I began this project in 2007 but it grew out of an idea I had a few years earlier. At that time I considered the possibility of a series of photographs which would have the sun in the center of each image. It seemed to me that the best way to shoot something like that would be to use a pinhole lens, which is basically a very small hole containing no glass optics. Because of the peculiar behavior of photons light passing through a simple aperture projects a coherent depiction of any scene occurring on one side of the lens onto a screen or, in this case, film. I felt that that by using this simple lens I could avoid the problems associated with pointing a glass lens directly at the sun. (Everybody knows you are not supposed to point your camera directly at the sun.) In addition to the pinhole lens I decided to use 8 x10 inch color negative film to capture as much information as possible and to retain information in the brightest and darkest parts of the scene, which in this case would be extreme. So much for the technical necessities. 

    While I was working on this project a thought occurred to me. I remembered something I’d read about an ancient Greek model for the structure of the cosmos. This theory proposes that the sun is not an object in the sky but is actually an aperture in the dome of the sky. There was presumed to be a radiance above us which was so intense that it would incinerate us if it wasn’t for the sky acting as a shield. The aperture (the sun) let in just enough light for life to be possible. This is a fantastic notion and I had the thought that a pinhole camera was a model of this universe in miniature. In fact there was the additional interplay of these two devices in that if you acknowledge that the aperture in a pinhole camera allows for the depiction of the world outside of the camera it follows that the world is actually a depiction of what is beyond the sun. One of my favorite buildings from the ancient world is the Pantheon in Rome. If you’ve ever been there you will remember that at the top of the domed roof is an aperture, interestingly it’s called “the ocular”. It seems to me that the design of the building refers to this ancient Greek model of the cosmos. I called that project the “Pantheon Series”.

    One of the difficulties of working with a pinhole lens is that long exposures are required. The normal exposure for the “Pantheon Series” was nine seconds. For landscapes this is no problem but for people it’s problematic, particularly because I don’t generally pose my subjects. The problem became acute when I was staying in Paris. As I was I working on this project, I spent some time looking at the history paintings in the Louvre. I was struck by the painting of the Coronation of Napoleon. It’s a scene containing many many people and is not entirely focused on Napoleon. I was struck with a desire to produce photographs which would present large scenes with many people, each person presented as a portrait in a larger landscape. I realized that the pinhole lens I was working with was no longer adequate so I did some research and found a more conventional lens which was designed to cope with difficult lighting situations and which would provide the very wide view that I had become accustomed to. I fitted the new lens onto the box I had built for the pinhole lens and began shooting the images you see in this book. 

    Local Stories is about history, and where it is located. We’re all accustomed to the notion of history as a narrative, a story, that is necessarily told to support particular agendas. I think a more powerful idea of history would reflect the fact that history is contained in each individual person’s experience. When you think back on a memory, or smell something which powerfully transports you to a moment in the past you are experiencing history. And when you consider all of the personal memories you have of all sorts of events, large and small, and then consider that every person who ever lived is full of such memories of their own experiences the true depth of history can be understood. That painting of Napoleon that I mentioned earlier is great but pales when you try to imagine Napoleon’s memories of that moment and the moments leading up to it, and then there’s all of the other people who were present, each one with memories just as powerful as the erstwhile protagonist of the painting. It is beyond the power of any medium to communicate that vast ocean of experience but perhaps it is possible to point in that direction.These images are my attempt. The situations are inconsequential. The people are unknown except to their friends and neighbors but the fabric of the world we inhabit is woven from such material. Everyone is equal at the most basic level, of living in a state of consciousness of the past and anticipation of the future. This fundamental sensation of moving through time is what unites us all as humans and presiding over it all, there before the beginning, and certain to be there after the end, the sun in the center of the sky.