Possibly my favorite image. The moment of eye contact prior to walking on stage for a duet symbolizes the human connection and vulnerability that makes dancing in this company so special. If you're not in a dance then you're backstage watching and never with obligation. The unwavering support each dancer demonstrates makes this a place like no other. Pictured here are Robert Kleinendorst and Laura Halzack in Paul Taylor's Mercuric Tidings.
Pictures Talk: One /
Welcome to the first of what should be an ongoing series describing the madness behind lens. I realized that I got so excited about putting all of my work up at once that people might visit it once but why would you want to come back? My guess is that if I regularly write about this nutty stuff that I do you'll keep checking in.
So here we go...I thought I'd start with this series of images from Paul Taylor's Last Look. This was one of the first dances I ever shot when we were tech-ing at City Center in 2009. I had recently bought my first DSLR, the Canon Rebel XS and a basic zoom lens. Not fully understanding the technique of shutter speed and aperture I did whatever I could just to get something recognizable. I realized that if I made the aperture really small and slowed down the shutter speed I could get some of these to look sort of impressionistic. I actually liked it better than the frozen stills that I was seeing elsewhere. I love playing with this way of shooting.
Early Phone Call /
445am?! I'm late for a phone call! I know I set my alarm for 345am but now it's an hour later and I hope he's still indoors.
Everyone knows that if you want to call my boss for a short conversation the prime time to reach him is at 3 or 4am. He's fond of watching the sunrise. When I got him on the phone at 5am I was relieved to hear he was happy to talk. My order of business was quite simple. Tell him about the website I built on wordpress and see if he'd mind if I published it. When he said yes I was overjoyed. I'm not sure if he knows how happy it made me. To be allowed to photograph Paul Taylor's dances is an honor. To further have his approval to publish it on a personal website so that anyone can view it any time of day is a bestowal of grand proportions. Thank you so much Paul Taylor. I'm truly grateful.