"ROBOT ARMY"
2003 |
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1. "ARMY" MODEL: Loi
2. "CENTRAL COMMAND" MODEL: Adrienne
3. "AIR FORCE" MODEL:
Ryan
4. "MEDIC" MODEL: Melissa
5. "NAVY" MODEL: Briana
6. "CASUALTY" MODEL: Adrienne
This was a pretty signification series for me. I did these shoots while in
my last year of college, finishing up my BA in photography, and was in the
process of learning how to use strobes. I decided to go all-out with the
shoots, and clutter my friends up with lots of gadgets, odds & ends, and
metallic body paint. Originally the robot series didn't have an overarching
theme beyond, well, robots, but As I was doing the project, news hit of
the US striking Iraq and starting off a foolish war. I guess I had that on
my mind a lot at the time, and fears over where that would lead our country,
and that set the tone for the series.
Here's a breakdown of the six parts of the series:
1. "ARMY"
Loi posed as a robot soldier. I covered her in metallic body paint
and makeup, and then added all kinds of junk. Much trouble-shooting of
strobes went on, and the shots are a little dark.
2. "CENTRAL COMMAND"
Adrienne posed as "Central Command". I set the shot up much like "soldier".
(lots of metallic makeup, and various junk parts.) As we did this shoot, the
first bombs started to drop on Iraq.
3. "AIR FORCE"
My friend Ryan posed for "Air Force". This one was fraught with technical
difficulties with the lighting (strobes were still eluding me at that
point), but I got some workable shots.
4. "MEDIC"
This one featured my friend Melissa posing as "Medic". This shoot went a lot
smoother than the first three...
5. "NAVY"
...That didn't last. This particular part of the series was plagued with technical difficulties. The first shoot, my model got sick and we had to go home. The second shoot, something went wrong with my camera and all four rolls were blank. I finally had luck on the third shoot.
6. "CASUALTY"
This one went smoother and I had a lot of fun preparing the props, fake
robot blood, and staging of the scene, despite the series going out on a
somber theme. After portraying five kinds of warriors, I decided to portray a victim of war.
Maybe sort of "on-the-nose" in retrospect, but I still like it.
Several years later, I would start a second Robot Army series, of
illustrated photography and on-location photos, of which there have been two
shoots so far - "Metal"
(more here), and "Hunter"
(more here).
I'm planning on doing more Robot Army shoots in the future.
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MEDIA: C-41 photos, digital
photos
LOCATION: Toledo OH |
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