Prints made from three scanned 4x5 transparencies.

Costumes explores the contrast between how actors represent themselves on stage and in their homes.

Each piece begins with a photograph of an actor, in costume, in performance lighting at the theater. Using a wooden camera that appears to the subject to be an antique softens the relationship with me and the photograph. Because there is not much light, exposures are long, typically 2-4 seconds. For the most part, the actors are not able to hold perfectly still for this long, creating a softness. The next phase is photographing the actor inside and outside their home using the same equipment with the same limitations. In some cases, the performers chose nearby parks - “home” to them.

The multiple portraits raise questions of what is real and what is contrived. We might want to believe the home images are more genuine. The way we decorate our homes, the things we leave out even the places we sit or stand are all calculated to make a statement about who we are. How real is the statement? The viewer has no information about how I might have chosen how to make these location photographs. Lastly, these are actors.

This project is expected to continue until at least the end of this season. The final method of display is still being determined. The theater is currently pursuing funds to create an exhibit of this work in their historic Gordon Theater.

I had the opportunity to show my “portfolio” to Louis Faurer in 1981. Included were exterior images of movie theaters. His comment was “you must have been in theater in an earlier life.” I have no idea what that might mean, but the fascination remains.