Local photo whiz Tyler Haberkorn has played with cameras for as long as he can remember, but he started experimenting with bizarre and lovely printing methods four years ago after an experiment in the darkroom left him amazed that tinkering with technique could produce photos with a certain apocalyptic-like intensity.

Tyler Haberkorn has played with cameras for as long as he can remember, but he started experimenting with bizarre and lovely printing methods four years ago after an experiment in the darkroom left him amazed that tinkering with technique could produce photos with a certain apocalyptic-like intensity.

Medium: Silver gelatin for the portrait series and duotone solarization for the landscapes.

With your portraits, what are you trying to convey by distorting the image or placing something over your subject’s face?
The portrait has always interested me. They have always been used to show how somebody looks or to describe some culture or social class. Through adding a second image of someone's hands I am trying to convey that the face is not the only thing that describes a person, their hands have helped mold them to who they really are.

Much of your subject matter consists of dilapidated or abandoned places. What are you trying to convey by using those?
With my work, I would rather not put a stamp of time on any of it, so I try to stray away from things that imply time or general society. I want to focus on that single place and what is there at that certain moment.

What interests you about people that makes you want to photograph them? What about landscapes or buildings?
Every person has their different characteristics in their face or their hands, so I would like to photograph everyone I encounter. With the landscape I am always drawn to something that denies the idea of a certain period of time and a place that inspires me to get out and go somewhere.

There’s an almost apocalyptic-like intensity to your photos. Is that intentional? What draws you to that aesthetic?
At first it was not intentional. I was just trying to figure out the process, but as I went on, I noticed a correlation through the chemical reaction and how it creates this dark, apocalyptic world that we do not see but that is still present through toxins that pollute the environment.