Mikky, Micheal, and Humble Pie

Welcome to fall where I hope most of your news is good news. Show and tell this month stars the following two gentlemen, whose mugs are particularily compelling and will make this letter worth looking at: Mikky in Paste Mikky Ekko (left) screams during a shoot we had together in 2008, and is gracious enough to let me continue making new images of him as time unfolds. Fortunately for both of us, Paste magazine succeeded in recognizing Mikky's command of the stage and prodigious musical talent with a new article that is adorned with a photograph from our spring shoot together: Mikky's spotlight in Paste coincides with the arrival of a new RORSHAK magnet bearing his mug opposite the great artist Donny Smutz, both of whom were integral in helping me establish a new trajectory in creative portraiture. The story of how we put those images together is available at the blog here. If you want a magnet to help hold your refrigerator or small economy car together, let me know and I'll send one your way. Michael Hughes Rocks the Rhodes Michael Hughes (Right, lead photo) brought his Rhodes over for a few photographs this month, and we discovered some unique ways of involving the machine into an image. I have bookmarked in my mind two photographs that integrate a subject with objects, which, while being Grade A portrait photography and superior to the work that I produce, are worth aspiring to and noting here: Gregory Heisler and Arnold Newman On the left is an image that has survived in Gregory Heisler's book for over 20 years. It grabbed my attention as a 17 year-old when my father had put out a call for photographer's books for a portrait job he was commissioning. He brought the portfolios home and we sat around table after dinner and shared our opinions. Heisler's sci-fi portrait appealed to my need for stimulation and was the cure for adolescent boredom. On the right is Arnold Newman's portrait of Igor Stravinsky. It's a masterpiece or organization and successfully integrates an artist with his instrument. If you squint your eyes and tilt your head to the left, you will see how brilliant the picture really is (psst...the piano becomes a quarter note;). So in the shadows of such great work, why even pick up a camera? (Deep sigh goes here). With a belly full of humble pie, I present the following images that we made this month where Michael shined as brilliant subject and looks like a rock and roll star: Integrating an instrument with a person is difficult for this reason: the instrument is important and the musician is important. Therefore, there are two different focal points for the viewer's eye to address. With the bottom image on the left, I was very excited about how the Rhodes looked with its guts showing after having removed the cover. I had never seen inside a Rhodes before! There are ascending rows of golden metal coinciding with the keys. In my zest, I grazed it with a narrow beam of light and it looked brilliant...but then the golden metal competed too much with Micheal's face, which was in the upper portion of the image whereas the golden guts of the Rhodes were in the bottom. Boss Scarpati, who happened to be on set, suggested that we put something in the way of the grazing light to make it more interesting, but not so commanding. With the addition of a black flag in front of the grazing light, the Rhodes looks interesting but is supportive and less competitive with Michael's face. As a point of gratitude to Boss Scarpati, I want to let you know that he is doing a promotion for a new book that documents the early days of L. A. punk and glam music. Check it out and become a supporter here. Congratulations if you made it this far in an electronic mail! You are a trooper. God bless you! Rory Rory White Photography | 1609 Linden Avenue B Nashville, Tn 37212 rorshakphoto@gmail.com

Mikky the Magnificent

Gracing the gates of the Rorshak Iconograph Laboratory this month was none other than the brilliant musical artist Mikky Ekko. Together we assumed the challenge of making the second of a series of faces of artists who I feel are pushing the envelope for creativity (the first adventure with Donny Smutz can be found here). Each shoot starts with a portrait of the artist that I describe as having a pH of 7: an image that is neither pretentious, shy, happy, or sad. After we select the image with the pH closest to seven, it is printed out with a large format printer. Then the fun begins. Here is our beginning image, with a pH of 7: Mikky was given a print and had a chance to paint it like a tribesman, just as he does for his live performances. The image was then re-photographed. Re-photographing the image keeps the image aesthetically organic, and restores some of the magic to the photo-making process that I used to love when working with film and darkrooms before I understood anything in Photoshop. Here are some results from how the image developed. Mikky's personal touches appear on the left, and on the right I decorated a print with crayons, honey and raw cane sugar: Expanding on a tip offered to me by an fellow photographer, we tried combining a printout with packaging tape for the following results, the left image is the front of the image, and the right one the rear of the image, after having been soaked in the bathtub and the paper rolled off with my fingers: And finally, when all of the camera, lights, and crayons were put back in their places, I set the honey-covered print out on my back porch to keep the ants from raiding the kitchen. The print seemed to take on a new life laying on the concrete, so I threw in a green bullet microphone as a finishing touch and made this final image: Mikky sometimes sings harmonies into this kind of microphone, has them sampled into a keyboard, and then they are played back through the keyboard's manic processors during a live performance. It seemed appropriate to position it World War 1 style right over his mouth like a gas mask. What else so effectively implies 'rock and roll'? Thank you for spending a moment with these images! Be sure to stop by Mikky's site and grab his newest tune by clicking here. Have a wonderful weekend! Rory Rory White Photography | 1609 Linden Avenue B Nashville, Tn 37212 rorshakphoto@gmail.com

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Crazy Eye, Bucket Boys, and Keith Moody Band

Welcome to the RORSHAK RADAR. This spring's adventures include a crazy eye, a salute to the 40-Year Old V*rgin, and some good old band photography with the Keith Moody Band. My good friend Cory Basil (http://theblacknail.com/) allowed me to make a character representation of him and took the burden of styling and makeup upon himself. Cory's skill at assuming fantastical characters is unmatched by anyone I've known. Here is my favorite of many frames from our shoot together--selected because I appreciate the shape of the candle's flame, the position of the bird in the cage, and Cory's expression and tenuous pose: Cory's "eye" for detail should not be overlooked-check out his crazy eye (left) courtesy of Mr. Scarpati (www.scarpati.com) who made a generous offering of white contacts to give Cory's image a final touch. Cory's Lemony Snicket-esque appearance is not all that he's capable of assuming, as proven by this candid image taken at a recent party (right): The Bucket Boys (www.bucketboys.net) required a RORSHAK image this month. From their webpage you can see how incredibly energetic they are, beating trash cans and cast iron skillets with drumsticks like wild monkeys. I wanted to take a different approach to making their image (left), inspired by the hilarious irony of the 40-Year Old V*rgin poster (I had to change the "i" to an asterick so that your email provider won't label me as spam, since the "V-word" would sink my email into 'that' category) that won my favor this past year (right). I used a "Sears portrait" approach with the background, but used reflected light from pocket mirrors to light their faces: And finally, The Keith Moody Band (www.myspace.com/keithmoodymusic) were kind enough to let me produce their promotional images. We spent the afternoon aiming to help beef up their promotional portfolio, and hopefully they will be fueled for promotional success for the next year. The top image was made in my basement, a dangerous place that I had never imagined would look so cool in a photo, but now seems like an indispensible new location to keep in mind for future adventures (as long as there is someone to help me to bind Lurch before the shoot): Thank you so much for spending a few moments with this newsletter, and for being on the RORSHAK RADAR. This newsletter and all of my former newsletters are archived at my blog here. Please forward it to anyone you feel it pertains to, and feel free to contact me about any of your creative needs anytime. I wish you an amazing spring! Rory Rory White Photography | 1609 Linden Avenue B Nashville, Tn 37212 rorshakphoto@gmail.com

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Buried Alive with Donny Smutz

Welcome to the Rorshak Radar! This occasional journal is designed to keep you entertained with new images, informed about the Rorshak portfolio, and slightly perplexed with its creative approach. If you would like to keep abreast of the image-making scene in Nashville, put someone else on the radar, or escape from the radar completely, you may express yourself by completing a 2 question survey here. For this month, the challenge was to make a rendering of surrealist artist Donny Smutz in the fashion of his own art, which you can view here at his webpage. Donny and I have shot together before in 2007, as shown below, where I took liberties with a wide angle tilt shift lens to produce heavy distortions with his face. Part of the fun of shooting Donny is that he doesn't have to appear flattering and that strangeness is a strength. With the license to do as I pleased, I drew from the inspiration of Pai Mai, who instructed Uma Thurman on the art of the 5-point exploding heart maneuver as well as how to escape being buried alive. If you haven't seen Kill Bill, please never mind the randomness of the reference, even though it plays heavily in this month's adventure (read on). I have saved you the trouble of doing the research: the image below connects to an informative youtube clip that anyone who feels trapped in small spaces should view. Here are the two winning images from this month's shoot which concern this newsletter: The image on the left involved a process of shooting a headshot of Donny, printing it out actual size with a large format printer, hanging the image from a bar with clips, and then repositioning Donny behind the print after removing parts of the image using fire and tearing. The progression of the destruction of Donny's mug is below (left to right: the original image, the picture of the printed image, the burnt image, and the hanging image). A complete gallery of this shoot's images is located here. After having tarnished a perfectly good printout of Donny's face, it only made sense that I should subsequently bury him alive. Poor Donny had to stick his head through a huge cardboard box and breathe under a towel while I poured black mulch all over his head. What a trooper! After clearing just enough mulch away to reveal his face, shards of the tarnished portrait were laid over the mulch to piece his image back together. My favorite part of the resulting image (far right) is that the 'actual' Donny has a slightly cold, bluish skin tone-especially noticeable on his hand, adding a chilling, surrealist effect. Thank you for reading this far into the first RORSHAK RADAR newsletter- an extension of a newsletter/blog that I've been producing for a few years. Previous newsletters can be read here. Have a wonderful spring! Rory Rory White Photography | 1609 Linden Avenue B Nashville, Tn 37212 rorshakphoto@gmail.com

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