Photographed by Schmidt in real time whilst watching Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960s masterpiece Psycho on his computer, the book contains 2439 sequential color photographs organized in an identical grid of sixteen images per page but for the final page showing seven. By setting his camera to single picture mode (1–2 photographs per second), Schmidt deliberately exploited the technical limitations of the camera in order to create a parameter of randomness and predictability. Operating precisely at the tangent of photography and moving image, a definite documentation of every frame of the movie intentionally failed, leaving invisible gaps.
The dichotomy of still images versus film is being analyzed further by sporadic blurred film stills and single frame collages of the film’s dissolves, an intentional result of Schmidt’s carefully chosen exposure settings (1/15; f 3.5). 153 Page Psycho is the product and proof of a singular and unwitnessed (photographic) performance, simultaneously anticipating and annulling any future versions.