William Oldacre Photography

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movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, vibrant, red, turquoise

Clear To Soft

This image more than the recent others reminds me most of my childhood fever dream and also of staring out the side window while driving past fields and trees. Before I began wearing contact lenses I could relax my vision until it was…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, vibrant, orange, blue, brown

New Idea

Completing these Sidelong images has given me some ideas on things to experiment with for the next body. I went out in the snow yesterday and shot a small test to check it’s validity. It worked quite well and gave an interesting result,…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, vibrant, blue, green, orange

Transport

I’m mostly concerned with the category of motion called transport – which is motion in everyday life, like walking, falling, playing, change of position, orientation of objects or water or the behaviour of people. Traffic is a derivative of people’s behaviour. “All Motion…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, vibrant, orange, blue, red

Motion

“Motion is the most fundamental observation about nature at large. It turns out that everything that happens in the universe is some type of motion. There are no exceptions. The study of motion was given the name physics in the fifth century BCE…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, vibrant, orange, blue, red

Invisible Structure

Working backward in time through the collection of material for Sidelong it feels like the images have less visible structure and recognizable elements in them. Not sure if this is good or bad. But definitely more painterly and some of them look like…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, vibrant, orange, blue, red

Orbital Velocity

I’ve been thinking more about my dream and the relative speeds of close versus distant objects. The closer an object the faster it appears to be moving. Despite my dream fear, this idea of proximity and velocity are somehow visually appealing. In my…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, turquoise, orange, brown, vibrant

Interesting Rhythms

Interesting patterns and rhythms are on occasion surfacing as I progress through the stockpiled Sidelong images. Means I have to move slowly and not make premature assumptions about the material. But it’s bringing out some pretty cool results – more of my dream…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, green, orange, turquoise, vibrant

Fearsome Dream

When I was much younger I used to have this incredibly frightening dream – usually when I was ill. It would begin with me safe and disembodied in an all-white detail-less world – calm and enticing. An impending sense of doom would gradually…

movement, motion, streak, rhythm, city street, urban, green, orange, yellow, vibrant

Simplify

Had a dream the other night in which I was explaining my work to somebody – don’t know who. I was of course using all the usual adjectives which were – somehow unsatisfying, when trying to explain why movement is so important to…

rhythm, city street, urban, movement, motion, turquoise, red, orange, brown, vibrant

Ethereal by Nature

These latest Sidelong images are much more delicate and dream like – showing ghostly outlines countered with intense saturated smears. This is a new direction for this body of work. Almost similar to something I happened upon some time ago with an image…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, turquoise, red, orange, green, vibrant

Riding In Traffic

For the past 9 years and 3 bodies of work – Light Signatures, Convergent and now Sidelong, I have captured all the source material while peddling my bicycle in Toronto traffic. When I tell people this they are mostly surprised – and afraid….

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, turquoise, green, blue, brown, vibrant

Smear

Working more on Sidelong this past week I remembered in the mid 90’s shooting my pal Andrew cycling fast through the woods in a massive smearing green panning shot which I later worked into something similar to these pieces. That and the Drive…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, green, blue, orange, brown, vibrant

A Moment

And what is a moment then? What is the length? There is much beauty in a moment, in drawing out a moment, in smearing out a moment into a wafer thin layer of sight and sound. In doing so, we see a moment’s…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, orange, brown, vibrant

Fleeting – Ephemeral

This is all so fleeting and ephemeral – so temporary. Everything we are, everything we do is so transient. Time is a series of events – all temporary. All moments. None permanent. They only remain as memory if they even make it that…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, blue, green, vibrant

Isolate

Had a dream last night in which… I think, I was speaking with someone about my early black and white images. How even then I was focused on eliminating distracting elements in my compositions. The word I remember saying was isolate. The details…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, orange, green brown, vibrant

Logical Conclusion

Been quite a while since I last posted. Working hard to complete this Sidelong series because I’ve begun another body of work in addition to the China studies on Instagram and have yet another idea which I want to get out and begin…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, mauve, blue, green, vibrant

Old Notes

A couple days ago I reviewed some project notes from ten years ago which brought me right back to how I felt at the time – confused and struggling. I sat and calmed myself because it really put me back in the old…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, mauve, green, blue, vibrant

Barriers

Just had a great conversation with another artist and in it mentioned the idea of self erected barriers. I confess, I am the king of barriers – if there is such a thing as a kingdom for this behavior. I too readily erect…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, brown, blue, orange, vibrant

Unexpected Results

Working intuitively and iteratively will often lead down a rabbit hole I hadn’t considered but will also result in something I take for granted in a – well that result makes sense kind of way. But when someone else marvels at this result…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, red, white, blue, vibrant

Emotional Motivation

A couple days ago, I reconsidered how I see the world completely differently from other people – it seems like the only logical explanation. When we think of someone – visualize them in our minds, it’s not a snapshot in time, instead we’ve…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, mauve, blue, green, vibrant

Filter

When I photographed with film there was a disconnect between when I made the image and when I made the print. I work iteratively so I update and revise my idea trying new things on the fly as I shoot … and then…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, brown, mauve, blue, vibrant

Exploring A New Branch

Looks like I’m finding a another branch off the trunk to explore in the Sidelong Series – one that’s colorful and saturated this time – sometimes possibly recognizable yet dreamlike. This happens when my interpretation of the raw material shifts – when I…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, red, blue, white, vibrant

Stream of Time

The more I think about the work I make, the more I realize scale is a factor. Not in the size but rather in the relationship between the moment and the stream of time. The images I make all have a long duration, to…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, blue, brown, red, vibrant

The Performance

When I first began to seriously shoot black and white in University, my parents gave me the three Ansel Adams books – The Camera, The Negative and The Print. In them Ansel says something like the negative is the musical score and the…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, blue, orange, red, vibrant

Something Interesting

There’s an element of chance or accident to what I do that I welcome and embrace. I’ll have an idea for a project and work out the parameters and methodology to execute it, but during the execution I’m open to chance and accidental happenings…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, brown, blue, yellow, vibrant

Shadows On Our Eyes

As with all the other things I do, when I make images I don’t think too much while I do it – or maybe I adopt a benign neglect as I perform it and perhaps that helps the images work out. The problems…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, green, blue, mauve, vibrant

Memory – Of The Moment

I find it really difficult to keep my perspective – I’m perpetually in the moment, so it’s really difficult to see growth and change. It’s good to be in the moment for creativity but it leads me to despair when I can’t see improvement…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, orange, blue, green, vibrant

Still Struggling Along

That about sums it up – nothing special, just struggling along. It’s what we’re all doing.

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, green, mauve, brown, vibrant

Funky Feeling

I was feeling a little bored with this series but yesterday while completing some images I felt renewed interest. It seemed less of a struggle to get what I want which felt good – so I’m continuing on. Surprisingly I’ve shot a lot of material so…

abstract expressionism, city street, urban, movement, motion, red, brown, pink, vibrant

Bike Clamped Camera

Lately I’ve had several people stop and ask me about the somewhat crazy looking rig I’ve got clamped to my bike for making these images – even in traffic while riding. It always surprises me that anyone would notice but how could you…