BigRogers Photos

BigRogers was a member of the group 16-17 sound system with Daniel Buess, Christian Lichtenberg, Roger Graf and Alex Buess as well as Cortex with Alex Buess, Daniel Buess and Roger Graf as X-TRAK-T. Roger Graf was originally specialized in special effects in film and video productions. Actually coming from the film, he has recently turned more and more to photography.

„ … big variable amounts of light … “

Both in his video works as well as in photography he is not necessarily interested in digitally generated effects but rather analogue generated edits. These include Blue- and Greenscreen, selection of special projection surfaces including video and slide projection on body parts or special lighting techniques, such as moving color surfaces. The light in large, varying quantities plays an important role in BigRogers photo technology. Flooding with light creates new structures, while slide projections onto certain areas of the body create a kind of tattoo effect, which becomes apparent in his Totem Series 2017, for example.

„ … instrument directly influenceable … „

You could possibly achieve similar effects through digital image editing, only the digital editing is much less direct. By projecting e. g. slides, which are indeed an intense light source, it is possible to make the photographic process much more immediate. This immediacy is akin to playing an instrument in music: while the digital editing of a photograph is mainly done with “samples” of an image, the result is much more dynamic when projecting directly onto a body. The light becomes a directly influenceable instrument of the photographer.

„ … origin of this kind of photography in the pre-digital era … „

The origin of this type of photography is mainly in the pre-digital era. At that time special effects and miniatures were to a large extent realized through film and slide projections. An impressive example of this is the film “Altered States”, written in 1980 by Ken Russell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States

In this film, the most impressive psychedelic effects for that time without computer technology are achieved mainly through projections.