SEAN LOTMAN x HAPTIC: Postcards from the Darkroom III

Only 1 week left to pick up a copy of SUNLANDERS in the Haptic Shop, rated one of the best color photobooks in the last five years.

“Postcards from the Darkroom” by Sean Lotman

III.

Photography can be like a spiritual exercise. Through a camera, you are learning about yourself, who you are, what do you see, figuring out what the world looks like, or better, what it can look like. I like reality all right, but I prefer surrealism. I don’t go for fantasy so much as I go for strange twists in narrative. There are many ways to tell a story, just as there are many ways to make a picture. It may seem as straightforward as pointing a camera, but there are hundreds of choices, most of them seemingly meaningless, but some quite substantial, that put you in this place, in this moment right now. That you might even be able to see at all is often a choice as well. This was seen in a garden outside of Kyoto, stepping out of a tea room, four souls reflected to me, turned upside down.


Postcards from the Darkroom is a new feature on Haptic Press by Sean Lotman. All images posted will be scans of his color prints handmade in his darkroom. A lover of narrative and color and travel, Sean hopes to tell a story or at least convey a feeling. He is the author of Sunlanders (available for a limited time in the HAPTIC SHOP.)”

SEAN LOTMAN X HAPTIC

PHOTOGRAPHER ARTIST POET

A native of Los Angeles, California, Sean Lotman is based in Japan. Having spent most of his twenties and thirties working on narrative fiction, he is now focused on photography, particularly color darkroom printing. His first photo book, Sunlanders, was published in London by Bemojake in September, 2016. He is currently working on his second book, Blown Zen Moments, which pairs prints made with the Dian f+ toy camera with haiku poetry. He lives in Kyoto with his wife, the photographer Ariko Inaoka, and their young son, Tennbo.

PHOTOGRAPHY

  • Sunlanders, 2016 (HAPTIC FEATURED ARTIST: Available for a limited time in the HAPTIC shop)
  • Blown Zen Moments (Ongoing)

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The Complete Works of Sean Lotman

Portrait of Sean Lotman, Kyoto 2017 by Eric Kim