MORE ABOUT THE BLUE PRINCE

The Blue Prince #25 – Animal Intelligence 1997

Me with colored paper palette in 1997

While working with the Mylar mirror I grew frustrated with my wineglass lenses. Since I had a different kind of deforming lens to work with using the mirror, I felt the blurring caused by the wineglasses was just getting in my way. At the same time it was difficult to move my 4×5 camera with its heavy tripod and improvised setup with extra light stands, especially in tiny increments, which was necessary as each tiny movement presented a radically different view.

When I looked at the mirror using my eyes I was spellbound, so on a whim, I loaded some color slide film into my 35mm camera and began to shoot with that. I then made 4×5 internegatives from the slides and printed them. I have separated these shots out as they were taken with a different kind of camera, but something else happened too. As I looked at the prints I found myself ordering them again and ended up with one big series of 36 images I called the Blue Prince.

Happily I found a photo which shows me with my color palette for the Blue Prince. Some of my favorite photos were the first ones I took. During those I used colored construction paper instead of colored cloths to serve as the subject. I threw down the small squares and full sheets and began shooting the 35mm slides. Animal Intelligence (above), Fates, Contemplation, and A Little Bird Told Me were all taken this way, as were some of the Mylar Abstracts group.