TITLE: "If They Could Speak"

It started with black foam core and duck tape. How do you light an object in a 3'X3'X4' black box with on one opening? That is how the Black Box Project came into my life. One night while fracking around I started to listen to a playlist and Recoil's Want started playing. Dark breeds darker and after digging the garage I came across a mannequin I used for to practice and removed the arms, legs and head. From that moment I was moved to create images that reflects parts of our society as I see it.

What made it even more fun was that I constrained myself in only using items I already owned. This constraint pushed me down a rabbit hole that I reveled in. How do you tell a story with only a vocabulary of 200 words?

I have gotten back into the project, although I decided that I needed to break the chains I put upon my self. I have really come to love this project not just because it has forced me to be creative, but it is forcing me to learn light all over again.

AUTHOR: eric franklin (United States)

Eric Franklin was born in Philadelphia in the 60's. At the age of 18, after only one year of college, he went on to enlist in the US Navy. His first 12 years was spent between Emergency Care assignments and serving with several US Marine Corps Divisions. After his last tour he went on to become a Medical Photographer for the Navy. Eric retired after serving 22 years of active duty and settled in Virginia, where he currently works for the Federal Government.

Even though his formal education in Photography started in 1993, his passion for photography began as a child but blossomed in college. With a friends Pentex K1000, his first real roll of film shot was a small barn fire right outside the campus. Eric constant shooting, while on deployment with the 2nd Marine Division, caught the attention of the Marine's combat photographer and was offered the position as a back up for him. This is when he was finally introduced to film processing and printing. Three years later he would attend the Navy's Medical Photography school.

As a medical photographer, in the Washington DC area, Eric gained the experience of shooting everything medically related (surgeries, autopsies, patient studies, research, etc...) to crime scenes, portraits of political figures to historic figures. Working in a self sustained lab, he worked with all types of film processing and printing. He would tell you that the most exciting prints he ever made was from the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach from negatives no one ever had printed and only seen by the surgeon who shot them at that time.

Eric began his personal photographic journey after retiring. He would say that his time in the military has had a big influence on his style and subject choice. The influence also came from Ansel Adam's 3 book series with it's out of the box approach to tonal manipulation in film and print. Other influences, such as Araki, Daido, Saudek, Brant, Sieff, Mulder and several others, validated his approach to stepping outside the sharp focus continuous tone methodology he felt constricted to. Supported by his father, a master lithographer, he understood that to make photography his rejection of trends, community acceptance and comfort will be the only way to find his style. "You are going to have to create a lot of crap in order to birth a master piece. Even then, such master piece is only confirming that you have so much more to learn." These are the words from his father that has insured he is his greatest and sternness critic.

He continues to work on several long term projects including The Black Box, Knots and Parts (Rope Bondage), UV/IR (not titled) and several others. He has placed in several international contest as well a participated in a group showing with M.A.D.S. The ultimate goal is for him to find the most difficult way to create something simple, intriguing, maybe even controversial and enjoy life.