Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Lost and Found: A Day At The Beach
Samantha and Gloria loved the beach.
They could spend all day there, and September really was the best time of the year to get outside. By then people had largely decided the summer was over, and even at New York’s Coney Island you could find a quiet section of the beach on a weekday. A good book, a little water, some snacks… and your girl! What more did anyone need?
Of course, no one really knew how close Sam and Gloria were. They didn’t need to. That was between them. Private. Mind your own business kind of stuff. And their people probably wouldn’t understand.
They’d both been into boys before, but for the most part men couldn’t be counted on. All they wanted was one thing. You let them downtown and then they were waving bye-bye. On to the next chica.
And that was that: separately they’d both decided no more men. No thank you!
It was a surprise really: they’d been just friends for so long that they felt like sisters, but one day Sam realized just how beautiful Gloria really was: inside and out. And she started looking at her a little differently. She thought she was going crazy, but it seemed like Gloria was looking at her a little differently too. The rest had seemed so natural. And their friendship was tighter than ever. Sisters forever. Together. For real.
Found beneath the BQE in Sunset Park, Brooklyn amidst the thick smog of construction vehicles and the relentless noise of the traffic above.
Click here or the image above to see the full strip.
Carnivora: The Time Of Men
As promised… 1 of 8 photos from the series now titled The Time Of Men.
The Time of Men: Forest Glen, pigment print, 45 x 60
Shot on location in the Delaware Water Gap. A lot of early mornings, and even more waiting around… early in the morning. Proof positive below…
In the event of boredom, insert finger into belly button and wait...
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.
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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!
Belize: Have Artist, Will Travel
click to view video
It’s rarely lost on me that I’m fortunate enough to have a job that allows for the types of travel that it does.
Traveling to warm and/or tropical climes in pursuit of bugs and critters to photograph would still technically qualify as a hobby for me, but I’m working on making it more.
My friends and family often ask “what was it like?” or “how did you do it?”, and more often than not I find it difficult to summarize in a satisfying way – there are just a lot of details (and planning) involved in a long trip to a far away locale.
Back at the start 2009, my partner and I traveled to Belize – the above video was an attempt to summarize some of the steps involved. Sadly I didn’t capture any of the process of actually getting to the marine reserve which was by small skiff (one of the best parts), but this should give a small idea of the journey.
To see images captured while on location and more, head to Photogrovert, my photography website.
The things we do for our art…
getting the lights right, in all white, on a winter's photo shoot
Ah, the things that we do for our art!
Sometimes, just sometimes, one looks back on an image and thinks… “damn, this had better have been worth it.”
After having recently seen the fruits (coming soon) of the rather humiliating labor that brought this image to life, I can now say, it was definitely worth it.
I’m told that if you can’t laugh at yourself, you really have no right to laugh at others – which is something I’m absolutely not ready to give up.
First Look: A Post-Modern Fairy Tale
This is a first glimpse at a new photographic series I completed a short time ago (though have not yet fully scanned). It is entitled “A Post-Modern Fairy Tale”, and is meant to comment on the changing roles of the sexes in today’s culture. It feaures an unshaven man in a glistening ball gown, cast in fairy tale-like lighting and scenarios. It will be a series of 4 images.
Keep your eyes focused on jasoncovert.com, as it’s launch looms closer and I hope to have the complete series available for viewing at that time.
