Bill Finger

Bill Finger
by Victoria Rakowski

Bill Finger is a landscape photographer focusing his work on constructed realities. His background as a cameraman influenced his photographic work. He creates miniature dioramas, or sets, to photograph. Once he has created the image, he destroys the set he created. On his process, Finger says, "Through this process I create a temporary space, which like a film set, only lives on within the image. "

His body of work, Voyager, was inspired by his fascination with space exploration. Voyager focuses on the isolation and loneliness associated with drifting through space. He created dioramas about the size of a tabletop and used imagery that hints at the idea of loneliness such as landscapes, houses and seascapes. Finger intentionally chose the round format for the images to mimic a space probe or the portal in which space travelers view the world. 
Finger did not want his body of work to reference a specific time period, he hoped to show the ambiguity of time. On his use of imagery to define time, Finger said,“I didn't want to anchor it to one specific time period. I see it as having three threads that interweave the series while the voyager itself is serve a punctuation that reflects and separates them.”
Finger constructs light to reference specific moments, different times of day and experiences. The specificity of the light help the constructed dioramas come to life. The lighting drastically aids in how the scale of the dioramas is perceived.