The Never After
Last month I did a photoshoot at the 1933 Slaughterhouse. A few people asked how my shoots come together, and the answer is: they're always different! I always start with one inspiration point and build out from there. Sometimes that initial focal point is the model, but other times it can be a location, or even a prop.
This shoot in particular started with the location. I saw images of the 1933 slaughterhouse floating around, and thought it was straight from a grade A, 1984-esque, dystopian horror film. Side effect of being a slaughterhouse, I suppose. I immediately thought of a wedding (although I'm not sure what that says about my views on marriage) and the shoot built from there.
Lots of photographers work in contrast or in parallel. An example of this would be shooting a high fashion editorial in a garbage dump (contrast), or working with a grunge-y themes in a garbage dump (parallel). Either way, the location brings out elements of the shoot.
I wanted to work in both contrast and parallel by creating a series that required a deeper level of cultural understanding in order to decode the full implications. I researched into American weddings and Chinese funerals so I could play off the overlapping features. In essence, I wanted to make images that could be interpreted by some as wedding photos, and others as funeral photos.
The first thing I settled on was the dress. This would be the most important element, and carry the weight of the story. It needed to be recognizable as a wedding dress, and it needed to be white (the color of death in Chinese cultures). My past photoshoots relied heavily on already available resources. But as complexity of vision increased, it became clear I needed more preparation and would not be able to pull things off last minute. Posting on facebook, "Hey, does anybody have something that can pass off as a wedding dress that I can borrow tomorrow?" unsurprisingly has a low success rate.
The week before the scheduled date of the shoot, my model helped me order a wedding-passable dress on Taobao (Chinese equivalent of ebay/amazon). It was cheap, and unfortunately arrived reflecting its price. We got what we paid for, and it was a compete disaster.
Time was ticking, and I decided to make the dress myself. I've previously made costumes and altered my clothing before, so this seemed doable . I followed a few tutorials online, and made a passable wedding dress.
I always argue that photos are completely subjective. The reality you see in a photograph can be completely misrepresentative. In this case, you are looking at half a dress. The dress I made has no back because I ran out of fabric, and is more similar to an apron than anything else. This became a problem because my initial model is conservative, and therefore was unable to wear it because it lacked coverage on the back and the arms.
So two days before the shoot, I changed models. And then I changed models again. I considered just pushing the shoot back another week, but I decided to proceed ahead as planned as sort of a rebellion against the multiple setbacks. The morning before the shoot, I picked up some yellow chrysanthemums (Chinese funeral flowers) and red ribbon.
My makeup artist, the lovely Claire Schapira who assisted in the first shoot, joined me in the morning along with Chen Qinrui (Cherry), the lovely model who agreed to work with me last minute. Cherry is a Chinese citizen, and she provided lots of feedback on the makeup. We went for something contemporary look that brides today may wear.
Cherry's Makeup
We arrived at the slaughterhouse, and looked for a quiet place we could shoot without interrupting people/have random people in the background. The space was massive, and we shot in variety of different locations.
Shooting on site
A few hours in, a security guard noticed the shoot and ordered us to stop. Apparently there is a very firm ban on photographing white dresses in the slaughterhouse, although other colors are okay (this doesn't really make sense to me, but perhaps something was lost in translation). At that point, the shoot had effectively already finished, and we packed up and left. In the spirit of irony, an actual wedding was scheduled to take place in the slaughterhouse later that day.
Working in post, small tweaks were made to the colors to maintain the mood I wanted to capture.
Before/After
This was the most intricate shoot I'd done to date, and required the most pre-production work. While I was not able to work with the initial model I'd conceptualized, almost working with her still taught me a lot. I now will consider more factors that can influence participation. Point being: I collaborate with my classmates, and never want to push people wildly out of their comfort zones. It's not only a horrible thing to do as a person, but also is pointless. It's the realization that things I may be comfortable with, others might not be, and the nature of the shoot must be compatible with the model.
I originally set out to do photoshoots every week, but now realize the lack of feasibility in that. Not only would it be completely exhaustive, but it would also foster a decline of quality. Things take time. Many of the photographers I greatly admire hand make a majority of their props/costumes, and this is a direction I intend to move towards as well.
Inspirations for this shoot were:
Á la Victime by Alexia Sinclair
Forgotten Fairytales II by Zhang Jingna
