Stephen Walsh
Some art hits you over the head and you see stars. Other times, you'll need to keep staring for awhile before you see them. Steve Walsh's series of long exposure photographs taken while riding public transportation have a dreamy and mysterious quality. I knew the stars were there right away. Some people may need to keep looking for a few minutes to see them. Others may just scratch their heads. I like that quality in a photograph. If you have to dream a little bit to get it, you might discover something interesting. Viewing the small images on a computer screen isn't really the right format for this work -- really big prints would be more ideal. For the time being I'll use my imagination.
The photos were made handheld with a 10 stop neutral density filter (3.0), and are at least 13 seconds long. Steve rides specific sections of BART, looking for a certain type of landscape for these shots. If these images were printed on canvas they'd look like beautiful abstract paintings.
While visiting Steve's Flickr page, do not miss a visit to his urban exploration and night photography galleries. Steve is my neighbor, and we've gone night shooting quite a few times over the last year. He digs up great locations, has a unique sense of compositional style, and subtle sense of humor permeates his work. Did I mention you might want to have a look at his jaw dropping night photographs?