It has not been often that I have the opportunity to photograph another artist who’s interest is in theatre, whereby the music, costume, mood, lighting, expression and energy of all come into play. Paul approached me with the idea of doing some photography based exactly on those elements. His initial ideas were photographs taken for Merce Cunningham and Bill T. Jones’s dance studio. Given the confines of my studio, I did my best to extract the same elements. Using music as the basis for the movement, Paul’s performance was spirited — evoking and conjuring the creative forces as translated by the music. I played a variety of tracks including excerpts from Buddha Bar, Cafe del Mar, Enigma, Yoga (Body and Soul series) and the haunting soundtrack A City of Sadness by Sens. Paul’s own raw silk costume design made from a re-constructed Kimono brought to the stage an element of movement and theatricality all of it’s own.

The photographs were taken with the Contax RX using both the 28mm and 50mm lens. The 28mm lens was particularly engaging, allowing for a highly distorted yet appropriate perspective on the theatricality of movement. Films used included Kodak TMax 400, Fuji Provia 400F (with 80B filter) and Agfa Precisa CT 100 (no filter). F-stop of 4.0 – 8.0 while shutters speeds ranged from 1/15 – 1/60 second, depending on the film speed and what depth of field I was searching for.

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