Coopers Cocktails and Light, the results. It’s amazing where experimentation will lead you. The “light” in coopers, cocktails, light, ended up being less about illuminating the subject and more about shedding light on the person. My original idea was to end up with stoic, quiet images that would allow you to see into the depth of someone’s persona. That and maybe do a few classic “Playboy interview” style triptychs. But alas, experiments can lead you down a different path. So to do the interview style triptychs I knew we would have to have a conversation. So we sat the subject down, asked some questions, told them to tell us a joke or a story. I expected something totally different but what we got was a few confused looks, a few funny faces, and maybe some tears but overwhelmingly a whole lot of unsolicited unposed genuine smiles and laughter. oh, and a man eating spaghetti.
They say a skillful photographer can tell the whole story in a single image. What if I could do that, and then take a 2nd image?! I’ve been fond of diptychs (2 images) and triptychs (3 images) for quite a while and the more I play with them the less I believe in the power of the single image. 2 is better than 1, 3 is better than 2. What’s after 3? quadritych=4, pentatych=5, hexaptych=6 all of which are polyptychs.
Another gem of the experiment: If you tell your subject “this the last camera taking the last image ever in the world, surprise me with a pose” there is a high probability that it will be a “funny face”.
