#27 - Ron and Gavin Flory - March 10, 2018 - Wendell, NC
Friday, March 23, 2018
A photographer/painter friend sent me a video recently of photographer Nadav Kander giving a talk about his work and influences. Kander in the talk said, "..we have to think of portraiture not so much as looking into the soul of somebody else - which is such horseshit." "Portraiture is about the baggage I bring into the room, and that the subject brings into the room and the collision creates a dance".
I've known Ron about eight years. Ron is an avid photographer who often employs various analog and digital techniques to create his images. He sometimes shoots with 8x10 and 4x5 cameras. Over the past year or so he has been sharing images of the dolls that once belonged to his wife as a child. His 13-year-old son Gavin has also helped him with the project of photographing the dolls in the woods around his home.
While I was setting up my lighting gear for a photo Ron showed me an old photo from decades past of photographer Minor White. It was an image by photographer Abe Frajndlich of White clad in leather jacket and dark sunglasses with a menacing looking heavy chain around his wrist, his black t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Ball Busters". See the image here. The image was created as a series of portraits and book of White called "Lives I've Never Lived: A Portrait of Minor White" Ron wanted to create a similarly inspired image. I made one frame of Ron in that scenario, Ron dressed in a leather jacket, black leather gloves and intimidating reflective sunglasses over his eyes. While setting up this image Ron's son Gavin created a pile of dolls at my feet to show me all the of them. A light went off in my head and I had an idea, why not photograph Ron and Gavin together with the dolls? So that is what we did.
Later we moved down the street to a swampy creek where I had spotted a discarded couch surround by bald-cypress trees. Ron works as an engineer/bridge inspector so I made a photo of him sitting on a bridge pier.
I've known Ron about eight years. Ron is an avid photographer who often employs various analog and digital techniques to create his images. He sometimes shoots with 8x10 and 4x5 cameras. Over the past year or so he has been sharing images of the dolls that once belonged to his wife as a child. His 13-year-old son Gavin has also helped him with the project of photographing the dolls in the woods around his home.
While I was setting up my lighting gear for a photo Ron showed me an old photo from decades past of photographer Minor White. It was an image by photographer Abe Frajndlich of White clad in leather jacket and dark sunglasses with a menacing looking heavy chain around his wrist, his black t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Ball Busters". See the image here. The image was created as a series of portraits and book of White called "Lives I've Never Lived: A Portrait of Minor White" Ron wanted to create a similarly inspired image. I made one frame of Ron in that scenario, Ron dressed in a leather jacket, black leather gloves and intimidating reflective sunglasses over his eyes. While setting up this image Ron's son Gavin created a pile of dolls at my feet to show me all the of them. A light went off in my head and I had an idea, why not photograph Ron and Gavin together with the dolls? So that is what we did.
Later we moved down the street to a swampy creek where I had spotted a discarded couch surround by bald-cypress trees. Ron works as an engineer/bridge inspector so I made a photo of him sitting on a bridge pier.
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