Pippin works with converted or improvised photographic equipment and kinetic sculptures which are often based on physical models and are metaphors for social mechanisms.
[1] Pippin's work shows a strong interest in the mechanical, which he has said stems from an early childhood memory of seeing his father surrounded by the wires and tubes of a television set he was repairing.
Frequently the resulting photographs are distorted or otherwise compromised by the manner of their construction, but the imperfections are seen as an important characteristic of the image, giving a link back to the object which was used as a camera.
[7] Within the exhibition called A Non Event (Horizon) that took place from 16 June – 2 October 2011 at the CEAAC (Centre européen d'actions artistiques contemporaines) there is one of Steven Pippin's best-known works: Point Blank.
[8] During the eighties, a transition occurred in the world of photography that brought with it a lot of controversy, dividing photographers between those who abandoned analog to switch to digital format and those who decided to stay with the traditional technique.
The image resulting from the synchronized shot is exposed divided in two, either by natural borders (typical of the landscape or element photographed) or artificial ones, separating the two formats.
These shadows are monitored by sensors that, upon detecting the slightest change, modify the position of the plate where the pencil rests with a margin of 20 milliseconds and almost imperceptibly to avoid losing balance.
In 1997 Pippin expanded his idea and moved it to a laundry room in New Jersey, where he placed photographic paper on each of the backgrounds of 12 washing machines that were attached to ropes of cotton.
Thanks to this, he not only managed to demonstrate that the hypothesis was indeed true, but also laid the foundations of cinema, motion photography, and if that were not enough, he helped the world in general to better understand the movement of the horse.