Photography has been a part of my life since I was very little. My father was a photography enthusiast, and since he was a folklorist, he used images he took during his fieldwork to supplement articles he wrote and on album covers he designed for his record label, Folk-Lyric (an imprint of Arhoolie since 1970). Our house was always full of cameras–as my house is now…
As a theater artist, I have always enjoyed promoting and documenting my work through photography. I nearly always design the marketing materials for productions I direct. Here are a couple of my favorite examples:
(Poster for She Calls Up the Sun, by Addae Moon, Ohio University, 2001 and postcard design for Salvation Road, by D.W. Gregory, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, 2009.)
As a director, I often use my “photographer’s eye” during the rehearsal process to create compelling stage imagery for the audience. Later, I’m well-prepared to capture those images through the lens.
(Oedipus/Shadow, CEC New Edge Theater, 2005 and Bash, Crooked Mirror, Philadelphia Fringe 2008 )
(Back to the Boulevard, Theatre Ariel, 2007, What I Heard About Iraq, Theatre of War, 2008 and Salvation Road, Art Riot Theatrical Co., Philadelphia Fringe 2009)
The professional side of my photography obsession so far has been limited to performance and PR imagery for Philadelphia-area theater companies. Recently, I have shot press and documentary images for Luna Theater, and for Tongue & Groove Improv. Working with theater companies (and shooting my own work) has given me great opportunities to have my work published in local newspapers like the Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper, and online.
(Orange Flower Water, Slasher, Hot and Throbbing, Luna Theater, 2009)
Shooting live performance and performers is extremely gratifying for me. In shooting real life, it can be extremely difficult to capture an amazing moment. That’s what make the work of gifted documentary photographers so powerful. Good performers instinctively understand how to present themselves in an entertaining, hopefully compelling way. There’s a lot of action to capture in live performance, and even posed pictures of performing artists tend to have a high likelihood of being visually interesting.
When I’m shooting performance, I’m always looking to put the viewer on stage, in the heart of the action. A good performance photo should have the feeling of one moment in the flow of a larger visual story–the viewer should be able to imagine what happened the moment before, and anxiously anticipate the moment after. At the very least, the viewer of a performance photo should feel they have the best seat in the house.
