Meet Wayne Martin Belger who is an Arizona-based artist and machinist who has a penchant for creating unique pinhole cameras. His cameras are not showpieces but are in fact fully-functional and can take excellent photographs. Wayne does everything from the creative process of constructing the camera to taking pictures.

Wondering how he does that?

Wayne, first conceptualizes how he want the photo of the subject to look and then starts with the process of constructing the pinhole camera. He uses random things like skulls, metal, wood, human blood and anything and everything under the sun related to the subject all designed to be the sacred bridge of a communion offering between myself and the subject.

His choice of subject is both unique and hard-hitting and range from Californian body builders dealing with AIDS to mothers during childbirth. He uses 4x5 film and normal light and spends 10-90 seconds, anywhere with his pinhole camera to capture a single shot for a particular photography series. With no lens between the camera and the subject the image comes out perfectly.

Wayne was born in 1964 in Pasadena, CA to two middle class Catholic parents. According to him, "As the Priest has made his tools of gold and silver and Blood and Body to be in direct relationship with the subject Jesus, I create my tools of Aluminum and Titanium and Blood and Body to be in direct relationship with the subjects they are created for."

You can checkout Wayne's work on his website - Boys Of Blue and his Facebook Page. To know more about the artist and his work read on our exclusive interview with him.

Happy reading!

1. Hello Wayne, tell us something about yourself and the inception of 'Boy Of Blue'.

Well... I'm a good Irish-Catholic boy with a Santeria – Voodoo background, born and raised in Los Angeles, and eleven years ago I moved to the the desert Southwest. I live in a 100-year-old stone house surrounded by cactus and rattlesnakes with my downtown studio just a few miles away. The question of the inception of Boy of Blue is difficult because I feel like I've been doing this since birth.  With the support of my family, I've always followed my passions. Some have led to critical acclaim, and others have put me in jail. Whatever it was, having the support of a loving family to praise me... or to bail me out, has been amazing.

2. What got you started with the world of art and were you always artistically inclined? What other forms of art have you dabbled in?

As far back as I can remember, I've always created. My influences came from my environment, books, and the Catholic church. The services I attended as a child were in Latin, so the iconography and rituals of the church communicated me far more to me than a language I couldn't understand. They were strong early influences on what I see as beauty today. Even as a young child, my mother remembers me creating altars and shrines in the back yard. My work today is still the creation of altars and shrines to the subjects I wish to explore.

I've always done assemblage, and at times have been very passionate about painting.

3. We are curious to know about the etymology behind the name 'Boy Of Blue', could you please elucidate on that?

There are two reasons, really. First, when I was three or four, my mom would take me to the Huntington library in Pasadena. My favorite painting was "Blue Boy," and I would always ask to see it.

Then, in my late thirties, I was spending a lot of time in the deserts of Death Valley and the mountains of the Sierra Nevadas. I would sometimes be out alone for weeks at a time. At the time, I was dating an east Indian woman whose mother would ask about me. When she saw a picture of me with long hair and heard the stories of my solo treks, she said, "Oh my God, he's an incarnation of Shiva!" Because Shiva is always painted blue in Hindu paintings, "Boy of Blue" was created.

4. You have a fascination with creating pinhole cameras. Tell us something about that.

In the late 1990's, a good friend of mine who was a professional automotive photographer was doing a photo shoot for a car catalog. He wanted to use a pinhole camera because of the special effects it creates. He made a camera out of foam core that was flimsy and hard to use, so I told him I would make him a camera. I was working as a machinist at the time, so I made the camera from aluminum and steel with a film loading system that allowed him to take photos extremely fast. Because I had been doing assemblage art for quite some time, I included vintage key holes on the sides of the camera with insects crawling out of them, and a Pablo Neruda poem etched in the aluminum on top. Through the process of figuring out how to make it most efficient, I fell in love with pinhole photography.

Yama Camera

Yama - Installation

A camera project starts with a subject I wish to investigate. After studying it for quite some time, I start gathering artifacts that relate to and are often even part of the subject, thus bringing me closer to it. At some point, I'll start building the camera, spending hours in the shop, working with the artifacts and the alchemy of metal to create the bridge between myself and the subject. The creation of a camera can take anywhere from a few months to four or five years. That time becomes my intense meditation on the subject. When the camera is finished, I'm ready to bring it out into the world to engage the subject in its larger context.

Materials can range from aluminum, titanium, copper, steel, and mercury; to bone, blood, and even a human heart. As I learned as a child, the priest has his tools of silver, gold, blood, and flesh to be in relationship with his subject, Jesus Christ. I have tools of aluminum, titanium, blood and flesh to be in relationship with my subjects.

Heart Camera

A photograph taken from this camera

I've always been a physics nerd. The idea of creating an image with pure light and time on photosensitive metals is something I can relate to. I can convey my passions and ideas through hand-made images. I don't think I'd be able to communicate what I wish to using binary code and pixels. I'm not sure what those really are anyway.

7. What other artist do you look up to? If you could collaborate on your work with one other artist who would it be and why?

Da Vinci. J Robert Oppenheimer. Carl Jung. I'd want to collaborate with Oppenheimer and Jung. I think we'd be able to discover all of creation.

8. Lets have a rapid fire round:

Are you a tea or coffee person?
Cacao with a pinch of chili powder. 

Your favorite genre of music?
I don't really have a favorite genre. Top artists include Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, The Pogues, Pixies, Johnny Cash, and Carolina Chocolate Drops.  

The biggest compliment that you have received for your work?
A few years ago, I had a show at a museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On opening night, I noticed a woman against the back wall, staring for a long time at my HIV project, "Untouchable." When I approached her, I saw that she had been crying hard. I asked if she was okay, and she told me how she had lost her brother to AIDS and how deeply moved she was by the project. She said it was a beautiful tribute to her brother, all those who have died from AIDS, those who continue to live with HIV, and all their loved ones. That feedback was some of the best I've ever received, especially because I don't think she knew I was the artist. Her sharing was straight from the heart.

Untouchable (HIV Camera)

Untouchable (HIV Camera) - Installation

Bloodworks 3 - A photograph taken from this camera

Which of your creations is your absolute favorite? (This could be a hard one to answer)
Whatever I'm working on at the moment.