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Last December (yeap, December!) -Maria and my new job stole the last three months just like that, merciless- Bill Vaccaro was kind enough as to comment my post on his work. I’ve been rude and bad-mannered and never found the time during the last months to thank him. Thank you and my apologies -hope you’ll be understanding enough…

Here it goes, in Bill’s own words:

“To answer your question, ‘Swoosh’ and ‘Eight Car Pileup’ were shot with a Hasselblad FlexBody, while ‘Tower’ was shot with a Hasselblad 2000 FC/M which I modified with a homemade shift-tilt lens made from a cheap loupe, extension tube, an old bellows from a broken Polaroid Land camera andgobs and gobs of gaffers tape.

I do shoot with Holgas, Dianas (and assorted clones) and other odd toy cameras that I’ve collected over the years. I’ve also done a fair amount of modifications on them as well. For instance, I’m currently experimenting with a pinhole that I made from a Diana clone whose lens came off. I also do things like smear Vaseline and other ointments directly on the lens to increase the blur.

Other photographers you might want to check out are Susan Burnstine (susanburnstine.com and outafocus.com), Gordon Stettinius (eyecaramba.com and http://gordisdead.blogspot.com/), Warren Harold (thatwasmyfoot.my-expressions.com) and Noelle Gilbert (www.noelleswangilbert.com/), just to name a few. And, of course, there’s the master of selective focus himself, Keith Carter (www.keithcarterphotographs.com).

There’s also a bunch of online communities worth looking into such as filmwasters.com and toycamera.com. Susan is one of the founders of the former. The latter is a great resource for all things toy and plastic, and administered by Mike Barnes, proprietor of Light Leaks Press and publisher of Light Leaks Magazine, the magazine of low-fi photography.”