Live : Now (Rule of Thirds 2012)

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009. Barack Hussein Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America. As I was watching his inauguration speech on television I had “that” feeling.

That instance where you realize the moment is grand enough to boast about 30 years later that you were alive and this is what you were doing. It often takes moments like these to jolt the soul, let you know you have the choice. The choice to pay attention, give up the ideas of insignificance, and become something.

I then decided that I needed to somehow capture this night; this moment. I had recently purchased a Zero Image (Zero 2000) pinhole camera and therefore also creating reasons to use it.

I had a roll of Ilford Delta 100 Pro in the camera. I attached it to a tripod and set it up directly in front of an old school 51″ CRT Big Screen, paused the live DVR recording of the speech, and did a long exposure.

I love the way it turned out, the overweight subject in the back left, the motion blur on his hand doing the “raise your right hand” swear in, and the LIVE station overlay in the bottom right. A bonus conspiracy theory lies encrypted within this photo + title as well. Enjoy.