Hello Folks,
I know I have a promised couple of posts... They are coming soon. Prepping them up isn't easy... but really pumped about bringing "The difference between Retouching and retouching - Get your money's worth" and "Why you want an actor to take your headshot" to the blog soon.
In the meantime a lot has happened. I joined a group of talented artists at the Event Space in B&H NYC to push our artistic boundaries. Our first meeting was enlightening, and required that we present our most interesting work and receive some criticism. Although a refreshing experience, such moments are always a little painful... but to the nitty-gritty. We have to develop our artistic portofolio as we get feedback from the folks at B&H and Soho Gallery in NYC.
We all talked about where we wanted to go with our work, and how our photography was currently standing to that. New ideas and direction were suggested by the supervising group, and three things stuck with me from that first meeting.
1. Stay close to your home base, those places you know best to start exploring a new vision.
2. Perhaps it isn't a new form of portraits that you are artistically searching for.
3. You know how to capture great images, now let yourself use your camera in unexpected ways.
So I thought... ok. This is great... I'll just fool around a little. (For actors this may be something that rings a bell ;))
I started taking pictures whilst riding in the Subway, which is a common place for me during my constant commuting into the city to audition. Good thing about being an actor, is that you are not necessarily auditioning in "Rush Hour", which means that you are freer and there is more space to work freely in the trains.
I was getting some interesting images, slowing down my shutter speed, and playing with B&W. At one point, I was struck by something. I was shooting inside the train, outside, at other trains... when suddenly I remembered that I had been thinking about developing a project called "Underground Ghosts" which would consist of barely-identifiable images of people or things in the Subway. I thought of Ghosts because there is something ghostly and hellish about going underground and moving through tunnels at a high speed in screeming trains. Also, a lot of the people in the Subway are a little ghost looking, and there are of course a lot of interesting characters that live there and you can only find in there.
As I continue to play with this idea, I caught this image travelling in opposing trains through the tunnel. This is starting to get close to my concept. "Is it a ghost? Is it looking at me? Where am I?
More to come, as I continue to develop the portofolio.
