase - River of Info - to describe how all the images so far that haven’t been a success are still building up my knowledge and understanding, flowing in a good direction. It’s a comforting thought, and patience is always productive. But I can’t help feeling frustrated.
With Ellie, we talked things through: I should slow down, be more intentional, and try to let go of the need to create something perfect. That’s not how I’ve worked in the past, and things will probably flow once I step back a bit.
I’m enjoying it, even if it’s frustrating. I have a lot of ideas, and I’ll keep experimenting and testing. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring enough chemicals with me, but I can keep working and develop things when I’m back in Athens in September.
August 07/25
I’m taking with me boxes of sheet film:
HP5+ 400 and Fomapan 100 — I’m hoping with these I can achieve some of those intimate nude ideas I felt I missed in Japan, as well as capture some really sharp, bright landscapes and outdoor portraits.
With the Ilford Delta 3200 (both 35mm and 120mm), I’m hoping to experiment with flash to create some cool nighttime beach and water images, and also shoot in our room at night. I’d also like to try mixing flash with low light or sunset light.
I found a couple of expired 100 ISO Kodak T-Max rolls. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll use them for, but I imagine they’ll be good for midday shoots at the beach or on walks, where they should produce very sharp images.
And then I have some HP5+ as a more versatile stock to have on hand.
I’m bringing chemicals with me so I can get an idea of how things are working out while I’m there.
July 30/25
Viewfinders
I added some pretty rough and bad-looking viewfinders to the cameras. They aren’t super accurate but should help me gauge framing and composition a little bit. I am a little worried because the original concept of the project was viewfinderless cameras and aimed at giving up control, but I also feel it’s a natural progression of the project. Now that I’m getting more comfortable with the process and the image creation is more reliable, I’d like to focus more on my composition and framing.July 22/25
Cursive & Captions
Inspired by Ed Templeton’s Wires Crossed and Jim Goldberg’s Coming and Going, I decided to take the captions I’ve been working on, get a fountain pen, and give cursive a try. I had previously tried pairing the images with my regular handwriting (I tend to write in block capital letters), but it didn’t work.I went back to script—something I haven’t used since I was probably 11 years old. We had to learn it in primary school and were rewarded with better pens as we progressed, which was pretty exciting. But by secondary school, using block capitals felt rebellious and took over as a way for me to express myself. It felt more punk and graphic design. So I needed some time to refamiliarise myself with cursive and work out what I like and what looks good, and follow a few tutorials on youtube.
I think the results are great—far more successful and engaging than I expected. I feel the script ties together the diary concept with a very personal, handcrafted look. I’m really looking forward to taking this further. It feels like it’s brought the project together in a new way and into its next stage.
I’m thinking it might be interesting to use cursive for the captions, and then add other text using my block handwriting—Templeton also works with different styles in this way. With the block writing, it could be interesting to add insight and context into specific events, memories, or feelings at the time the photo was taken—maybe even ‘break the fourth wall’ with notes on where I was at in the camera-making process. I could include frustrations about unsuccessful images, or notes on material changes or exposures that worked well. I think it could serve as an interesting narrative device, especially when paired with the more abstract and emotional captions.
I created the style of the captions to feel like I’m speaking directly to my partner, Maria—similar in tone to the title My Fingers Between Your Toes. It continues the diary feeling, and feels really intimate. It also sort of draws the viewer into more direct contact with the work, because it sounds like I am intimatly talking directly to them in some sense. But it’s something I’ll keep thinking about as the project evolves.
Some of the captions are totally off and need reworking. I also need to find the right balance between pretty cursive and legibility, and weigh up how much effort I’m happy for the viewer to make in order to access the text—whether I make the script less graphic, and the captions less abstract.
In any case, this feels like an exciting step that’s bringing the work into a more realised place. I think now I need to finally focus and settle on the physical dimensions of the book, so that if I proceed with block text and cursive, I know the kind of space I’m working with and can place the text graphically and intentionally. I’m also open to experimenting with writing interactively on the images.
But choosing the actual size and shape of the book feels like a duanting decision that I am not ready for, somehow. Im loosley thinking in the area of something like a moleskin diary, but it feels abit to obvious and simplistic and un-thought out.
let’s see.
July 22/25
Camera Obscura
I finally got around to setting up a camera obscura in my bedroom. I’d been thinking about it for a while but never got around to it. My friend Jonny made one in his studio and showed me how simple it was, so I got inspired. It was really successful and pretty amazing.I was hoping to explore an idea inspired by Avion Pearce (which I think I’ve mentioned here before) — taking a portrait of myself with my neighbourhood ‘obscured’ onto me or my bedroom wall. But I realised pretty quickly that the light levels meant I’d be working with exposures that would need to last several days using my pinhole camera, so it wasn’t really practical.
Still, it was fun to try, and it gave me a much better understanding of what’s actually happening inside my cameras.
June 08/25
Using Flash
Image: Me, at home, as the summer begins, Gyzi, June 2025
It feels like a bit of a breakthrough!
I was going through Nan Goldin’s work again, admiring the almost wet quality of the flash throughout. I had tried using flash before with my 120mm camera, but back then I kept the flash on constantly to light the scene, metered the lit scene, and exposed accordingly. This time, I grabbed a flash I had in the cupboard and taped it to the camera. It simply has a button you press to trigger it.
So, I taped the flash to the bottom of my 35mm, opened the shutter, triggered the flash, and closed it. My meter had suggested 30 seconds in the dark room, but the flash captured everything in the couple of seconds it took to open, trigger the flash, and close the shutter. Even handheld, the result is unblurred, sharp, and atmospheric.
I feel like this opens up so many new possibilities—photographs in bars, outdoors in the dark, in the bedroom, at night, on the beach when camping—images I’ve always chased but been limited by long exposures. It may also free me from relying so heavily on tripods. I’m planning to shoot another roll tonight, testing the flash in various contexts.
I’m also really excited to try it with colour film. I love the silvery look it’s created with the black and white—along with the grain, it’s almost like you can see the film stock (Ilford HP5+ 400) I need to test it also with the 120mm and 4x5.
If this works and ends up being a system I can use reliably, I could build a new camera with a casing that the flash can slip into and be fully contained.
May 30/25
Pushing Film and Underexposing
Image: Maria, Japan, 18th May 2025
This was a hard lesson to learn. I made a two-week trip to Japan, where I also got engaged. We had been planning it for a while. I took five rolls of 120mm film with me and five rolls of 35mm. I knew I would be making images in various scenarios, including lots of low-light hotels. I planned to use HP5+ 400 and Kodak TX 400 pushed to 1600.
Most of the rolls have been drastically underexposed, and very little can be saved. I think I can identify several main issues:
- Metering for lighter areas as opposed to shadows
- Unintentionally using 0.15mm holes instead of 0.2mm holes
- Not bracketing images
- Being overly reliant/confident with the 120mm and not using the 35mm, which I had more experience with
I guess this is how you learn—though I do feel I should have enough experience by this point not to be making these kinds of mistakes. I took some images of the spot where we got engaged, under beautiful green trees in Yoyogi Park in the mist, and other images that felt very intimate and charged with meaning. Unfortunately, I have to accept they are gone, due to underexposure and a softness from the small holes.
I did learn some new methods of developing, however, in an attempt to recover films that I knew would be underexposed: hour-long semi-stand. As a result, I have recovered the image above, which does feel to have a kind of magic. I think the image has something—partly due to the fact it’s been pulled out of the darkness. It feels more obscured and intimate, as well as perhaps a bit more sensual, with the soft, more abstract shapes, a few people have said it feels more like a landscape.
I’m worried there’s a chance I’m just too sentimentally attached to the idea of the image, and I’m holding onto it when I should be letting it go. Time will help with that, as well as viewing it in context with the rest of the work.
Moving forward now:
I think pushing the film is perhaps a bit too risky in most cases, and it's better to just work with longer exposures. This is a difficult setback, but I think it's unavoidable. I need to be super careful with hole sizes and light metering—these are stupid mistakes.
I will try to recreate some of the intimate images at home and make images less in haste. It’s a good idea to make images on both 120mm and 35mm.
April 20/25
Images:
Ed Templton
Masahis Fukase
Daoido Moriyama
Nobuyoshi Araki
james pffaf
I would love to create some images like the one above at this stage in my work. There is definitely a caution around the gaze, and it will be important to ask why I want to make such images and why they feel important to me—but I want to see what we can make together.
4x5 Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Image:
Our neighbourhood, Exarcheia, March 2025
The second try with the 4x5 camera had amazing results—one image of our neighbourhood and one of Maria getting dressed for a friend’s party. The sharpness and detail are far beyond anything I’ve achieved so far. It’s a much more restrictive and slow process—having to load the camera in the darkroom and only make one image at a time—and a lot more expensive, but very exciting.
I’m really interested in trying some colour film, though getting it developed would be a huge issue. I’m also curious to try the larger formats available, eventually.
Scanning is a bit of an issue, as the image doesn’t fit within the scanning bed, so I have to scan the negative in two halves and then stitch it back together in Photoshop. I notice some lack of sharpness, but that’s to be expected without a lens, of course. I’m aware the film needs to be as flat and flush as possible.
It’s also hard to keep the film dust-free. I’ll try to build a camera that uses a film holder, which might offer more control over these variables.
March 04/25
4x5
I had a go at building a 4x5 camera. Surprisingly, it worked really well and didn’t need much reworking. I picked up some relatively cheap film from Kamerastore — Ilford HP5 Plus 400 (25 sheets). Going forward, though, I’ll need to find a good source, as it's super expensive in Greece and I picked up the last box from Kamerastore.
I had to test a few hole sizes until I got the right one, but I think, due to the size of the camera, it was relatively easy to put together, build, and figure out. I’m really excited to work with it.
Developing in trays is a much different process, needing total darkness the entire time. It feels a bit more intense, but it’s relatively similar to working with the Paterson tank — maybe even more focused and meditative.
The first images haven’t been great in terms of composition or subject, but they were just to get started and to get familiar with the camera and process. I love the feel of the camera and the shutter. I created three boxes, sort of like a babushka doll, that slide one into the other and block out light without needing to be sealed, making it easier to load film in the dark.
Aperture & Low Light
I’ve been experimenting a lot with various ways to allow myself to work in low light with shorter, less restrictive exposures. Different hole sizes, using flashes, higher ISO, and pushing film. It seems like changing the hole sizes blurs the images beyond what I’m happy with. The flash is great in shortening the times but also creating a more moody, contrasty look that I am really happy with, and I’ll try to work with it more often. Pushing the film also seems to have relatively good results. I went as far as pushing 400TX to 800, but I think I could maybe go as far as 1600. The Ilford Delta 3200 also had a great result this time, though I don’t want to rely on it because in the past I’ve had really mixed results.
Lary Clark
Tulsa, 1971
Teenage lust, 1983
Larry Clark’s Tulsa and Teenage Lust keep coming up. In interviews I’ve watched, both Ed Templeton, Jim Goldberg and Nan Goldin refer to these works as defining their practice and as being highly influential. I’ll try to get a copy of the books as soon as I can, to understand and experience them properly.
The books—especially Tulsa—are often described as groundbreaking projects: among the first to adopt a diaristic, even confessional, format, looking inward at the photographer’s own life. They marked a break from the photojournalistic, documentary style associated with photographers from Life magazine or Magnum—often linked to an older generation of male photographers with rigid standards about what constituted “good” photography: technically perfect, outward-looking, and focused on events of clear historical significance. I imagine that at the time, works like Tulsa would not have been considered for exhibitions in respected art galleries.
Danny Lyon also comes up often as a contemporary of Larry Clark and someone whom Jim Goldberg cites as a major influence—I need to look into his work.
There do seem to be many ethical questions surrounding Clark’s work, which focuses on youth and issues like drug use, sex, and violence. It is raw, sexually explicit, and emotionally intense. Questions of consent, voyeurism, and exploitation naturally arise. But Clark appears in the images himself—in fact, I think the work is inseparable from his life—which perhaps makes it less vulnerable to some of the usual ethical critiques. This brings me back to Nobuyoshi Araki’s Lucky Hole.
You can really feel his influence in Ed Templeton’s and Nan Goldin’s images, and you can see why they would be drawn to it—both being, in a way, outsiders, documenting anti-mainstream youth cultures. At the time, youth culture and subjects like sexual desire or drug use were taboo and rarely discussed openly. Clark addresses them from the inside, with no shame, modesty, or sugarcoating. It’s really complex work—honest and full of nuance, yet violent and daring—focused on something relatively small, but of huge cultural, artistic, and political significance. His work looks at things that were/are not only not looked at or talked about, but actively ignored—and maybe you could say perpetuated as a result.
The key word that sticks with me though is confessional.
The books also inspired his 1995 film Kids, which is similarly gritty and told from an insider’s perspective, exploring many of the same issues. It was highly controversial at the time, but had a massive influence on film and popular culture.
Teenage lust: https://pier24.org/portfolio/larry-clark-teenage-lust/
Pretty terrible-feeling interview, but some interesting insight. He mentions that the whole time he was photographing for Tulsa, there was no thought of a book—that’s just what he did: photograph. If he didn’t have his camera, his friends found it weird. “It was a part of me, very organic.” I have to say, for some reason, there is something I don’t like about him and his work, that is missing from Goldin, Goldberg and Templeton. I cant describe what it is - maybe thats the point though.
Ed Templton
I just came across Ed Templeton for the first time through the Aperture PhotoBook Club—and I’m blown away: his photography, his paintings, his way of thinking, his illustrations and open approach to it all. When I first picked up a skateboard as a kid, I was instinctively drawn to Toy Machine and it became somehow a part of my identity. But it never occurred to me to look into who was behind the illustrations. I guess I thought it was some kind of marketing agency. I had no idea that the person behind that brand would also be creating such powerful photography and artwork.
Checking out his website, it's obvious he never stops. He has 100s of photography and mixed media zines, as well as painting exhibitions, illustrations, and marketing for Toy Machine. Check out his Instagram here. With Aperture, he has recently released Wires Crossed (2023), described as:
Part memoir, part document of the DIY, punk-infused subculture of skateboarding as it came of age in the 1990s and early 2000s, Ed Templeton’s Wires Crossed pulses with the raw, combustive energy of Templeton’s image-making from the last twenty-plus years.
It’s a publication featuring his photographs, collages, texts, maps, and other ephemera from Templeton’s journals during a period he was a pro skater and big name in the skating subculture. He seems super talented and motivated but self-deprecative and full of thought. He was super excited for the oportunity to make his own deck and take control of his image when he first became pro, making a cat graphic. And then when he made his own magazine artvertisment he wrote something like Ed Templton, the one with the crappy graphics.
In interviews, Templeton mentions Jim Goldberg’s work, along with Nan Goldin and Larry Clark, as big influences. He cites The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and Tulsa / Teenage Lust as eye-opening moments—he had already been a pro skater for four years before he encountered those books, and he regrets how much he missed before picking up a camera. For him, they were examples of photographers who documented their own lives and their own circles—"It slapped me in the face," he says. As a pro skater, he realized he had insider access to a wild, crazy rockstar subculture and felt he should be documenting it too. “What haunts me,” he says, “is how much I missed.” Until then, photography meant National Geographic or war reporting to him. He started learning by borrowing cameras from skate photographers who shot him for magazines—trial and error, ruining entire rolls, getting pissed off, and forcing himself to improve.You can feel a real sense of continuation and influence between him, Goldberg, Goldin, and Clark. He talks about advice from Goldberg during the editing process of his book: to choose key characters (like Tweaky Dave) and build edits around them. He had too many characters and arcs, so he focused on editing by theme instead—Boredom, Injuries, Lust, Police. He mentions Raised by Wolves as a major influence. The handwritten text on his images calls back to Allen Ginsberg and Robert Frank—two of Goldberg’s own influences. He’s really into the idea of adding context through writing, whether it’s just a date and name or a whole paragraph and cursive handwriting more poetic—he likes the way it looks more than his usual tiny sketchbook scrawl (which is amazing in and of itself). I’ve tried handwriting on my own images before, but it’s always felt primitive or forced. Maybe cursive is something to explore. Sometimes I feel pressure to only show photos, as if adding text means I’m compensating for weak images. He also discusses that originally he planned to just feature photos in the book—no journals, no text, just photos in sequence—but Aperture helped him see that the context matters.
It’s fascinating to hear how skateboarding influenced his approach to photography: darting around, always looking 50 meters ahead, preemptively focusing. He says he wants his photos to stand alone though—you shouldn’t have to know anything about skateboarding to appreciate them, they should work as photographs first. He talks about not liking self-imposed creative barriers—he shoots, draws, and paints with the same enthusiasm. At the same time, he likes working within rules and parameters. Sometimes boundaries make the process easier.
After breaking his leg and retiring from professional skating in 2012, he spent the next decade re-scanning, archiving, separating image and text in preparation for Wires Crossed. I really admire how long he took to put his book together. He says he sat on it for years, letting the material come together in his head. He takes archiving seriously—he says many of his friends have lost images over the years simply because they can't find them. He worked with low-res JPEGs to map things out before scanning the final negatives. He’d edit down through thousands of photos, then take a break for months and return to do it again and get the numbers even further down. He works with a huge cork board for laying out his edits, constantly moving things around. He jokes that when he met with the guys from Aperture, his InDesign file had over 800 linked images—an “over-the-top maximalist layout.” Toward the end they told him he needed to lose 8 spreads which seemed impossible, but using the sequence spread out on the cork board it was easy. The print process is also really interesting. They printed the black-and-white images in duo- or tri-tone, and the color in CMYK. Where they overlapped, they ran separate passes—leaving space in one layer for another to be printed on top. Must have been insane to align and work out logistically, but the results are stunning and honor the mixed media sketchbook approach. It’s also cool that he worked on the business side of Toy Machine—marketing, graphic design, advertising—and brought that skill set into the bookmaking process. Even small things, like mentioning he wanted to simplify the book so that the cost would remain low and be accessible to his subculture. His exhibitions also look amazing, he talks about using the book as a roadmap for the exhibitions where he can expand things out.
He also clearly has a really special relationship with his wife, Deanna, who’s also a photographer. I certainly need to explore her work.
Deformer (2000) by Mike Mills is a beautiful short film about him. I loved the scene where he sketches Deanna lifting her skirt—it feels so Californian: warm night air, freedom, intimacy. And you can feel his unstoppable need to create, in all of the interviews—living in a house that is basically one massive studio.
From Deformer:
“My dad ran off when I was eight years old with the 18-year-old baby sister. I became a ninja for a while and then I quickly found skateboarders and punkers—the only people who accepted just about anyone. I was like a 100% nerd, but just a normal kid, you know? But punkers were like outcasts—they accepted whoever. You could be part of their group if you were just down to hang out. They didn’t care. So I started hanging out with these punker guys who’d smoke pot after school, and I’d just sit there like a little puppy.
‘Yo, have some pot, Ed!’
‘Nah nah, I’ll just watch!’
I came from a fucked-up family, you know? And it deforms you. But I got maybe deformed in a better way. Sometimes I see it like this: the truly talented people—they don’t give a shit. And I’m not like that. I’m a worker. The things I got, I had to work for. I’ve never been the most talented skateboarder or the most talented artist. But I keep doing it. I work at it. I try to be consistent. I get why people thought I was weird. But I don’t think I’m weird. The reasons I do things are normal, natural, good reasons. I have a good heart. I’m not trying to fuck people up—I’m trying to help, in a way. So no, I’m not weird. Maybe not normal... but not weird.”
Deanna: “Why don’t you ever paint boys naked?”
February 01/25
I spent the week trying to adapt lenses from single-use disposable cameras to my 3D-printed 35mm, to see if I could make image-making more reliable—especially in low light. After a few failures, I got it working. However, I think the positives are outweighed by a kind of fisheye distortion that I can’t seem to overcome. I suspect it’s due to the size of the lens or its proximity to the film. I might return to building my own lenses in the future, but for now, it doesn’t seem to be producing the results I’m looking for.
Image:
A - 0,5mm Aperture + lens (15 second exposure)
B - 0,3mm Aperture + Lens (30 second exposure)
C - 0,15mm Aperture + Lens (2 minute exposure)
D - 0,15mm Aperture - No lens (3 minute exposure)
I fixed the issue of the circular frame by filing and expanding the circle on the inner chamber. If we print it again, we’ll need to almost double the size of that opening. The next test roll I shot had a square frame smaller than the full film area, which I realized was due to the 6x6cm insert we had made. We created this insert with the idea that we could pop it in and out to exchange between different image sizes—6x6cm or 6x4.5cm, but the front square close to the hole is blocking the image circle as it comes through the camera/
For now, I’ve removed the insert, which means I can only shoot 6x6cm negatives, but I’m getting full-frame results. If we reprint the design, we can look into better solutions for switching between different image sizes. I’d really like to work with 6x4.5cm in the future, as I’m not a huge fan of the square format. I think the concept of the inset works, we just need to refine the messurments, basically expanding the size of the cut outs close to the hole.
The final results have been amazing. Loading and unloading the camera is so easy. The shutter is smooth, and the design feels great in your hands and is very stable when placed on surfaces. I’d like to rework the back window that lets me see the frame numbers while advancing the film—it works fine, but the clip-on cover can get in the way, especially when trying to sit the camera flush against a wall for extra support.
I’ll try to keep these things in mind, and hopefully I can get back into the studio with Jonny soon to refine the design.
I got out and tested the 120mm 3D-printed camera with a 0.2mm pinhole. In terms of clarity and usability, the images look great. However, due to the internal part having a circular cutout that's too small for the image field, the film has recorded the image inside a circle. I actually quite like the images—they refer back to an earlier image I made in the first year of the project that had the same issue, but that one was also very blurry and out of focus.
I feel like there might be space for these circular images in my narrative. They bring us back to the pinhole as part of the concept, and I like when images in the narrative refer to and reference each other. However, going forward I’ll try to expand the circular opening in the camera so it doesn’t block the image field.
It will also be good to find a solution for using the camera with a tripod. At the moment, I rely on lots of tape to attach and steady it, which doesn’t feel reliable, is really wasteful, and makes the whole process slower and more restrictive.
January 03/25
Unexpectedly, with one more day in the studio, we managed to create and print a 120mm camera based on my cardboard design. It came together quickly, as Jonny had really got to grips with the 3D modeling software, and the cardboard version of the 120mm camera was more straightforward — a simple, rectangular box compared to the 35mm.
Jonny added a couple of great features: a viewing window that can be opened by popping off a clipped-in lid, allowing you to see the frame markers as the film is wound on, and a clever system where an insert with a film gate can be swapped in and out, letting you switch between 6×6 cm and 6×4.5 cm frame sizes.
The whole design feels and looks great. This time, we chose a more minimal shutter that slides up and down, instead of scrolling side to side, partly so we could create it faster and partly because something more complicated didnt feel necessary, especially as the exposure times are usually 1s and more. It feels sturdy and reliable. The body is made by clipping together a front and back piece to create a light-tight seal, and inside that, an insert slips in to support the film with a pyramid-style chamber. As an object, it seems to function really well and just feels nice in your hands and eyes.
December 20/24
3D printing with Jonny Thaw
jthaw.me
I spent the week at my friend Jonny Thaw’s studio — check out his personal practice here. He seems to be always tinkering about on something facinating.
We set about designing and printing the 35mm pinhole camera. It’s amazing how Jonny works, and I really admire it. His thinking is quite different from mine — he’s great at problem-solving. He started by printing small parts with varying measurements to test fit with the film, which gave us a solid foundation to build on with a decent amount of confidence that everything would fit accurately.
He downloaded 3D modeling software and, within a day or so, had learned it well enough to design and print the camera from scratch. We left the studio in the evening, and he’d come back the next day with new ideas and updated models (he also had a sort of flu at the time which is even more impressive). It was such an enjoyable experience. Also just collaborating and working with a friend is a super luxurous experinece, and I really appreciate it. Hopefully we will get chance to work on more stuff like this in the future. The space is amazing also, right next to Charles Dawins school in a beautiful building.
After a few iterations, we finally had a working shutter and a cool system where the film loads into a chamber and a cover slides over the top to block light — the cover also doubles as a structural wall that holds the shutter in place. Everything functions and is light-sealed without the need for any tape or external materials. Jonny added great details like grips and cut-outs to help slide the camera apart.
If we make it back into the studio soon (before testing and becoming aware of any further issues), I’d love to build on the design by adding a way to count how far the film has been wound, and perhaps a proper key to twist the film — right now I’m just using whatever I have on hand, like my house key. Also, a strange admition: I often shoot with the cameras clamped between my teeth so they move less when I open and close the shutters — I can’t fit this version in my mouth, so it might be a weird but useful thing in the future to add a protrusion that I could clamp down onto.
Pretty wild watching the camera get 3D printed — it’s my first experience of this. There’s an odd feeling that it’s cheating and doesn’t count as a homemade camera, for some reason. Which obviously isn’t correct, as it’s all designed by us, built on experience, and doesn’t even matter- the point of the project is not that the cameras are home-made necessaily. It was also interesting finding some limitations with the materials — how thick walls should be to block out light, and how we could design with the printing process in mind (things needing to be propped up from the printing bed and certain parts needing to be printed separately and assembled). Its also interesting that you can be tempted to build on the design, adding a view finder for example. But I want to keep some things true to the original concept of the project.
January 02/24
I’ve been going back through my negatives and looking for images I may have missed or overlooked. I quite like this pair—from a trip to London and a trip to Vietnam with Maria. I like them together: the similarities and repetitions. But I’m cautious—they have a bit of a photo album, snapshot vibe. Something to think about.
January 02/24
Jonny sent us feedback from the first test print. As a first attempt, it showed a lot of potential and was more successful than we expected. The film canisters were too large, so the film rattled around too much and allows the film to bend and move, and some of the parts we designed to clip together were a little tight. I also realised the shutters holes I had made in which pinhole would be placed behind would block the image circle, so they’ll need to be expanded and the shutter resdesigned acordingly. We also discussed materials at this point, realising that the white plastic would probably let too much light through. We ordered some denser black material to work with. Over the next few weeks, we’ll rework the model and hopefully be ready to get into the studio with Jonny at the end of the month.
Araki Nobuyoshi
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3D modeling with Kiriakos Tzouanakos
instagram.com/darkandpixels
I was talking with my friend Jonny Thaw, and it came up that he had a 3D printer in his studio. In December, I’ll have the chance to spend some time there, and he suggested we could try making some 3D-printed versions of my pinhole cameras.
I have no experience with 3D modeling, so I got together with my friend and colleague Kyriakos Tsounakos. He creates great 3D-based moving image work — check out his work here — and we’ve collaborated well on projects in the past. I simplified my design in cardboard and came up with a new shutter mechanism that I hoped would work better one-handed, allowing for smoother, quicker movement and faster exposures.
We spent the weekend working out how to translate the design into Cinema 4D and have now passed it over to Jonny so he can do an initial test print and let us know what needs improving. It was a fun process for both of us. Neither I or Kyriakos had never 3D printed before or designed for 3D printing, so it was an interesting challenge trying to design a practical, physical object instead of something for digital animation.
Cameras in chronological order, 2022-2025.
November 02/24
I had been meaning to do this experiment for a long time, and now that I’m processing film at home, it became much simpler. I marked 12 equal intervals around Maria and took a photograph at each point, then aligned the images into an animation using Photoshop/After Effects. One day, it could be interesting to try making a short film that embraces the limitations and side effects of pinhole photography.
Masahisa FukaseYoko, 1978
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Re-Scanning
I’ve started going back through my negatives to see if there are any images that were missed or poorly scanned by the studios. I found this image of Maria’s feet from December 2022—it will be included in the book, and I think it gives the title more relevance. When I find the time, I’ll continue going through the negatives and try to pull out any overlooked images. Eventually, I’ll rescan the final selections for the book, but I think that can happen later, once the sequencing and editing are in place.
Avion pearce
www.aviavion.com/
I came across this Aperture Book Club conversation with Avion Pearce, and this particular image stood out to me. She created a portrait using a camera obscura—by covering the window opposite and making a small hole to project the outside city onto the bedroom wall. It's a super cool concept with beautifully dreamy results.
October 09/24
Image: Maria before renovation, Autumn 2024
First attempt at scanning negatives myself. It’s a much more delicate process than I expected, especially when it comes to the digital settings. At first, I had some issues keeping the negatives raised from the scanner bed, and it’s stressful trying to keep both the bed and the negatives free from dust. I suppose it’ll take some time to learn which scanner settings work best for me and how to properly adjust the scans in Photoshop. But it was enjoyable, and it’s definitely great having more control over what gets scanned, how the images are cropped, and how they’re adjusted. Hopefully, I’ll become much more confident with the process over time.
October 02/24
September 28/24
Paterson tank & Devloping
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
June 2022
finally getting set up for processing at home. Patterson tank, black and white chemicals and equipment and an Epson Perfection v500.
Medium Format
Imags:
Maria seasonal work, Antiparos Island, Greece, Summer 2024
The kitchen before renovation, Athens, Summer 2024
First images made with the 120mm medium format camera. So much more detail and depth than 35mm, and a really cool process. I think because there are fewer frames on the film, I was a bit slower and more methodical when setting up each image. I had a lot of issues with scratching, light leaks, and dust that I need to look into preventing.
August 20/24
Expanding & Revisiting
After the portfolio reviews, I spent some time going back through all the scans I have and took a much more maximalist approach to layout—playing around and looking for ways to visually express the experimental nature of the pinhole camera. I brought back some totally failed rolls. On the whole, I don’t think this approach is exactly what I’m looking for or imagining, but a few of the spreads certainly have something interesting. I particularly like the second roll I ever took, which totally failed and just recorded several tiny holes.
Through this process, I’ve become more open to images I had previously dismissed. I think there are some really strong photographs that I had skipped over and should bring back—such as the black and white image of Maria sleeping outside, curled up on the balcony. I think it’s an amazing image, maybe one of my strongest, but at the time I felt it was so technically bad that I passed it by.
120mm
I decided to finally attempt working with 120mm film. It’s the first time I’ve used it at all, not just for pinhole photography. I found this blog with some templates and great guides by Nick Dvoracek, and I picked up some thick cardboard to work with. The design looks great, and I built it as compact as possible so I don’t have a big, bulky camera with me. I’m going away for a few weeks to an island and plan to test a roll there.
July 15/24
Larry Sulton
Pictures from home, 1992
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Athens Photo Festival
Portfolio Reviews
June 2022
I participated in the portfolio reviews at the Athens Photo festival. I met with Alexis Vasilikos photographer based in Greece and co-editor of Phases Magazine, Tommaso Parrillo, Founder and director of @witty_books
Claire Pathe, photographer and founder/art director of @mesnographies and Collectif Fetart festival, Katy Hundertmark, Curator & Managing editor @foam_magazine & Sam Mercer, Producer of the Digital Programme at The Photographers' Gallery.
It was the first festival portfolio review I’ve participated in, and I would say it was an extremely beneficial but also extremely challenging experience. I brought with me a small set of art prints and a digital working InDesign file of the project as it currently stands.
I think there were two main pieces of feedback to focus on:
First, while there was positive feedback about the idea of the pinhole camera removing control and allowing for more free and experimental photography, this didn’t fully align with the way I presented the work—as a very curated and minimally, delicately laid out book. Sam Mercer, for example, suggested featuring every single photo I’ve taken during the project, or perhaps building a website that would randomly generate books, never printing the same combination of images twice. I like the idea, but for me, narrative is of high importance, and I don’t want to disregard it in favor of methodology alone. That said, I think I need to take a few steps back and reconsider how I present the work—maybe letting go of over-curation and design, and being more open to including additional images, even ones I may have initially considered unsuccessful, texture and investigating how I can commuicate the concept through the bookdesign, layout and edit.
Second, there was a suggestion that the work needed some form of text to support the narrative. Chapter titles or small written pieces could help the viewer follow the story more clearly. The current form was felt to be too abstract.
I also discussed the title ideas I had for the book, and it seems My Fingers Between Your Toes resonated and was well received.
There were also repeated calls for me to push the photography further. I think the general feeling was that while the concept and style were interesting, only a few images stood out as strong photographs in their own right. So, I need to focus on creating images that can stand alone—independent of context or the fact that they are pinhole photographs. This means working on stronger composition, clearer concepts, and perhaps pushing myself out of my comfort zone to make images that are more challenging and compelling for me.
June 07/24
Index
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Japanese Bind (accordion-style)
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Harry Gruyaert
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Nan Goldin
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1986
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Cameras, Scanned, 2022-2024.
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Typical Organization for Standards and Orrder
Hypothetical Death of The Exarchian Alpha, Ella Villaumié
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Eat Sleep Work Play
IMAGE: Central Saint Martins Graduate Catalogue
This degree show catalogue from Central Saint Martins, designed by Eat Sleep Work Play, is one of the first graphic design/photo books I ever picked up. I had gone to the Central Saint Martins degree show in London when my brother was thinking of applying. I must have been around 13 at the time.
It’s a really cool concept — all the students’ names are on the front, and inside, each got a double-page spread to showcase their work. Usually, the left-hand page featured a close-up detail, and on the right, they had a studio space they were given an allotted time to use however they wanted. They also used different coloured ribbons to signify specialisations: illustration, moving image, design, or advertising. The idea was that while walking around the show, you could highlight the names of the students you were interested in.
I love the cover. It gave me the idea to try something similar with my own work. I started thinking of all the images as a collection of memories moving backward in time — getting clearer as they become more recent. That led me to think of the book as a kind of catalogue of memories. From that, I had the idea that the cover could just be an index of the images or memories, which — when read from top to bottom — tells a story, while also helping the reader identify the images within the book.
For me, it somehow recalls Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — a kind of index-object where memories have been extracted and archived. I’m not in love with the first test version, but I really like the concept. I think there’s potential here for great storytelling and elegant design.
April 05/24
Typical Organization for Standards and Orrder
IMAGE: Camera Design No.14
June 2022
https://www.instagram.com/typicalorganization/
https://typical-organization.com/
https://www.instagram.com/gaelbonnefon/
https://www.instagram.com/sunsun_editions/
For 'Aux jours inoubliables' (The Unforgettable Days) a photo book by Gaël Bonnefon we proposed a composition that would add hypothetical missing images and blanc pages. Instead of highlighting 'Unforgettable' we believed it more typical to emphasize on 'Forgetting'. Only when we forget we seem to remember. Or thinking by the negative space is rather effective and affective.
Cameras in chronological order, 2022-2024.
Sequencing
As an exercise for the zoetrope workshop, I spent the day playing around with sequencing. I’m exploring within the parameter of keeping things relatively chronological, as that currently feels important to the narrative of both emotional development and camera development. I think something has started to emerge. I also found some image pairs that seem to work really well, and I’d like to hold onto them.
I had printed the images at different sizes and experimented with mixing them. It feels a bit random at the moment, but I loved introducing the one shot of our bed—where the camera has a bird’s-eye view—as the sole smaller image. It seems to give the image more impact and space, and I think it somehow works as punctuation in the narrative. I’ll keep this in mind as something to explore further. It’s also very close in size to the pinhole cameras made from matchboxes, which I find conceptually interesting.
This equals That
Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin, 2014
During the workshop, the tutor shared with is this great book. It’s aimed at children and designed to explore assoicative thinking and visual language, but I think its really fun and though provoking. Each image has some kind of visual connection to the next. I will try to get a copy.
Zoetrope Athens
instagram.com/zoetrope.athens
In the second week of the photobook workshop at Zoetrope, the tutor, George, asked us to bring small printed copies of our work. We took turns spreading the images out on a table and discussed editing, sequencing, narrative, and patterns. It’s quite an intimidating exercise, but definitely very productive. George made his own selection from the spread—based more on visuals than narrative—and it was really interesting to notice which images resonated with people, and which ones, despite my personal connection to them, seemed to say less to others. It was also interesting to see that reflected in the way ther other members of the workshop related to their own work, and seeing how hard and important it can be to let ideas you have fromed change or even drop.
Lucas, Eric Stephanian
IMAGE: Lucas, Eric Stephanian, Self-Published 2013.
I began a photobook workshop at Zoetrope Athens. In the first session, the tutor, George, showed a variety of different styles of photobooks, while discussing what a photobook actually is and how we define one. This self-published book really stuck with me. Entitled Lucas by Eric Stephannian 2013, the book consists of just one photo. On each turn of the page, the image is zoomed out slightly. There is only one piece of text, which tells us that the image is a single photograph of the photographer’s son, taken during the only opportunity he was given to meet his child.
There isn’t much more information available online about the book or the photographer, but there is an interesting article here.. The simplicity is really powerful, and what’s left unsaid makes the work provocative, thoughtful and emotional
March 01/24
Jim Goldberg, Coming and Going
Mack Books, 2023
“This book charts a course through the grief following the death of one’s parents, the life-altering birth of a child, the heartbreak of divorce, and the rediscovery of love.”
The book seems breathtaking. One image in particular (top right) blew me away. It shows skin shavings and hair on a black surface, with the handwritten note: DAD’S LAST SHAVE. There’s another incredible image showing his wristwatch at the time of his father’s death—calling back to the famous Josef Koudelka image. It all feels brutally honest and raw, yet intimate, respectful and carful.
I had intended my project to be a one-year diary when it began, but I’m leaning towards a longer span of time—maybe documenting my 30s and all the events I’ll go through. A shift from being a child or young adult into full adulthood.
Hopefully I’ll be able to purchase a copy of coming and going soon and explore it in more detail.
IMAGE: Camera Design No.14
June 2022
I decided to play around and make a very quick handmade test, inspired by Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s I Carry Her Photo with Me. I had gone back to my hometown, where I went to school and college. I met my graphic design teacher for a beer and got some of his feedback and criticism on the project. I also asked him if he had one of the sketchbooks that we used to use for our projects. He managed to get one and brought it with him.
I cut it in half, printed the project, and began using a glue stick to come up with a sort of narrative.
Obviously, it’s very quickly done without too much thought, but I think it has something. The spiral-bound, ad hoc, diary format is definitely something to keep exploring. I love the idea too that the actual notebook calls back to my adolescence—though a viewer wouldn’t know tha
Lindokuhle Sobekwa
‘I carry Her photo with Me’
IMAGE: I carry Her photo with me, MACK Books
I came across this book by Lindokuhle Sobekwa. I have only seen it digitally; hopefully, eventually I can get my hands on a physical copy and understand it better. The images document the photographer dealing with the disappearance of his sister and only owning one picture of her, in which her face had been cut out. Again, it seems to be a kind of exploration of memories and how they are understood through current narratives.
It caught my eye because of this diary, scrapbook design. It feels like it could be appropriate for my work. It’s beautiful how the image is cut in two and stuck on either side of the spiral binder, and isn’t intended to quite line up. The handmade style calls back to photo albums or childhood art projects and diary-like expressions of ideas. The image divided brings me back to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — incomplete, broken memories being brought back together and an attempt to preserve and understand them.
There is an interesting Magnum article here about his work, and an interesting talk here.
February 10/24
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
A friend, Yannis, recommended this book to me. I had been showing him my photographs, and he suggested I would find something in these stories. Indeed, it has really resonated with me. Short stories of a moment in a person’s life, charged full of everything. The title alone... This story in particular caught something in me:
I’d love to make a portrait of Yanni for this project.
February 03/24
Test Prints
IMAGE: Early booklets printed at home
I have been looking back at early booklets I printed at home and stapled together, trying to get a feel for the narrative and flow, and what could be cut. It's funny how almost finished a project can feel, but later, with hindsight, it seems so clearly naive. At the same time, I think doing fast, unserious prints like this often can really help develop understanding, and some pairings or rhythms can be spotted that stick with me. Having said that, maybe the final result should be reborn, when the photographing part has ended. I am not sure what’s the best process.
Paris, Texas.
Wim Wenders, 1984
IMAGE: Neggatives in binder.
Janyary 2024
Finally got around to organising all of my film from the first two years of the project. There’s something quite nice about this as an object. Maybe a final photobook could take some reference from it.
Charlie Kaufman
IMAGE: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Being John Malkovich (1999), I’m Thinking of Ending Things, (2022)
Next week I’ll be starting a photobook workshop at Zoetrope Athens. I’ve been putting together a small presentation about the project, and reflecting on some inspirations. I am in awe of Charlie Kaufman. Bleak but hopeful, the odd feeling of falling into memories and ideas, a strange self-awareness, and always a slight feeling of horniness. He also uses some ideas that on paper would be unoriginal: dreaming bed scenes, bubble baths, overcast car journeys — but he splices them, takes a step back from them, almost helps us to look at them and enjoy from a new, clever vantage. Visually, I feel there are a lot of connections to pinhole photography: the POV viewpoints, vignetting and dreaminess. I would love to make some images inspired by the intimate pov scene in Being John Malkovich (centre images above).This lecture is full of great insight.
January 02/24
Hi!
January 2024
So, the idea is to keep a record of ideas, inspirations, experiments and anything else that influences the course of the project, as something to refer back to, present, and use to grow my critical and creative thinking.
The project started in 2022.