Ranting Details

Picture of the Day: 1/28/10

(Did a photo shoot with Broadway's Carly Jibson recently.  Presented a fun opportunity to see how much I could do with two strobes and a green wall.)

RSO Explosion

Monday night marked the final performances of Ryan Scott Oliver's Rated RSO. (Let's shed a collective tear.) I first got attached to this powerhouse showcase of musical theater's next generation when I photographed the evening more than six months ago at Joe's Pub here in NYC.  Since then, I've traveled uptown, to LA, and finally back to Joe's Pub as a photographer for the show.  Only, for this last incarnation I was an actual collaborator since Ryan and I are now working on a theater piece entitled 35mm--a musical exhibition of sorts--that made up the first third of Monday night's show. 

The whole experience is actually a bit of a blur in my head, and rather than go too much into detail now, I thought I'd just share some images of the fantastic cast.  There will be a more in depth post coming up chronicling my experience creating the imagery for "Crazytown," which opened the Joe's Pub concert.  But for now...

(The boys sing "Mrs. Sharp.")

(Alex Brightman, Lindsay Mendez, and Jay A. Johnson sing "The Ballad of Sara Berry.)

(Blake Daniel sings "Mrs. Sharp.")

(Kacie Sheik and Andrew Kober sing "Hemming and Hawing.")

(Eric Michael Krop leads the cast through "Odyssey.")

(Matt Doyle performs "What I Wouldn't Do For You.")

(Alex Brightman performs "Never.")

(Jenny Powers dances her way through "When Lily Came.")

 

(Natalie Weiss performs "On Monday.")

(Matt Cavanaugh and Jenny Powers perform "Make Me Happy.")

(The cast of Rated RSO.)

(Alex Brightman performs "Lost Boy.")

 

(Natalie Weiss, Alex Brightman, Lindsay Mendez, and Jay A. Johnson journey to "Crazytown.")

 

(The cast performs "The Ballad of Sara Berry.")

Birds. Eyes. View.

I have been busy cleaning out my computer over the past few days (it's amazing how many bad photos one can take in order to get to the gem) and I was excited to find some images I passed over during my first round of edits.  These come from the shoot I did on a roof in Brooklyn a few months ago with makeup artist Ariel Vega and model Stephanie Voelckers. Nothing quite like having a man standing on the adjacent roof flocking birds for the purpose of photographs!  Going to be collaborating with Ariel a lot in the coming months; get ready for some more gorgeous models and makeup! 

 

 

Soledad

A few weeks ago I photographed Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca during their run at the Lucille Lortel Theater in Manhattan's East Village.  Whenever The Times sends me to shoot something, I usually go in rather blind to what I'm about to see, but I'd read a lot about Barrio over the past year (much of it from The Times' own Alastair Macaulay) so I knew the evening was bound to impress.  Coming from a family of tap dancers, I found myself particularly enthralled by the similarities and differences between tap and flamenco dance; both forms seem to exist largely on a mix of choreographed sections intertwined with improvisational flair which requires an intense amount of focus as a photographer.  Barrio was, of course, the star attraction here, and she performed with a presence that seemed to indicate both heartbreak and passion within the same moment; completely mesmerizing! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Floating Bloven

I did a photoshoot earlier this week with my former colleague (and one of my oldest friends) Blaine Hoven of American Ballet Theatre.  We had fun running around the studio trying to come up with some interesting and diverse shots.  Here are the results! 

 

Picture of the Day: 1/16/10

Cropped

About a year ago I found myself standing in a theater with five other photographers.  We were all there for the same purpose: to shoot a dress rehearsal of one of the country’s leading modern dance companies.  Some were there for different publications, while others were company photographers who could probably document the pieces simply by listening to the music and hitting the shutter on the appropriate count.  

The standard sizing up process began during the equipment unloading, the period before a dress rehearsal where zippers open and each photographer looks around to inspect lens size and quality.  I, being new to the field in comparison to the others, hooked a single camera around my neck and stood there feeling as vulnerable as if I had instead undone my pants zipper in the middle of a crowded theater.  Out came the multiple cameras with zoom lenses capable of capturing seams on costumes.  On they went to tripods and monopods rooted into the theater’s floor amidst the folded auditorium chairs.

After a few moments rocking back and forth and stretching out my arms and fingers, I meandered over to another photographer and struck up a conversation.  His tripod was almost as tall as he was, but despite the impressive (and expensive) equipment, his ego was nowhere to be found, so I began to ask questions about his career and the specifics of his different camera bodies. 

Shortly into our conversation we both admitted our preference for shooting from backstage compared to being in the audience.  I mean, we’re all going to get the same thing from out here, he said.  The words bounced around my head and I began to ponder their truth as the lights went down to signal the beginning of the workday. 

Up the aisle.  Down the aisle.  Up the aisle.  Down the aisle.  Over the following two hours I bounded through that performance as though I was an understudy reviewing the piece in the audience. I got up close to the stage and chose to showcase minor details instead of focusing on the larger picture.  Meanwhile the other photographers stood still. 

(Amy Young)

That was the first time I’d worked as one of many people hired to shoot a performance, and it was on that day I realized how much my approach to photography is more like a ghost performer than someone who grew up standing behind a camera.  As I’ve accrued more and more employment in the field, my techniques have expanded, but my feeling about the idea that “we all get the same thing” if we shoot from the audience has not.  I approach each performance as something to actively engage in and I took that photographer’s words as a challenge to find my own style even if I was assigned to do exactly the same thing as everyone else. 

Since that day, I’ve entered into many discussions—some with employers and others with peers—and insisted that more can be said with a tighter shot than with a full stage shot that captures a performance exactly as the audience sees it. 

I liken this tighter style to the idea of writing from the inside out.  To zoom in and capture emotion on a face, tension in a hand, and the interaction of lighting on the bodies of subjects is to find the small character traits a writer creates in order to make a story something more than broad strokes of generic characterization. 

When a body explodes into the edges of the frame—to the point where limbs are at times chopped off by the framing—it stops being a static capture of a performance; the energy in the shot, which the live performance has now transformed into, can be more energetically akin to what an audience feels in the theater by employing techniques that aren’t about capturing the proscenium.  But I’ve been told this style is not always useful for publicity materials, despite my belief that a more engaging (not just “beautiful”) photograph will result in a greater curiosity about the work portrayed.  To me, the wide shot feels more like a book jacket than lush sentences. But there is, unquestionably, a place for such images.

All of this is not to say I feel like I’m doing something revolutionary by deciding to frame a tighter shot.  I’m hardly the first to do so. However, I find it to be much more possible to make a unique image—one that captures the energy of the performance as I see it—when I focus on what the camera allows me to see more completely than my naked eye does. 

In many ways that photographer’s words ignited me to never become complacent and to always search out the details of what I see before me.  Since then I’ve stood in the audience with many fellow photographers, curious as to whether we’ll all get the same shots.  One way I can ensure I won’t?  Just a few sprints up and down the aisle.  Don’t want to rely too heavily on that zoom lens to do all the work for me.  I want to be part of the action, and, in turn, make viewers of my photos feel the heat of the stage lights. 

(Annmaria Mazzini and Robert Kleinendorst)

ALL PHOTOS: PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY

Change It Up

As a location photographer I am constantly faced with the challenge of making a space look better than it actually does.  Whenever I walk into a room, no matter how scattered with junk or poorly lit with fluorescent lights it may be, I have to figure out a way to manipulate all of the factors in my favor and come up with an image that works for the assignment. 

I recently did a shoot with a young ballet dancer in a room that, by most standards, would be considered a poor location for photographs.  The light from above was fluorescent and unflattering.  It cast shadows in weird places and there wasn't really a wall I could use to provide a suitable background.  Armed with a single flash and an umbrella, I set out to do a few quick headshots and eliminate all evils from the room.  What I'm always intrigued by is how many different looks I can get out of the exact same space.  Not only is it useful for me to flex my problem solving muscles, but in the professional world, no client wants to run around all over town to find the proper backgrounds.  With Madelaine I ended up standing her in the middle of the room and with a few simple shifts in where I stood (and some fun lighting tricks) I was able to come up with the following two looks.

Picture of the Day: 1/11/10

(Decided to break up today's headshot shoot by doing a little window gazing.)

Picture of the Day: 1/07/09

(David Hallberg returns to The Rant.)