New Altitude at 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival
Aerial performances at the 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival
Aerial performances at the 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival
How do you choose the “best” of the photography from five days and dozens of production? I don’t really have a good answer. There are ways of ranking, and reranking, and rereranking, work until the “top” bubbles up. Another way is to try and include one work from each performance, but that’s not always possible either. Maybe a quota of the best from each day? Nah, that’s not really fair either. And would any of them give a good sense of the whole experience?
What I have done, somewhat for posterity and somewhat to try and just make one post (instead of the dozens I could make), is to go through my saved photos from the entire experience and put together a set of all those that represent the experience.. Then I culled and culled until I had the 32 images below that give the best view into what it was like to see the entire 2015 Sideshow Fringe Festival. Or, at least, that’s my selection for today!
Many kudos to Jessika Malone and Mitch Massaro for their incredibly vivid direction, and the same to all of the technical staff that ran a seamless experience for everyone. And, of course, plaudits and praise for all of the performers. An incredible experience for all!
I was fortunate to be the Sideshow Fringe Festival 2015 photographer, and as always there were many incredible sessions of theater, aerialists, puppets, and music. There are many, many, many tactics one can utilize when photographing performances. Long exposures, high-ISO captures, processed images to highlight the performer — all are good options. Another option on engaging the subject: shoot once, process none. Shoot film, process, and take what develops.
In addition to the actual live performances, I was also invited to check out some rehearsals, including the work of the FALL company. It was pretty incredible to listen in and hear some of their process as they rehearsed through the work, and to try and unobtrusively capture some of the discussions in photos. Below are three of those images next to one of the performers during the rehearsal set.
Giving up some control with the medium lets me work in the available lighting and motion without stressing over the upcoming post-processing. A chance to photograph the mood and ambience in the unpolished environment. A bit of a looser, yet more focused, feeling from the performers seems to come out in rehearsals. When the dancers are continuing the commitment of their work to muscle memory it’s almost like a photo critique. People are looking for input, looking for encouragement, but also anything that helps rise the level of the work is welcome.
Many thanks to FALL for allowing me to shoot the rehearsals!