Lonesomeville encore
Thirteen years have passed, but Mr Schmidts exhibition still stands as one of the most remarkable efforts on 591. I have made some small updates, so you can enjoy the full album again. /mrurbano
This is how he presented it:
Lonesomeville
The images you see here are part of project I began as a "tribute" to E.J. Bellocq's photographs of Storyville brothel workers. They were plain women working a desultory trade, but there was something about Bellocq, I imagine, that made them smile. Though they are not smiling often in the photographs and are presented without much glamor, there is a quality in the presentation and presence of the women themselves that is appealing to me.
My description of the project to potential models was simple. I sent them some of the images Bellocq had taken. I asked them to bring clothing that might approximate the costumes they saw there, vintage or vintage-looking garments or things, at least, that did not appear too contemporary. I also told them that we would shoot as Bellocq had, aping the long exposure times by having them hold poses for five or six seconds. I wanted to capture that sort of dignified awkwardness that I saw in his photographs, I said.
I began to make a set that might look something akin to what I saw in Bellocq's pictures--and failed. Nothing in my background had prepared me for what I was attempting. And so I kept it simple--a canvas drop and a few props, an old cafe chair, a faux-feinting couch, a small table, and other knick-knacks that I picked up.
I shot first with a model I had worked with before who was familiar with what I was trying to do. And immediately I knew that the project would transform. As we looked at the Polaroids on the table where they lay, I noticed something of the lonesome emptiness I associated with the paintings of Bellows and Balthus, that suggestion of the struggle with the hollowness that comes, at times, to inhabit us all.
And so it was that each of the women I worked with became a character and I a cinematographer. We worked with whatever they brought to the shoot. I would give them minimal instruction and let them begin to create. The process was slow, slower than what they were used to with digital photographers, and as I peeled the Polaroids, there was plenty of time to talk. It was an interesting and wonderful way to work, collaborative and personal.
What you see here is some of what we made.
Text and pictures William Schmidt
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