 |  | | | | | Welcome to this month's photographic adventure! In writing these newsletters, I am continually discovering the indelible impressions of my early exposure to media. When author Rusty Whitener (http://rustywhitener.com/) invited me to make his image, my exposure to spaghetti westerns and Richard Avedon's rugged western portraits/artist portraits was instantly triggered. Spend a moment with the following 'filmstrip' that articulates my immediate mental suggestions from when I first saw his face:
Left to Right: Lee Van Cleef, "The Drifter" by Avedon, Clint Eastwood, Ezra Pound by Avedon When I was a sophomore in high school, my art instructor laid a stack of magazine images on a table from which we were to make a graphite rendering. I chose "The Drifter" (2nd from the left) and spent the next month trying to retrace every detail of Richard Avedon's image with a pencil on a white paper board. I was clueless about who Richard Avedon was, but I knew that of all the images in the stack, this one resonated with me. It made me feel tougher just to draw it. Ironically, it was in that year that I began shaving. I reacted to Rusty's masculine mug by making the following images:
 It's impossible for me to not feel the effect that Avedon's work has had on my image of the American male, a.k.a. The Marlboro man. When Ted Turner decided to devote his networks to airing Sergio Leone's series of spaghetti westerns on so many Saturday afternoons in the 1980s and 1990s, it created a forum of indoctrination for my generation. After spending countless hours with "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", "Hang'em High", and "A Fistful of Dollars", I learned that real men scowl and always have at least a half-week's whisker growth. I have likewise started to smile less and shave every other weekend with a straight blade only.
 Since Rusty is an author, it seemed that he should appear mysterious, as if his mind was a place of untamed imagination. My impulse was to illustrate flipping Rusty's head open and photograph all of his 'ideas' (i.e. butterflies, ping pong balls, silly string, rays of light, etc.) as they float into the air. I was not ready to execute that idea, however, so we decided to use a dirty piece of glass to shroud his face as a subtle way of introducing mystery and imagination. For this series, Rusty remained very still as my assistant Dylan Reyes (http://dylanreyesphotos.com/) moved the glass for each exposure while the camera remained on a tripod. Some of these images are composites of 3 or 4 versions of Rusty's face. I liked the idea of having one eye open and one eye closed because it juxtaposes introspection with engagement.
 Another way to illustrate a writer's thought life is to have things growing out of his/her head. We used vines to illustrate that the thoughts are taking hold of things, growing, and wild. For these images, I affixed a Lensbaby (lensbaby.com) lens to the camera so that the edges would become blurry and more dreamlike. I'm a fan of the sincerity and refreshing kindness in Rusty's eyes in the left image, as not every image of him had to be so tough. The following two images were among my favorites, too.
Thank you once again for reading through this email. I will make a more formal announcement next month about the following web page link, but just know that I am creating an alter ego for creative image shoots where I will use the moniker RORSHAK (www.rorshak.com). You are welcome to enjoy a sneak peak until this informal announcement becomes formal. This is your reward for reading this far :)
Until next time! Rory | | | | | | | | |  | | |
