Week #2: Marisa Howenstine, Photographer

Props to My Latest Prop!

I'm constantly amazed over my finds as a prop stylist for my photo shoots. I've had several images revolve around fascinating prop discoveries – animal x-rays, for one – and my latest photo shoot, "The Lovers," is a testament to that.

Perusing through a novelty shop in Silverlake a couple months ago, I came across a chastity belt. Not just any medieval-looking chastity belt, but a contemporary take on one. This chastity belt was made out of pink leather and had silver heart locks on it! Who comes up with this stuff?!?! I had no choice but to buy it – and to create a photo inspired by it!

For imagery ideas, I immediately went to my recent project of interpreting tarot cards (see Week #1 post). While sifting through a tarot card deck, I found "The Lovers" card and knew I had my photograph. After I created the concept, the search began to find find a locksmith who had over 50 keys that matched the original set of chastity belt keys. Imagine the looks I got when explaining why I needed such an exorbitant amount of keys for a chastity belt with heart locks!

My only regret over this photo is that while designing the set, I slipped up on its measurements. I ended up creating a set that could only be framed as a square instead of a rectangle. Because this image doesn't match the shape of my other tarot card photograph, I can't use it as part of my tarot card deck. So I still have 79 more tarot card photos to go!

Week #1: Marisa Howenstine, Photographer

A Project to Last the Rest of My Life!

As a conceptual photographer, I'm constantly drawing on outside resources to inspire my photo shoots. A painting, a poet, a prop, a song, a book – these are just a few things that have inspired me throughout the years I've been shooting conceptual work.

As a side note, I'm known to occasionally entertain a guilty pleasure of mine – visiting tarot card readers (even though 99% of the time they're completely inaccurate)! While getting these readings, I've generally found the tarot card illustrations to be dark and depressing in nature – not to mention the fact that they're not very stylish, which is something I notice as an artist who is drawn to aesthetically pleasing things. I did a little more research and found a spiritual bookstore that had a wall sectioned off for tarot cards. It was interesting to note that all the cards were illustrated. Not one single deck consisted of photographs – and in that moment I discovered my latest photo shoot inspiration!

The first tarot card I decided to interpret photographically was the character of "The Fool." I had set builders create a corridor with 6-inch nails driven through each of the corridor's panels. My model being barefoot in the set and holding onto a bouquet of balloons that could pop at any moment illustrated her as "The Fool" character perfectly.

A tarot card deck consists of approximately 80 cards. One card down, 79 more to go!