Things You May Have Missed is an ongoing series, dating from 2001, of images of things and people Jonathan Ball sees and experiences in his daily life. All the images made from 2001 through late 2010 are shot with the same camera – a 35mm point-and-shoot film camera with a fixed-length lens (35mm) that Ball carried with him nearly all the time. In 2010, Ball shifted to digital, but still uses only one camera with only one lens (still 35mm).
When shooting with film, Ball almost always used the same emulsion (high speed, low contrast color print film). Nearly all the images are made solely with available light. When photographing people, he usually avoids looking through the viewfinder so that it is not obvious to his subjects that he is taking their picture. With other subjects, too, he often does not look through the viewfinder, preferring just to aim the camera at arm’s length. This allows him to make photographs while driving, walking down the street, etc. The prints from this series are all full-frame images and, with rare exceptions, are minimally altered for color balance, etc.
Twenty-six photographs from the series are on display in this exhibit. The subjects of these photographs range from blank walls to furniture to open spaces to dinner companions, and beyond. Jonathan’s camera found these subjects throughout the world, from Italy to India to China and all across America. He prints the photographs in three sizes, which range from 12×18 inches 40×60 inches. The small prints tend to be intimate and formal. The large prints seem literally to transport you to the place where the photograph was made.