Strip Photographs, 1974
Description
Peterson's Photographic Magazine (April 1974) published an interesting group of photographs that display George Harvan's versatility. Here's the magazine editor's introduction:
George Harvan: Kinesthetics
Action photography usually conjures up the vision of a heavily-burdened photographer lugging all manner of telephoto lenses, one or two tripods and, of course, a motor drive attachment across expanses of stadium parking lots. The resulting photos usually display a vast knowledge of photographic expertise: cars streaking along at 200mph; a high jumper suspended eternally in midair; a motorcycle leaping over the steep ridges of a dirt track.
Enter into this realm of expensive equipment and highly developed skill the amateur photographer who, after several attempts to emulate the action-packed shots of the pros, throws up his hands in frustration, vowing never again to mix sports and photography.
But some photographers are not so easily discouraged. Faced with the challenge of finding an original approach to an overworked subject, there is always an innovator who leaves convention behind.
Such a photographer is Pennsylvania-based George Harvan who uses a photomontage technique he calls kinesthetics to dramatize the illusion of speed in action photography. By a simple process of cutting prints into strips and staggering the strips as they are pasted onto mount board, Harvan creates photos whose subjects seem to race across the print.