The Inside Story Behind the Photographs
The Inside Story Behind the Photographs
Just a little fun facts article. I graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2011 with a BA in Art. My focus was photography, although I did take a graphic arts course and learned enough to be able to create the layout for our monthly newsletters and now the layout of articles for this Website. Most of the photos you see on our materials have been taken by me.
George works very hard researching materials and writing new materials everyday. When it is time to create our monthly newsletter or post a new article for the Website, George will have created an article with a title that I then have to create an image for that title that conveys the message. This at times creates an interesting challenge. For example, one article was titled “Don’t Follow the Rules”.
What kind of image would portray, “Don’t Follow the Rules”? So you start to think of what people associate with that statement and what people think the “Rules” look like. I thought, a book of rules? Where do you find such a book? That is when I have to create one.
Then the next question is how am I going to photograph this book? On a table? No. I need to be able to illustrate the concept of not following the rules. If you do not follow the rules, then you throw them away. Well, we had this garbage can in George’s office. I thought it would work great because you can see through it. With crumpled up trash in the can it will be obvious to the viewer that this is a garbage can. Now…. I needed a book, but what size? I decided that the book should be large to really get the message of “Don’t Follow the Rules” across. I went to our local craft store and purchased this black and white patterned gift wrap to wrap around the book. Then in my Adobe Illustrator Program I created the book front to paste on top of the gift wrap, stating “THE RULES”. After I set up the items I took several photos from many angles until I thought I had the ideal photo. Here is the final photo.
Back in May of 2017, George announced to me the title for the June Newsletter, (are you ready for this), “Virtue Terrorists and Convoluted Logic” Whoa! I went into a bit of a panic. How was I ever going to come up with an image for this? So, when I got out of panic mode, I decided to focus on the terrorists idea. Something that people find dark and scary.
George, to his dismay, ends up being my photo model for many of the images or at least helping in shooting the image. He does not mind doing that part. Sometimes I need extra hands to hold props. Well… I needed someone to be my terrorist model for the photo and George got the job. I had George wear a black sweatshirt and I proceeded to wrap his entire face and head in this long black material I had. I needed this photo to look creepy, really creepy. So, to hold the material in place I had some rope and I wrapped it around his neck. Now he looked creepy.
We needed a creepy place to take the photo. The car parking garage had a cold feel about it, being all concrete. Okay….now how do I get him from our apartment to the basement without being seen? We do not want to frighten anyone by seeing big tall George walking and wearing a black outfit with no face exposed and a rope wrapped around his neck as if he is some kind of doomsday scarecrow.
I had also determined that the stairwell would be a great place for a second photo because of the metal railing. I could take a photo of him looking at me from behind the railing and it would look like jail bars. It all had to be done fast before anyone saw us. We did not want to have run after someone who got terrified and try to explain to them what was going on before they called for help.
The face/head material did not take long to create with the rope so I thought I would wait until we got to the garage and then put the material on with the rope.
So… that is what we did. I had George stand in many spots and took practice photos to determine which would look the best. Once that was accomplished we put the face/head material on with the rope and quickly took the photo and removed the material before anyone came to the garage.
Then we went to the stairwell and took the last photo, did the same procedure and took many practice photo’s. When we felt that no one was coming I put the material on over his head and quickly took the photo. We were successful in doing this without scaring anyone, which was a great relief. However, George pointed out after the last photo that there was a camera in the stairwell that probably captured me having George kneel on the floor, wrapping black material on his head and then proceeding to wrap rope around his neck.
I decided to make the photo’s black and white and that helped create an even more cold and creepy photo.
So….there are the photo’s from the June 2017 Newsletter article called,
“Virtue Terrorists and Convoluted Logic”.
George and I are very blessed and enjoy the work the Lord has put before us. We put a lot of thought and love into our work because we understand that the words and photo’s we share are all given to us by His inspiration. None of this could be done in our own ability but He does it through us.
2 Timothy 2:15
Concentrate on doing your best for God,
work you won’t be ashamed of,
laying out the truth plain and simple