Nostalgiatype | Nicole Lynn | Project Space

May 5th – June 11th, 2016

Nostalgiatype, bicycle, custom pinhole camera, photography, 2007.

NICOLE LYNN: NOSTALGIATYPE

Nicole Lynn has an obsession with vintage things. She says, “Nostalgiatype is a visual representation of the simplistic joy of riding on two wheels.” This project combines two of Lynn’s ongoing interests: old bikes and antique cameras. For this project, Lynn has custom-built “a pinhole camera mounted to capture the rider from the perspective of the bicycle. Each image was shot on 4x5 colour film with an exposure time of six-eight seconds.” Pinhole photography does not rely on a lens, but on light travelling through a pinhole that is then focused on photographic film. The basic lens-less construction of these cameras produces “blurriness of the rider, light leaks and film scratches”. Lynn uses these effects “to push the images into the realm of memory.”1

The title Nostalgiatype is a play on a traditional photographic naming convention used to describe the process being used. For example, ‘cyanotype’ refers to the cyan coloured images produced by using what is essentially a blueprint process for photo printing.

Nostalgiatype does not present the self-portrait in the sense that we are now accustomed to, but one that portrays a concerned machine operator, tasked with both piloting her bike through the world and operating her hand built camera as she rides. These images show the tempering force of riding that makes it so much fun, being in control of yourself and your machine against a world that is constantly trying to obstruct your progress. It is an authentic performance of an impulse to slow things down and simplify, in a world that often pushes us the other way.

Nicole Lynn lives and works Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan. Working primarily in photography, she is committed to film photography, and is currently in the process of building a darkroom in the basement of her house.

David Dyck, Associate Curator, 2016

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1. Nicole Lynn, Nostalgiatype project statement.