Long-Exposure Photography Turns Famous Films Into Abstract Art
London-based artist Jason Shulman turns his camera to the movie screen in his photo series “Photographs of Films” (which we first discovered on Wired). He shot long-exposure photographs of entire films, turning hours of cinema into single images that present the visual tone of the movie in aggregate.
After photographing athletes on television at the Sochi Olympics using long-exposure, he decided to test the effect on other types of video. “I wondered what whole movies would look like when photographed in real time with a single exposure,” he told mental_floss via email. As for his technique, he says, “Without going into too much detail, I photograph them off a huge, almost pixel-free monitor with a very, very good camera.”
The results are kind of like mood rings for movies. The photos (the 1948 Alfred Hitchcock movie Rope is pictured above) bring out dominant colors and visual aspects of the film while blurring the action and narrative, leaving a kind of abstract work of art that reflects the overall visual theme of the film. Check them out below, and see more on Shulman's website:
