The following images center around the 1920’s era houses ten miles off the coast in Biscayne Bay National Park, Florida affectionately referred to as “Stiltsville.” These houses were photographed by painting with light over a two to three hour span from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. and were taken from a specially designed “bipod” rig that encompasses a 6’ aluminum ladder and a specially made camera mount. Each image is a combination of thirty or more different exposures layered together in Photoshop to create the final effect.
This series focuses on the 1920’s era houses ten miles off the coast in Biscayne Bay National Park, Florida affectionately referred to as “Stiltsville.†For over 90 years, these structures have yet to be studied photographically with the intent of capturing the intrinsic relationship between man-made structure and ocean. As time marches on, Stiltsville is beginning to decay and may become a literal footnote in the history books. In the spirit of artistic documentarianism, I have gone out at night to meticulously photograph these important, historically significant, and beautiful structures. The specialized photographic technique I employed, painting with light, captures the spirit of the buildings. Although isolated without electricity, they glow with introduced light off glassy calm waters to create a natural warmth and sense of tranquility that invites the viewer into the frame in a way that would be otherwise impossible. The calm waters are a product of shutter speeds ranging from four seconds to five minutes. The unusual perspective was achieved with a shooting platform made from a 6’ aluminum ladder and a specially designed camera mount. Each final composition was a combination of at least thirty different exposures layered together in Photoshop to create the final effect. For approximately three hours, I would stand in chest high water while trying not to disturb my camera mount, during extremely long exposures, with at least one assistant would help keep a notoriously thriving bull shark population at bay.