Exposure: John Vettese

The Small Hours

All photos ©John Vettese. All rights reserved.

Well, I’ve only really been a "photographer" for the past five or so years — since I’ve owned a Pentax P-30T. Currently, I’m a 22-year-old photojournalism student at Temple University’s main campus with a fair amount of experience in my craft. I spent the spring of 2000 studying in and travelling around Europe through Temple University’s Rome Program, concentrating on advanced B&W photography studies and writing. The experience provided me with a boatload of pictures, some of which made their way into an exhibit at Old City’s Custom House Café this past November and December. It was my second exhibit there; I also showed a series based around an abandoned Jim Thorpe-area warehouse back in the summer of 1999. I’ve freelanced for the South Philadelphia Review, worked for the Temple News (TU’s student paper) every semester that I’ve attended, and managed to fit in a few scattered side projects along the way. I’m still a year away from graduation, though I fully intend to continue my study of photography long after I graduate, one way or the other.

Technical: I took all of the images in this series while wandering the streets of our fair city with my camera and a friend between 2 and 5:30 a.m. one night/morning this past September. It was a pretty straightforward shoot: I used my 35mm SLR camera (Pentax P-30T with a fixed focus 35mm lens) and a basic Promaster tripod. I shot on Fugi Superia 800 speed film, which is more or less my color film of choice; I like its vibrant color saturation, and for such a high speed film, it remains relatively sharp/non-grainy. I was attempting to capture the peacefulness of the city in the wee hours of the night, when normally bustling areas are virtually empty.

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