Claimed by The Hatter

I have always been fascinated with the world and the characters created in Lewis Carol's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. More then anything though the Hatter at the tea party (aka the Mad Hatter) has held my interest. I love the unique personality and the unreasonable logic that he puts forth. I also enjoy the variations and diversity he receives when portrayed in other works, especially when he plays the role of a villain. So when trying to think of the title for a piece that involves madness the Hatter from Lewis Carol's book eventually came into mind. The person portrayed in this piece shows someone that has just broken the edge of his sanity. He is a normal person just like Alice that has gotten himself thrown into a world in which he doesn't belong. Stress and confusion eventually bring him over the edge and he finds that he can be just as inflicted with madness as any other character.

Color selection was difficult for this piece. Lately I have been trying to expand my color palette while striving to keep colors looking bright and passionate. It is especially challenging to create works as such and keep enough diversity to make sure they don't all blend together entirely. The red shirt again in this piece becomes a symbol for aggression and acts like a warning. The background compliments the shirt and helps to highlight the character further. With the colors I really wanted to create that out of place feeling and make the viewer feel that something is not quite right.

Righteous Kill (The Slaughter of Man)

This photo continues the tale of the Self Appointed King portrait that I shot last year. Here our king has proclaimed himself a righteous man and found it to be his duty to rid his kingdom of the wicked.

Emphasis has been placed on the king in this work with the golden glow that surrounds him. He still carries the mark or royalty with the purple shirt he bears and everything about him is brighter. His pants are a better blue and his clothes are lighter in color. The man on the ground however is wearing much darker clothes. His pants on comparison aren't as bright and the dark red shirt he wears carries a foreshadowing of the blood that is to be spilled.

The thing I enjoy enjoy most in this photo is the pose that the characters are in. The king has a a great amount of tension on his form as he rises on the tip of his shoe before he strikes. The sword is pulled back as far as it will go like an arrow before its shot. The entire time though his face his calm and cool portraying him as someone that his only carrying on his duty. The man on the ground however is confused and struggling, the toes on his feet bent back as he struggles to get away.

The photo also has excellent angles that leads the viewer around the photo. The figures are connected were the hands cross paths and the viewer is guided to the man on the ground by the sword's tip. Altogether it creates a triangle shape that also helps to break up the frame.

I hope to keep up he story of the king in future works and also plan on expanding some of the other characters that I have shot as well.

Melancholy Lust

This one turned out a lot different then I originally planned. I was going to do a portrait where my wife appeared in it twice but after shooting for a bit this started to develop instead. I really enjoyed how it turned out though, I had to spend quite a while making sure that every detail was right. The background colors were an experiment. In this I'm attempting to do more then just single color backgrounds so I can diversify my work. Also there is a lot of play with the skin tones to make them contrast from each other. My wife's skin tone in this is very pale and brings thoughts of purity overshadowed by a morbid feeling. I believes this plays well with the overall aggressive sexual part that I play in the picture and helps provide this image with its dual meaning. The background also fuels this duality with its brightness sounding an otherwise dark scene.

Here is another image from this photo session that I enjoy even though I don't believe in fits in the series at the moment. This was actually a test shot from the shoot to get the lighting worked out but it ended up turning out really well. I ended up using it to test some new techniques that I'm developing. I may work more on this one later and repost it as a self-portrait in this series.

Our Lady of Rapture

I Got to shoot some new portraits on Christmas weekend. This is the first one I finished. I also got a few artbooks on Chirstmas morning. I received books about Jan Saudek and Loretta Lux, and also got Twilight: Photographs by Gregory Crewdson and Graphis Photography Annual 2007. among the books I enjoy the one about Jan Saudek the most. It's an enormous book with images spanning his photographic career. I've looked before at Jan Saudek's work on his site*, but being able to see his work large and up close is entirely different then seeing images online. His work is a real inspiration for the pieces I'm creating right now and the book is really helping me refine my own style as well as borrow from his.

The idea that began the work on this image was when I was thinking of a mistress or seductress that would fit in this world that I'm creating. After the shoot though this image stuck with me above all the others and seemed to capture a moment of pure ecstasy and of course rapture. It reminds me a lot of Edvard Munch's Modanna. I chose red for the dress to inspire temptation and lust from the viewer and the wall was colored to contrast it and complement it. Blush was added to the cheeks to emphasize the overall feeling. I really enjoyed how this one turned out and only hope that future images can meet this type of mark.

*some images on Jan Saudek's site may be offensive to some people, view with care and not at work

Color Test for The Saint

Just got done with the color test last night. I'm really happy with how it turned out and have to say that I like it better then the black and white version. I think this new process of making pictures, that I'm using with this series, is turning out really well overall. Making the black and white copy first gives me a chance to get the contrast and exposure just right. Then I'm free to experiment with the colors and get everything just right. I think the hardest part about it is giving the color depth and layers like natural colors have. The skin tones are especially hard to reproduce accurately. Hopefully with practice I can make some really amazing stuff.

Light Test for The Saint

Last night I suddenly got the urge to do a picture but the problem was the next appointment I had for any model was two weeks away. So I decided to set up the lights and do another self portrait to figure out the lighting for my next shoot. The next photo in my series is "The Saint" (working title). The idea is actually inspired by some of Jan Saudek's images.

I was really please with how the lighting turned out for this, especially when I got it right the first try. I think figuring out the lighting setup ahead of time will help a lot when I do the actual shoot two weeks from now. Now I just have to decide whether to keep it in black and white or make it color.

The Typist

Two post in one night! This is the second photo in my new series. The idea behind this one is uncontrollable obsession. I believe this is reflected in the papers posted on the wall and in front of him. I really wanted to make it feel like the paper was consuming him. Also, the look he has is supposed to convey a disturbing sense, because simply by looking at him we are interrupting his world. The red of the paper helps to convey this tense feeling and is also there to challenge and discomfort us.

(On a side note, the model's personality is nothing like this, he is actually quite cheerful and it took some time to develop the look needed for the piece.)

Update 2/22/08 - Since I've now done a lot more work in this series I no longer feel this portrait fits in with the overall feel and look that I'm attempting to accomplish. However, I am still keeping it on this site because I feel that its important to keep a record of this series progression intact even though I know that not ever piece will make it into my final series.

Self Portrait in the Yellow Room

I decided to start a new series. The idea behind this series is to create portraits that have a certain schizophrenic twist to them. That maybe the wrong word to use but the general idea is that the portraits take place in another world using a different mindset. "Self Portrait in the Yellow Room" is a great example because it shows me taking a picture of myself. The wall is actually white but I decided to change in an attempt to make it exist somewhere else in my mind. I want to go really crazy with this series and the colors is an important way to do that.