Midwest Review 8, a publication of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has published ‘'Négatif Endommagé” by St. Louis-based writer-photographer CB Adams. The French title translates to “damaged negative” because the camera Adams used was experiencing a shutter malfunction.
Negative Endommage, image by CB Adams created with a Diana+ toy camera on medium format film.
“I was surprised when I developed that roll of film,” Adams says. “I was using a Diana+ toy camera, which by itself can product erratic, unpredictable images, and I could tell by the sound of the shutter that something wasn’t right. I’m still not completely sure what happened, but the negatives were significantly overexposed and have a double exposure quality about them. Out of the 12 exposures on that roll, I am pleased with three or four of them, which is a pretty high success rate.”
Midwest Review is an annual literary magazine that features work by writers, photographers, and artists who live in, have lived in, or have spent time in the Midwest—that diverse region of the north-central United States that includes the Great Lakes area and the upper Mississippi River valley, and the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and Missouri. The annual publication seeks to publish well-crafted, thoughtful and thought-provoking writing and visual art that examines, interprets and redefines the full spectrum of life, past and present, in the Midwest.
“I am a Missouri artist who spends a great deal of time documenting the City of St. Louis. I am proud to be a St. Louisan, but my work often captures the grittier parts of the greater metropolitan area. I consider much of my work to be a sort of reverse-boosterism because the work depicts aspects of the city that could be — should be — better,” Adams says.
Adams shoots with a variety of cameras, from 35mm to medium- and large format, to capture these scenes. I regularly also use the lo-fi toy cameras like the Diana+, the original 60s-era Diana, and the Holga, as well as a hand-built camera made from components of multiple toy cameras.
“My approach is to match the fidelity of a particular camera with the way it will best render a subject, Sometimes, the aesthetic result that I want can only be — best be — made with a toy camera,” Adams says. "I was pleased to see 'Négatif Endommagé' on the same spread as the poem ‘Winter, Thirty-Seven Years Before His Death’ by Anemone Beaulier because tone — stark and cold — matches the tone of my photograph, even though it is a summer scene.”
Adams is preparing to create a limited number of matted gelatin silver prints, ~8x8 inches, of “Négatif Endommagé.” Contact him through his website for pricing information, www. qwerkyphotography.com/about.
Spread from Midwest Review 8 featuring the work of CB Adams, photographer, and Aneomone Beaulier, poet. Beaulier lives in Fargo, ND, and her poetry has appeared in The Briar Cliff Review, Cimarron Review, Jabberwock Review, The Pinch, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review and elsewhere.