Before you look for the brush strokes, these illuminated images are not body paintings. These images are produced solely with optical technique (light projection) and have been sent in by photographer Sean Adair.
“No computer or darkroom manipulation was used for any of the pictures, with all sources and final images shot on slide film. You see what I saw, the arrangement of image and subject into a visual expression of emotional state and our relation to surroundings. The interaction of nature and nurture illuminated. The Chameleon People.”
This personal artwork project began in 1993, with a clear concept of using this long known technique of projecting a photographed image onto a model, adding personal stylistic intents and a conceptual direction to create the illusion of the projected surface as being on or part of the body. To date, the portfolio of edited work is well over 200 images.
Over many years of travel and journalistic photography, I was attracted to take simple images of texture, surface and form. Without any real idea of how I’d use these slides. Some of these images are of microscopic detail and they range to large expanses of sky or landscape. The library of images found a purpose when a girlfriend stepped into the light of a slide show, and agreed to pursue the spontaneous vision with me.
The technical process was a challenge, but not outside the reach of any serious photographer. Choices of special film, projector mounting, exposures and choosing to shoot freehand without a tripod were developed over a few sessions. The collection of source textures has continued to develop as well, with many source images specifically shot for an intended Chameleon People shot. Some source images are from natural sources; bark, water, clouds, plants, others from man-made sources – metal, fences, peeling paint, paper. Objects and landscapes found there way in as ideas developed.
The photo sessions owe much inspiration to my models. None of whom are professionals, just friends with an interest in participating. Some images are preconceived, others are an improvisation of image and pose, often with a mirror in the studio allowing the model to see and shape the interaction of shape and position. A pose or expression of theirs may summon a particular source texture in my mind, or a model may find and place themselves in the form of the projected image.
The Chameleon People were shown in a solo show at NYC’s Spectra Gallery in 1995, in a live projected outdoor multimedia performance accompanied by live music (led by one of the models) in 1997, and in a large group art show as part of the Theater for the New City’s Lower East Side Art Festival in 2001. The work was also featured in a cable TV series documenting art photographers. In 2002, a experimental short film, “The Wizard’s Mistress” was made using the same techniques and conceptual basis, which was featured at several international film festivals.
Sean Adair started shooting with an SLR and multiple lenses at 14 years old, while travelling through 23 countries with his parents. Currently a freelancer and director of a small video production company
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