'A day in the life of my mouth'

December 5, 2002 9:04 PM

'A day in the life of my mouth' shows a sequence of photographs of everyday events' taken with a pin-hole camera made from a 110 film cartridge placed inside the photographer's mouth. His pin-hole photography has gained its reputation through local exhibitions and through the pages of the British and international photographic press.
posted by DailyBread (13 comments total)

He's not the first to do this. I just learned about a woman who did a similar thing in the 80's. Damned if I can remember her name, though.
posted by atom128 at 9:13 PM on December 5, 2002

Brushing My teeth (with a dead spider).
posted by pemulis at 9:13 PM on December 5, 2002

most impressive. Recalls the dentist scene from Little Shop of Horrors (the film of the musical, not the original joe dante)
posted by condour75 at 9:14 PM on December 5, 2002

Genius. Thank you thank you.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 9:28 PM on December 5, 2002

i'd rather be in alison's pants.
posted by quonsar at 9:40 PM on December 5, 2002

It's an interesting idea, but the guy seems to be trying to hard to select bizarre subjects. Shooting pictures out of your mouth is bizarre enough. You don't have to put a gun in your mouth or frame a picture of a crocodile to spice it up.
posted by willnot at 10:20 PM on December 5, 2002

ha! If you think that's bizarre, you should have seen the fun we've had with pinholes in my advanced photo class in college.

One fellow modified a hunting rifle into the camera. Then he ran around campus, doing sniper-style photos of unsuspecting victims. To our great disappointment, he didn't get arrested. His presentation was pretty interesting - he took a number of posed photos of people acting terrified. Which is the whole point of pinhole obsession - introduce camera as an authentic part of environment.

My own attempt was a little duller. I went to a second-hand store and bought a gigantic teddy bear. Then I came home and slit its throat. I removed a bunch of stuffing and put my pinhole camera (made out of a cookie tin) inside, so you could flip the bear's nose up and take a photo. Then, the sick bastard that I am, I nuilt a tripod socket into the bear's ass. Unfortunately, my car got broken into later that week and all of my stuff, including the pinhole was stolen. Proverbial justice perhaps?

Anyway, what I was getting to, if you think that putting a pinhole camera in your mouth is pretty weird, you should have seen where a girl I knew put hers in. I'll let your imagination run wild here. Some truly disturbing photos came out of that contraption.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 10:37 PM on December 5, 2002

Also, for some really innovative and disturbing pinhole images, I recommend looking up Steven Pippin's work sometime. His specialty is modifying laundromat machines into pinholes with a twist - he actually pours the developer and fixer into the machine, making it not only the camera but also processing center. Like an ultra-low tech polaroid instant film. Then, he gets naked and takes pictures of himself walking in front of the machine with his penis erect. All in the name of art, I guess.

I read an article written by him where he goes to great lengths to describe the use of found female undergarments (aka dirty panties stolen from laundrybaskets) to achieve said erections.

But hey, at least he doesn't slice cows into pieces to get his kicks.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 10:41 PM on December 5, 2002

willnot, I agree. Pinhole cameras are interesting, putting a camera in your mouth is interesting, but what this guy is doing with it is not interesting. Obviously, this is not 'a day in the life of my mouth', these are are not things your mouth could possibly 'see' in any given day.

I don't think he's using his idea very well. You could get the same effect simply by framing photos of various subjects with an image of teeth.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 11:59 PM on December 5, 2002

Slithy_Tove, exactly. I was actually looking forward to seeing a REAL day in the life through this odd perspective. I was interested in the different views one might see from this vantage point--how normal things could be skewed. I was not interested to see all the cutesy, "ironic", cliche things this guy's showing. I mean, come on... toes? a fingernail? gun? teddy bear in bed as you fall asleep? All posed just right? As I clicked through these pictures, I kept imagining this guy walking around with this camera in his mouth, seeing something he thought would look cute framed between his nasty teeth, then opening his mouth just so and then *click*...a flash comes out of his mouth and the pic is taken. He didn't do what he could have done with this.
posted by rio at 1:06 AM on December 6, 2002

previous thread (in name only) to the laundromat guy.
posted by jeremias at 4:19 AM on December 6, 2002

I was intrigued, being a former experimenter with the medium myself and a former photography teacher. But I agree with willnot. It's an interesting concept. But it's not necessary to try so hard. The beauty of photography is stating interesting points of view in the simpliest way.

Given the digital age I am jadded enough to wonder if his teeth were collaged in Photoshop. It's certainly possible with a pinhole camera and the depth of field is focused around his teeth, rather than the background. So much for the veracity of the photographic image. -grin
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 7:45 AM on December 6, 2002

Nice incisors.

There's a party in your mouth and...
posted by adampsyche at 7:49 AM on December 6, 2002