Meteorite

This was an image that I had in mind for a couple of years. It originally was a stand-alone image, then was going to be part of a series, and is now again a stand alone image. I put this image off for a while because I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to create it, and have it look the way that I wanted without much of a budget. I sat on it for a while and then it finally came together in my head.

I knew I wanted to shoot everything on location, and I knew I wanted everything to be "real." I decided on the Porsche because it fit the story, and it's motor sits in the rear. This would allow for more dramatic damage to the hood without having to also damage a motor as well. 

I made a template of the real hood. 

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I found the most generic size and shaped hood I could and bought it. Then, with the help of my assistant and prop extraordinaire, Dylan, we cut it to fit the template.   

Then we very strategically beat the hell out of it. 

For the meteorite, I asked the extremely talented artist Natalie Wetzel... and she delivered a beauty. 

Now we were ready to shoot.

And the final image...

I am happy with the final image. I wanted it to convey a sense of mystery and psychosexual tension, and I think it does that. 

*On set bts images: Mark Andrus

VW Tableaux: Thoughts and BTS

This shoot was an absolute blast. It was a large production that required a lot of work, attention, and collaboration with others. These are the qualities that I am most drawn to when it comes to creating image. I love big complex productions that require focus, motivation and energy, and I love to collaborate with people. 

Because I wanted to shoot while the sun was going down, which sets directly behind Lake Michigan, and because I didn't have the budget for a lot of lights, once the light was right, we had to really hurry to get everything shot. It was the most I have had to accomplish in such a short period of time. The production of the image was chaotic, but I think that lends itself to this image, because the image itself is chaotic. 

All in all, I am very happy with the final image, and I can't wait to develop this style further. 

So many people were instrumental in the creating of this image; too many to individually list. You know who you are. Thank you. I do want to give a special thanks to Kevin and Erika Burgess for being my main characters, as well as letting me use their amazing vehicles for this production. 

 


QUIT: Thoughts and BTS Images

I am often asked what some of my work 'means', and I am always reluctant to reply. This is only because I am a firm believer that what a piece of artwork means is a personal thing. That individual personal experience is, to me, much more interesting and important than what I think the piece means, and explaining what the piece means to me will inevitably have an effect on your experience with it. I want your experience with my work, for better or worse, to be unencumbered by the knowledge of my intentions. However, I understand that the curiosity is always going to be there, and being a fan of art as well as an artist, I feel that same curiosity toward other's works I enjoy.

So, I will say this: I am fascinated by mystery and the mysterious, and I think that this fascination is sort of a living remnant of childhood that I am reluctant to let go of. More than that, actually, I actively seek it out through my work. That feeling of wonder is spiritual in nature; Freud would call it an 'oceanic' feeling (though he would also attach this to religious spirituality, which is not what I am referring to). It's a recognition that there is an unknowable, a celebration of limitations, a happy departure from reason, a rejection of quantification, of index, of classification, and most importantly, of that which is comme il faut. We all have something that keeps us from being what or who we want to be; some sort of tie to the systematic social order, whether we know it or not. All you have to do is start to quit those ties. 

Shooting the QUIT series was a lot of fun for me, and I think it was fun for the talent as well. For a brief moment they were asked to remember that childlike euphoria.

 

Here are some BTS images. Photography by Alejandro Photography