Claire Seidl, Computer Light, window, 2023, Silver print, 36 x 36 inches, $4000

The photograph, Apple of My Eye is a long exposure, shot on medium-format film. The negative was scanned into a computer to enlarge it and create a large digital print. The light sources in the picture are a lightbulb in the hall on the left, ambient light from a TV set on the right and mainly light from a computer, in the center held by the figure as they worked, moved around, got up and sat back down again. The camera was outside the window, looking in, on a tripod for about fifteen minutes.

Overheard is one of an ongoing series of dinner party photographs that I began twenty years ago. Again, it is a long exposure, probably twenty minutes, shot on film that I developed in the darkroom and then scanned into the computer. The light sources are candles (no electricity) and some small amount of night skylight, outside. These photographs poignantly show our ephemeral nature as we gather and talk and eat. The people gathered are not in focus – they stand in for all of us. In contrast, the things on the table and around the porch appear permanent and fixed in time.

In an Hour or Two is the result of my continually wandering around, outside and inside, especially when the moon is full, seeing everything differently and choosing what to shoot. Here, the shot (on film) lasted for half an hour, while moonlight rakes in from a dormer window on the left that faces west. It would be dawn in a couple of hours. The chair seems to be waiting for someone or might be a stand-in for someone who is waiting. The process of making this photograph is the same as Apple of My Eye and Overheard. CS