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Fever Technique: The Spectral Photography Of Francine Winham

Winham found jazz intoxicating, particularly fuelled by the way in which jazz artists were able to communicate a way of being that felt beautifully alien to many. Winham arrived in time to see legendary performances by the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Cat Anderson, Dizzy Gillespie, and more….During this era came perhaps the most stunning photography of Winham’s career. Her style of shooting was entirely unique… She shot predominantly in black-and-white, though her pictures carried with them a sense of the ethereal… The streaks of light owing to the flash of the camera against the brass instrument are deliberate, caused by Winham reducing the shutter speed and moving the camera as she took the photograph. The result is the communication of something beyond the perception of the naked eye – both a figment of Winham’s imagination but also a true depiction of how the music makes you feel. 

Here’s Winham on how she came up with the technique:

“I tried to think of a way to make their photos more interesting and came up with my FEVER TECHNIQUE. I decided to do long exposures – although there was plenty of light, so to compensate for this I stopped down the lens to f32. Now I had to waste a shot to listen to the time a second lasted. Tschssst. By holding the shot still for half a second and then moving the camera for the other half, I created a blurred free-form image that mirrored the dynamic of the performer.”

These shots remind me of what Gjon Mili was doing with light and photography in the late 1940s and beyond.