On the Hudson River in Chelsea NY is a boat called The Frying Pan. Built in 1929, the boat was a light ship, used as floating lighthouses to guard other ships from running into rocks and shoals. The Frying Pan guarded its namesake Frying Pan shoals, 30 miles off Cape Fear, NC. It was in use from 1930 to 1965.
It then lay abandoned for 10 years before finally sinking, and lay dormant at the bottom of the sea for 15 years until it was rescued and taken to Baltimore, and then to Cape May in New Jersey, where it was slowly restored. In 1989 it was re-opened in its original condition, but with a difference: it held dance parties and so had DJ decks and a piano in the middle of the boat.
I have visited the Frying Pan numerous times and photographed it with a bunch of different cameras, mainly using a Diana and Holga 120 format cameras. With some of the images I used a ring flash, which is what gives some of the images their movement. I find the history of the Frying Pan fascinating, and with my images I had tired to bring this sense of nostalgia, but also a sort of ghostly presence making the some of the images look like paintings.
It then lay abandoned for 10 years before finally sinking, and lay dormant at the bottom of the sea for 15 years until it was rescued and taken to Baltimore, and then to Cape May in New Jersey, where it was slowly restored. In 1989 it was re-opened in its original condition, but with a difference: it held dance parties and so had DJ decks and a piano in the middle of the boat.
I have visited the Frying Pan numerous times and photographed it with a bunch of different cameras, mainly using a Diana and Holga 120 format cameras. With some of the images I used a ring flash, which is what gives some of the images their movement. I find the history of the Frying Pan fascinating, and with my images I had tired to bring this sense of nostalgia, but also a sort of ghostly presence making the some of the images look like paintings.
