This is the newest photo in my series of staged photographs. I saw a couple in Altadena about 3 weeks ago sitting on a bus stop bench together similar to this photo and I knew right away that I was going to re-stage it. I'm interested in the visual oddity of the situation and where the traditional roles in the relationship are switched. I'm not trying to poke fun at this situation, but simply re-create the nice tender moment I saw between the two.
This shoot was a lot of fun. I had 5 people on the shoot; 2 actors on the bench and 3 background people. I also had a friend majoring in theater costume design help me pick clothing for the shoot.
This is a portrait for my photo production class of a friend named Robert. I met Robert about 3 years ago in Pomona while walking around shooting photos. I asked him if I could photograph his interesting house and he let me and ended up talking with me for about 3 hours telling me his life story. Robert has lived in this house his whole life (65 years). He has been in street gangs in Pomona since the age of 5. He has had a rough life due to drugs, alcohol and gangs. I ended up becoming friends with him and visit him once every month or two months since I've met him. I photographed him for one day about a year ago for a final project for a class, trying to tell his story through him and his environment. This is the 2nd time I've photographed him. I went to his house to visit him last week and ended up taking a portrait of him with the tools he made.
