A Tea Party Comes to Life

I can't take sole credit for my imagery – my work is always a collaboration of talents, as noted in a Behind-the-Scenes shot above for my image "Tea Party for One." In particular, this image hinged on the expertise of my wardrobe stylist, Chase Jezowski, who failed to disappoint as always! Chase designed the dress, inspired by Baroque wardrobe and the Chinese finger trap gag. In addition to sewing the dress, Chase relied on pins, tape, and a little bit of my Photoshop magic to execute a flawless dress!

This blog entry is dedicated to my incredible crew – without you, my work would simply be figments of my imagination, dying to come to life!

God Bless the Powers of Photoshop!

While the majority of my imagery is shot in-camera, sometimes I rely on Photoshop to make the impossible possible. This is particularly noted in my Before & After images for my shoot, "Water with Care." Personally, I love seeing the magic that post-production can do – have fun finding out what was shot in-camera and what was altered in Photoshop!

When Concepts Go Kaput

While a lot of my conceptual imagery succeeds in being discernible to my audience, that's not always the case. There's nothing more disappointing than creating an image that I think is bullet-proof, only to have it met with misinterpretation. This was the case with my image "Queen of the Ants," which looks visually interesting, however, very few people understood the meaning behind the photograph.

My assignment was to incorporate nature/animals into an image, and I wanted to shoot something that wasn't going to be a generic cover for Bark (the dog) Magazine. Once again, props never fail to inspire me, and I came across a package of oversized ant magnets at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood. The ants were about an inch in length, and if I cut off the magnet from their base, I knew I had a perfect "animal" to work with (the assignment didn't say the animals had to be alive, and it didn't exclude insects as animals!).

So I came up with the idea of creating an ant farm, complete with tunnels and dirt. And I was emphatic about incorporating a person into the picture, as people are what I shoot. I thought it would be interesting to create an image that had a woman – not an ant – who was the queen of her ant farm. And because she was a queen, I thought instead of having the dirt be colored brown, it should reflect a heavenly quality and had my scenics paint the textured dirt blue. The queen's hair extensions were supposed to mimic ant tunnels. However, the general consensus was that the woman was an octopus underwater with ants crawling all over her octopus arms. There were a few who got the ant tunnel reference – particularly when I cited the name of the piece, "Queen of the Ants." But overall, the image's interpretation fell flat with my viewers.

Ah, well. You can't win them all….at least I've got an cutting edge photo for a Raid advertisement, as ants crawling through your hair is a pretty horrific thing!

Mythology Meets Marble and a Parachute Dress

One day while trolling through the section of Robertson Boulevard that's equally known for its celebrity sightings and overly-hyped stores and restaurants (The Ivy – one word: UGH!), I visited the only boutique that's worth a dime – AllSaints Spitalfields, based out of London. My heart stopped upon finding the most stunning dress draped on a mannequin. Appropriately named "The Parachute Dress," it was made from a bazillion yards of fabric and was literally the Rubik's Cube of dresses to put on with all its strings and knots to adjust. And yet I knew I had to make a photograph of it, despite needing two assistants to fit the dress on my model during shoot day.

What I loved about the dress was its clever contemporary nod to an ancient toga. I had concepts running through my head of creating a modern-day mythological character wearing the dress. I thought about various tragic characters – both fictional and historical – and recalled the Biblical character from the Sodom and Gomorrah story, who turned into a pillar of salt upon looking back at her corrupt city burning to the ground. Instead of salt, why not create a character turning into marble?

My incredibly talented scenic painter, Malcom Moorman, was up for the challenge of marbleizing an entire white set with a slew of various paints and tints. Coupled with his equally talented assistant, Michael Hopkins, the two spent over three days marbleizing the background, flooring, and columns. It was truly a work of art to witness, and when Malcom finished marbleizing my model's arms, I was blown away by the beauty of it all.

There's always that moment where you know your crew has done their damnedest to deliver, and I felt a lot of pressure to ensure that my image paralleled the perfection of my "Heart of Stone" set. I spent several hours with my assistants to get the lighting just right. I wanted it to mimic the feel of being in a museum, and my model had to look as close to a statue as possible, to fit in with the concept.

This image is quite subjective in its meaning – is the model at peace with her fate, or not? I love leaving my work open-ended and encouraging my viewers to create their own interpretations.

Props to My Latest Prop!

I'm constantly amazed over my finds as a prop stylist for my photo shoots. I've had several images revolve around fascinating prop discoveries – animal x-rays, for one – and my latest photo shoot, "The Lovers," is a testament to that.

Perusing through a novelty shop in Silverlake a couple months ago, I came across a chastity belt. Not just any medieval-looking chastity belt, but a contemporary take on one. This chastity belt was made out of pink leather and had silver heart locks on it! Who comes up with this stuff?!?! I had no choice but to buy it – and to create a photo inspired by it!

For imagery ideas, I immediately went to my recent project of interpreting tarot cards (see Week #1 post). While sifting through a tarot card deck, I found "The Lovers" card and knew I had my photograph. After I created the concept, the search began to find find a locksmith who had over 50 keys that matched the original set of chastity belt keys. Imagine the looks I got when explaining why I needed such an exorbitant amount of keys for a chastity belt with heart locks!

My only regret over this photo is that while designing the set, I slipped up on its measurements. I ended up creating a set that could only be framed as a square instead of a rectangle. Because this image doesn't match the shape of my other tarot card photograph, I can't use it as part of my tarot card deck. So I still have 79 more tarot card photos to go!

A Project to Last the Rest of My Life!

As a conceptual photographer, I'm constantly drawing on outside resources to inspire my photo shoots. A painting, a poet, a prop, a song, a book – these are just a few things that have inspired me throughout the years I've been shooting conceptual work.

As a side note, I'm known to occasionally entertain a guilty pleasure of mine – visiting tarot card readers (even though 99% of the time they're completely inaccurate)! While getting these readings, I've generally found the tarot card illustrations to be dark and depressing in nature – not to mention the fact that they're not very stylish, which is something I notice as an artist who is drawn to aesthetically pleasing things. I did a little more research and found a spiritual bookstore that had a wall sectioned off for tarot cards. It was interesting to note that all the cards were illustrated. Not one single deck consisted of photographs – and in that moment I discovered my latest photo shoot inspiration!

The first tarot card I decided to interpret photographically was the character of "The Fool." I had set builders create a corridor with 6-inch nails driven through each of the corridor's panels. My model being barefoot in the set and holding onto a bouquet of balloons that could pop at any moment illustrated her as "The Fool" character perfectly.

A tarot card deck consists of approximately 80 cards. One card down, 79 more to go!

For a Behind-the-Scenes video of the conceptual and production process behind this shoot, visit: http://gallery.me.com/kamerakitten#100019