“Photography As ART” script shows how James creates his art using only light, camera, and optics, in addition to considerable logistical planning, technical experimentation, patience and dedication.
Image 32 shows the STONEWALL illusion. After a short glimpse, show other stonewall photographs, including stonewalls crisscross Keith Farm.
NARRATOR:
Stonewalls are another addition especially unique to the Vineyard and all of New England landscapes. The golden age of stonewall building, mostly out of granite, for fencing, boundary lines, or an animal pound was from 1775 to 1825.
CUT back to the STONEWALL illusion in pans, tilts, and overall.
JAMES:
I searched for a particularly beautiful sample and one that could be painfully comfortable for my MUSE. She had to stay in her reclined position on the wall while I spent hours to recreate the stone’s petrifaction on her with body paint, in order to capture this STONEWALL illusion.
NARRATOR:
The word about MV is people go there to hang out. It is a pristine and beautiful place were billboards, chain stores, and traffic lights are left behind on the mainland. Take off your shoes and let the sand between your toes.
CUT back to the HANGING OUT ON THE VINEYARD illusion
As in the photograph HANGING OUT ON THE VINEYARD notice the
red pumps abandoned in the beach grass, and the last thing
our muse is hanging on the line is her panties, preceded by
her bra, stockings, skirt, and blouse… there she is “au
natural.” She’ll fit right in with the Vineyard’s array of
clothing optional beaches.
Image 33 shows a glimpse of the HANGING OUT ON THE VINEYARD illusion. CUT to scenes of the Vineyard typical of it’s laid back atmosphere, such as the shoes left on the fence, artist painting, lying on the beach, sailing, etc.
Image 34 shows the material checklist and Image 35 a sketch for
HANGING OUT ON THE VINEYARD. Tilt down the page and DISSOLVE back to
the photographed illusion.
JAMES:
The materials, the lines and poles were hidden away in a location that took a bit of a hike to get to. I was awaiting puffy clouds, but in a year of visits to this beautiful Cedar Tree Neck location it was either overcast or cloudless. I always embrace the sun for photographs and finally went ahead letting my Muse just let it all hang out under that clear blue sky.
NARRATOR:
This two-photograph set FROM SEA TO SEA was inspired by a call from a Manhattan photographer; asking James where on the Vineyard is there a nice place to shoot. To that, he replied “turn around and you’ll be in a nice place,”
CUT to James talking to the camera/audience.
JAMES:
Martha’s Vineyard is a visually beautiful place in every direction… Of course, saying that is one thing, creating a visually literal interpretation of that is another matter. So how do you show the two sides of beauty at the same time?
Image 36 shows FROM SEA and Image 39 TO SEA. PAN through both in timing with the Narrator starting comments.
Image 37 showing mirrors and Polaroid test set-up.
CUT to shots of the two sides of different things: A building, a body, a car, an apple (ideas that best demonstrate are welcome). In the final shots shows these things reflected by a mirror, ending with a flip of a CU of the mirrored Muse.
What came to mind was using a mirror that could reflect in the same photograph some of the beauty of a scene that was behind the camera. To that scene I would add the most beautiful part of nature, the Muse, of which every side is aesthetically pleasing.
CUT to James talking to the camera/audience. CUT to shots of Lamberts Cove and dunes
Finding a location offering a beautiful two-sided vantage point that could be photographed took a while. Finally, a spot at Lambert’s Cove Beach offered a tunnel shaped dune that gave a view of an inner lagoon, while the reverse direction overlooked Vineyard Sound.
NARRATOR:
He decided to use more than one single mirror to have more reflecting surfaces, and also to have them in irregular curved shapes so they would have a more organic fit with the environment.
The multiple mirror approach also considered photographer David Hockney’s thesis of how we see, with our eyes never fixed and always darting around any scene; it played in to our eye movement. This idea he later explored again in the Fragmented series.
Image 38 shows David Hockney’s MOTHER BRADFORD. Possibly show some other Hockey images and an photo of David.
Image 39 shows TO SEA. Dart around with the camera’s eye over various parts of the photograph. Then consider a virtual animation of the process, or some other suggestion for B-roll visuals here.
JAMES:
When I got the location all I had left to do was to position the mirrors. I staked a pole where the Muse would be and positioned the camera. I had prepared the mirrors with pikes and placed them close together in the sand. From there it was testing shots to determine the best optics, f- stop, positions, angles, distances, to align the mirrors and collect all the desired elements in focus, while at the time keeping myself and the camera out of any reflection.
As always, my Muse arrived on time. From there pressing the shutter button was the easy part. Together the two sides, FROM SEA… TO SEA, give us a visual duality of a sculpture.
CUT to Image 39 shows TO SEA and Image 36 in pans, tilts, zooms and overall.
THE END of Scene Six
