Photography

About a year ago I started doing photo shoots with Katie. At first, solely as a resource for my printmaking. Now, I am beginning to look at some of the shots as photographs instead of studies.

I've been using a digital camera for the past few years to document work, take family portraits, and do the occasional landscapes and figure studies. I took it on all the Goldmine Shithouse trips, and I'd come home to 6 blurry shots of gallery chaos.
Not the most diligent keeper of records.
Anyway, I was becoming more and more dissatisfied with relying on found images as the major sources in my work, and I realized I had the capabilities to shoot my own material. All those sources remain as inspiration.

The first few shoots I did with Katie were for specific purposes. The very first was for the big lino.
My friend Jake was kind enough to show me a secluded spot bordering Elysian Park. It was perfect. Trees, hay, party remnants. Just the kind of spot it's perfectly natural to ask someone to pose in as a naked corpse. It wasn't before long that during that first shoot that Katie began predicting what I wanted. Which makes my job easier. And it was fun. And I was getting really good source material.

The Hex Opera prints have a transitory feel for a number of reasons. I won't get into all of those reasons. Yet.
About half the series is based on smaller multi-layered silkscreen collages I've been working on the past few years featuring images of Sadie Mae, Sharon Tate, Barbi Benton, Leila Wadell, John Holmes and some other random porn stars. Enlarged in size. And reduced (also for a number of reasons) to black and white.
The other half of the series is images based on photo shoots with Katie.
Though I'm actually working on a small series of silkscreens, Silent Water being the first, taken directly from Katie photo sessions, after each shoot I'd find a photo or two that I couldn't really think of an interesting or necessary way to turn into a print of some sort.
Other than a photograph.
The above shots were taken in my friend Tristan's car last Sunday. Parked outside. Natural light, streetlights and car interior light.
Now the shoots are more like collaboration. I usually go with an idea of what I want. And I get that. And I usually get more I didn't expect or foresee.
Thanks Katie