Harry Herford (Harance to his friends) calls himself a photographist, modelling his practice on the 1800s when photographers were known as photographists.
”My heroes are men and women like Shotgun Adams, the cowboy/photographist who rode with Jesse James and Billy the Kid, Maisie Condor, the first person to build a pinhole camera in Rochester and Sata Ko’, who made the world’s biggest camera obscura out of a disused cathedral in Wellington.”
Herford refuses to use any technology less than 100 years old, which is one reason why his stint as a paparazzo for the British tabloids didn’t last long. “As I was using a pinhole camera I needed the celebrities to stand still for three minutes for me to capture their likeness. Unfortunately most of them refused and all I had to offer the editor were different color blurs, which he threw back in my face. Actually I still believe they say more about the subject than any so called ‘accurate’ photos and intend to have an exhibition of ‘Celebrity Blurs’, in the upcoming months.
Harry works with discerning clients who appreciate the ethereal beauty of pinhole cameras, camerae obscurae and other ancient forms of photography.
