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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Tough Guys

Welcome to the February 2010 edition of the Adventures in Photography! This month brings us more tough guys shot by my alter ego RORSHAK. My affixation for Sergio Leone movies has intensified: the grit, leather skin, squinting, snarling, and piercing gazes of his cowboys in the 'Dollars Trilogy' and 'Once Upon a Time in the West' are leaving an impression on me. It has been a number of years since I had seen a spaghetti western, but after a recent Leone binge, I am determined to make a series of tough guy portraits in that vein of cinematography. That being stated, if you are an artist, actor, musician, or layperson, and you want to make an image that's tougher than all of the other artists, actors, musicians, or laypersons, please let me know and we'll get to work. This affectation became visible in my recent photo session with my friend Laws, who is working with Village Real Estate and wanted to make an energetic "I solve problems" image. We started things out with a Secret Agent: AKA Danger Man approach. He set up a trampoline and took about 50 leaps (right), and then immediately flashed a smile for the image on the left. (Visit Laws' real estate page here.) But then it was time to make things look tough. Laws is my longest studied subject, and is the king of tough guys. The following are snippets from our past adventures, stretching back to 2000. After the 'Danger Man' scene, I insisted on making another 'tough guy' image. I wanted to render a moonlight scene that recalled a scene from 'A Fistful of Dollars' where the bad guys burn down another bad guys' house. The background appears bluish, while the faces are lit by the house fire. We didn't have a house fire to light with, nor did we have a gun to use as a 'bad guy' prop. Instead, we used CT (color temperature) gels to make the background look like night and procured a meat cleaver that just happened to be nearby. Guns for show, knives for a pro. (See this important movie clip to understand, but beware the cussing). The poster on the right indicates where my mind is at, with Laws on the left: Also crossing the frame of my camera this month was pop musician Michael Shoup (http://michaelshoup.com). I am especially happy with the following images from our afternoon together: Again, the influence of great photographers has left an impression on me, as demonstrated by the diptych below (the right image is by Arnold Newman taken of Pablo Picasso): It seems that every shoot I have these days incorporates some sort of salute to the masters of the craft (see previous blogs for more details here). Thank you for spending time with this blog! Rory Visit www.rorshak.com for more portraits. Know someone who's getting married? I have soft side, too. Send them to www.rorywhite.com Rory White Photography 1609 Linden Avenue B Nashville, Tn 37212 615.631.0106 | chilidogcowboy@yahoo.com