John's profile
I have spent the past 40 years telling stories using film and video. Pierspective is a retirement project that takes me back to a fundamental principle I was taught in film school over 40 years ago: you must learn how to compose a single frame before you can shoot 24 or 30 frames per second. This project also presents a unique opportunity to exploit the familiar notion that “every picture tells a story.”
The wooden pier outside my front door is the fixed stage upon which a fascinating parade of Charm City characters appear alone or accompanied by their children, friends, partners and pets — sometimes walking or running, sometimes dancing or posing, and sometimes traveling aboard a variety of vehicles. Each day, despite the limitations of its static perspective, the camera on my Ring doorbell delivers a trove of low-resolution footage with an ever-changing assortment of subject matter: people, animals, light, weather and a variety of uninhibited activities. From my daily collection of footage, I excise a single frame that encapsulates the most interesting imagery that occurs within the 15-second shot, and digitally enhance it in a variety of ways; exploiting the pixelated quality of the video to its benefit using digital filters, brush strokes and even compositing additional elements when I feel the original story is engaging, but is ripe for artistic embellishment.
Pierspective allows me to share the mesmerizing flow of spontaneous beauty randomly occurring outside my front door in 15 second bursts by distilling it into a single frame that preserves an imaginative or imagined slice of Baltimore life for all to see.
