Operation Ophelia: II

The more I work on this series, the more frustrated I get.  Looking at the classical artworks depicting death, everything is still beautiful.  There is never any reality to it!  These paintings and works of art just skate right past the fear of it all: the only concentrate on the beauty and sadness.  They simply romanticize the idea of death.  Thats not really what it is.  Death is terrifying.  Death can take you at any moment, without warning.  My hope is that I can romanticize this ending that will befall us all, but still strike the note of fear that should go with it:  We will all die, and it won't all be beautiful. 

Model: Gretchen Radtke

MUA: Alicia Marie

Costume: Yours truly 

Operation Ophelia: II

Outtake

Behind the scenes

While the first entry in this series is rather open ended, it 

should be clear that this woman is a victim of murder.  

  

Gretchen wanted to know how to get into her role, so we created a back story.

A serial killer had been stalking the town for months now.  Newspapers and broadcasts had been repeating the same message over and over: do not go out alone.  Gretchen had failed to heed these warnings, and to notice the pattern that had begun to emerge of the victims.  They all looked alike, and they all looked like her.  Tall, long haired brunettes with large brown eyes.  All were well to do, and all taken at night.  Gretchen would only be out for a few minutes-she just had to walk to her car to meet up with her fiance at the dinner party they were attending together.  What could happen in the time it took her to walk across the parking structure from her apartment to her car?  Unfortunately for her, the killer had had his eye on her for weeks, and had just been waiting for the right time to strike.

The dress was bought from St. Vinnies, and I did all the blood splatter ahead of time.  I stood outside my apartment with the dress hung over the fence, and used a spoon to splatter fake blood all across the dress; I was rather surprised when campus safety showed up, and walked right past without saying a word. 

The location was terribly buggy, and I felt terrible for Gretchen having to lie there 

without moving.  We doused ourselves in bug spray, and they still found us. 

Over all the shoot was a total success, (even though the children that walked by weren't scared in the least.)  It was a lot of fun and everyone who helped was amazing to work with.  I am so blessed to have such amazing people to work with, and who believe in me and this series. 

Operation Ophelia: I

You become a real photographer when you work in series.  You become a real photographer when you don't have to spell everything out in a single photo-but lead your viewers to your idea (or any idea I suppose) through multiple images.  Art is not meant to be simple.  

The difference between an artistic photo and fine art is the meaning behind a piece.  Did you put it there, and does the viewer see it?  Can multiple answers or questions be pulled from your photo?  Does the viewer leave your work with a better understanding, or a realization that they don't know enough? Does your art require a second look, does it make them want to search for the details?  Or do they walk away with an instantaneous answer?

These are the questions I asked about my own work, only to realize I didn't like the answers.  My photos were very simple: pretty photo with a statement, an emotional goal, something that could be captured in a glance: nothing that required thought or effort.  Even some of my more advanced works were still simple- the answers were more coded, but the answer was still clear.  

(Code Name) Operation Ophelia is my first real attempt at fine art.  I'm using a concept I have seen repeated and repeated in my work: duality.  I am fascinated by the idea of opposing forces: light and dark, good and evil, and now beauty and fear.  

Whether you're looking at an attractive woman, or a car crash: you can't look away.

Model: Kaitlin M.

MUA: Danielle Johnson

Costume: Yours truly

Assistant: James C.

Operation Ophelia: I

Outtake

Behind the scenes

I decided to start the series with the ophelia rendition because the Ophelia painting by Millais was what first inspired this series.  How can you tell she is dead?  She looks perfect: beautiful location, beautiful dress, and still pink with life.  What would happen if we started to pull apart the perfection of beauty?

I started with the dress before I even had my model: I hand sewed 30 pearls onto the lace of the dress, braided the neckline with ribbon, and embellished the bust with flowers.  I wanted her dress to be soft and delicate-more than the simple gown I bought from St. Vinnies.  

The shoot started with makeup, with my makeup asking: "How dead do you want her?" to which I replied: "Pretty dead.  But not so dead you want to pock her with a stick."  "Got it."

I had unwittingly scheduled our shoot to be the same weekend as the Waukesha Summer Fair: meaning that the quiet and relaxed atmosphere I had been hoping for was ruined by the sound of carnival rides, screaming children, and latin music.

The water was freezing, and by the end we were all more wet than we had planned. I ended up sitting right in the water, and we were all covered in algae, plant matter, and waukesha gunk.

We also drew a bit of a crowd; they were confused on "what kind of fishing" we were doing.  One guy even stood and watched us the entire shoot.  As I guessed, the cops stopped by to ask what we were doing, but had no qualms with me shooting.

By the end, Kaitlin could hardly look calm and relaxed-her teeth were chattering and she had been in the water for almost an hour.  I took a few last shots and we called it quits.  

I am so proud of this beginning  I think that through this series I will grow not only as a photographer, but as a fine art artist. Stay tuned to see the next images for this series; I plan to be shooting all summer.

P.S.

We made Kaitlin do thriller:

Creative: Temptation

Every year Carroll has a Graphic Design competition.  I shot this photo specifically for the photoshop section of the competition. 

In Scottish folklore there is the Seelie and Unseelie court.  The story goes that the Unseelie court will lure humans down into the fairy world.  Once there, the humans are persuaded to eat the fruit-and once they do, they can never leave, giving the Unseelie court prisoners from which to draw their energy.

 

I made it into a fake movie poster because I wanted to play between fine art and commercial photography.

 

Here are the photos that went into the making of the final project

 

  

The crown and claw were both made of hot glue, and

then painted with yellow paint and gold nail polish. 

The background was hand drawn, scanned, recreated in illustrator,

then printed and made 3D by staggering the paper on cardboard.

Thanks Alicia for the makeup, and Marissa for her awesome modeling!

52: Week 51

 Week 51 was a Christmas shoot!  This is Danielle (again) who had laid claim to my next creative shoot.  This weeks shoot was based on Sugar Plum fairies/the Christmas queen.  I realized I hadn't done a shoot that required a good deal of editing for a while, so I decided to challenge myself.  This shoot was really fun, and one of my more intense shoots.  We stole the strobes from the studio to shoot in the chapel, but my teacher originally gave me the wrong combination to the lock, which lead to 5 people attempting to crack the code, only to end up calling him at 8pm to get the right combination.

The costume is all from the costume department.  The flower in her hair is an ornament, and the candy cane scepter was made by me!

And this is my lovely assistant Marissa!  She is a freshman photo major at Carroll who asked for my help in photography.  She was kind enough to work with me this shoot, and model for me while testing the lights.  This shoot would have been a lot harder without her help, so thank you so much Marissa!