My grandmother gave me a stereoscope and a stack of double-prints when I was young. The antique viewmaster with pictures of exotic places and old city scenes entertained me to no end. I was reminded of those pictures much later in college while working on a project in the geography department. My project involved calculating parallax distortion in overlapping satellite scenery. I was able to create my own stereoscope image of a fjord in Greenland in digital images shot from space. This connection between modern and antique still tickles me.

After graduating from Boston University, I studied archival black & white processing and darkroom techniques with Charles Hrbek in Boston. Later, I had access to an amazing world of digital photographic tools while working for Kodak.

I've been capturing scenes with a camera since 1977. My prints from that time are clunky, poorly lit, blurry from poor optics. Yet my favorite photos from that period are some of the blurriest; they still take me back. Their technical shortcomings evoke a mood, a place, a flavor. My work attempts to create those moods and places by mixing antique and modern technologies and techniques.

I use a mix of digital and film equipment to play with the mood. All photos in list below state their source and darkroom technique. The scenery and equipment vary. The play is consistent. The Scapes and Baseball series result from a technique whereby antique optics are used in conjunction with a modern CCD to capture the image. The Lomoesque series emulates the qualities of photos shot with the lomo camera through digital camera settings. Most images below are available in a printed portfolio format for interested parties. Several images have been produced as extremely limited edition 16x20 or 20x30 silver halide prints.

© Copyright 1977-2045 Chris Greacen