Tim Macmillan is a photographer and videographer who pioneered the “Time Slice” effect while at University in the 1980’s. He designed his own equipment and process to capture his imagery.
Macmillan’s specialised equipment is effectively a large metal ring, containing from hundreds of cameras, each of which create stills on 16mm film. The film is exposed by a flash of light, which causes the film to expose in a fraction of a second. This is then played as a film, creating motion as the cameras “move” around the subject, the “time” is actually happening all at once. This is of interest to me as it illustrates how time and space can be percieved differently from our usual interpretation, we are used to seeing time in film progress in a linear motion, however, here time is frozen while we explore space.
Macmillan’s work is effective because it is both visually appealing and effective in it’s use of both space and time. Conceptually it forces us to view events differently, while we recognise it, as it is such an unusual and unique technique.
