|  |  | 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
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