Carnivora: the making of a virtue
When I was younger I was often reminded of the fact that I was not a patient person.
Waiting was an interminable purgatory of in-between: NOW was how I thought of heaven, while LATER was hell.
As I grew older and the reality of accomplishing larger goals dawned, patience developed as a necessity. Expressions such as “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and “time flies when you’re having fun” were mantras oft repeated as I methodically broke down projects into the bite size, and therefore more easily achieved, steps by which a larger whole comes together.
A good example of this would be the photographs that my partner, Nicole, and I are soon to capture in the wooded paths and mountain crags of Eastern New York state.
At the heart of these tableaux vivant will be costumes, as is fast becoming a trend in my contemporary photographic work.
Born round a crackling fire, sketched in a camp chair, and powered by a crusty PB&J sandwich, the imagery came to life.
.
I had spent weeks prior to the sketching of the designs collecting fabrics and leathers and feathers from which I hoped to make the costumes. There were trips by car and train to acquire the materials, and I lovingly sealed them into large plastic bins, taking up yet more space in an already cluttered home studio (and living room – sorry sweetheart!)
After the collection of these necessary materials I sought the services of a talented costumer whom I had met many years before while shooting black box theater for New York’s Inverse Theater Company.
The costumer worked diligently after several meetings to discuss the viability of and tweaks required to make my designs a reality. As the weeks peeled away we moved forward and elements were completed. There remained, however, one item needed: a collection of small sticks, worn smooth by the lapping of gentle waves and bleached by the sun such that they resembled bone. Yeah, that’s specific… and I knew exactly where to get them. The problem was that the location (a reservoir in upstate NY) was inconvenient to get to.
In the interim, as I plotted to secure these magic sticks I worked with a friend to produce a component for the male costume: an icon meant to perch atop a staff. The staff had been ordered from a gentleman in Georgia, crafted from a fallen cedar swamp tree and had taken more than 2 months to arrive. After late nights of fevered research I ordered sandals through the internet. I discovered and stalked the notions and trimmings stores of New York in pursuit of those little details that add up to create a richly detailed scene.
Months passed and the costumes were completed… and they were magnificent! All save for the now legendary sticks (legendary in the fact that I’d spoken to so many about them, but no one had ever seen a single one.)
I knew that the damn sticks needed to be a part of the project – I hadn’t seen anything like them. Anywhere. And I had looked. Trust me.
But, finally, almost a year later, on the way back from Maine, at the end of a daunting 11 hour drive and as the sun slowly dipped below the horizon, I clambered down the wooded incline that lead to the shores of the reservoir where I had remembered seeing The Sticks. It felt magical – to have spent so much time thinking about and pursuing something only to be this close, and there… bobbing in the water… exactly as I had remembered them, were The Sticks.
As I type these words, the sticks are being incorporated into the final elements of the female costume, having been sized, trimmed and labeled for use.
The point of this all is that after more than a year of effort, we are only now drawing upon the time when we will make use of these costumes. Where once it was missing from my internal make up, patience has now become essential to the process and project. Patience has become a part of who I am and what I do. And that is something I never saw coming – not once.
The planning has begun in earnest: 5 days in the woodlands and forests of The Delaware Water Gap (weather permitting.) Hiking, camping and trekking in order to find that perfect location where light and land cooperate to create something special. And then… well, then we put on the costumes and we start playing in the woods.
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The aesthetic goal for this project was originally inspired by the format and concept realized in my Post-modern Fairy Tale series, and though we’ll be using different equipment and techniques I hope to capture some of the magic and wonder of that first series.
Check back here for our results!
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