Clown Photography Critique
Welcome back to professional photo critique! I must admit. Lately, I have been clown-ing around. (You’ll understand if you read the entire post).
Since the last post, I’ve been working as a professor at Chico State University in Northern California and my classes have kept me extremely busy. I teach Intro, Intermediate and Advanced Studio Photography, Social Media Photography, am the advisor for the photography club on campus, run the student photography gallery and maintain the commercial studio. If this wasn’t enough, I still am a working commercial photographer and began law school this last year.
But honestly, that’s no excuse for neglecting this blog and your many, many submissions. As soon as I get my life back, our crew will get back to evaluating your submissions. We enjoy providing feedback to help you along your photography journey. As I’ve often said to my students, if you want someone to tell you your work is good, show it to your mother. If you want someone who can find something you might be able to improve upon, bring it to me. Keep sending your submissions and we’ll be on it as soon as we can.
INSTEAD OF ME CRITIQUING YOU,
IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO CRITIQUE ME.
I’ve wanted to do a clown series for about eight years. As I discussed in my video about the post production of the piece, I posted on clown forums asking for help. Clown forums? Yea, they exist. Haha! I offered up to a thousand dollars to photograph clowns in various situations. The problem was that I wanted a darker vibe.
The only work of darker clowns at the time (circa 2009) was a series by Eolo Perfido. I’ve included a link here so that you can view his amazing work. I’ve been following him for years and was a little bummed that he had decided to tackle this subject matter in his series titled Clownville. I was happy to see he focused on portraits and I was envisioning something a little more environmental. I wanted to depict scenarios where you’d be thinking, “This is the LAST place I’d want to see a clown.” In fact, if any of you have any ideas for shooting locations, please mention them in the comments!
The vibe for my series is similar to that of the HBO series Carnival. I’m heavily influenced by literature, pop culture, film, tv shows, etc for my ideas. And this series is a combination of all of those sources. It’s like a patchwork quilt, where every patch represents a different source element. The outfit and styling comes from the vibe I got from Carnival.
BECOMING A CLOWN: PHASE 1
Before I could even begin thinking of clown scenarios, I had to get a costume and a mask. Why a mask? Have you ever tried putting clown makeup on? It’s a mess. It’s inconsistent. It’s hot. It’s… I could go on and on. And I’m lazy, I didn’t want to have to be dedicating so much time to makeup that I lost my enthusiasm for the shoot itself. After several failed attempts at makeup I decided I’d need a mask. I found a guy who makes silicone masks that are very realistic and would give me the consistency I was looking for. The folks at Shattered FX supplied had the answer. But the answer cost $1,100.
The only other thing I needed besides the outfit were clown shoes. There are cheap ones that are plastic all over Amazon but I wanted something a little more organic feeling. And shoes are an important element to achieve a believable clown persona. I found a cobbler in Massachusetts, called Spears Specialty Shoe Company who makes custom shoes for circus clowns. He had the answer in a pair of distressed wingtips. You can see them here at his website. Being a clown is not a cheap goal. The shoes cost $550. Because a clown isn’t a clown without abnormal and goofy shoes, I had to have those. I wouldn’t be nearly as creepy wearing my Cons.
The last step to completing my image was my outfit. I have struggled with the exact look, whether or not to change outfits to fit the environments and many other questions about clothing. I turned to a friend of mine and former client to see if she had any advice. We’re still going back and forth on nailing down my exact look but I’m close to solidifying the look. I found the inspiring pieces at Alter Ego, a local costume shop in Chico, California. Cost of rental for a couple of weeks was $67.00. The total spent on my clown series is $1717.00.
FOCUSING THE CONCEPT: PHASE 2
I make lists. They help me organize my thoughts and remember what my thoughts were! I’ve dreamed about really interesting concepts and being the lazy sleep slug that I am, elected instead to write them down in the morning because I didn’t want to disturb my comfort. And of course in the morning I couldn’t remember a thing. The genius stroke of inspiration was gone forever. There are many, many ideas I’ve had that I will never think again. I now keep a small notebook on my nightstand and I write down any and every weird thing I think of at night.
I decided on a name for my character – Whipplestitch. I patterned it after the famous clown names that I’ve come to fear, namely Pennywise and Beetlejuice. I liked the sound of the names as well as how the syllables worked. Once I had the name, I felt it should be used in a title that would enable me to have a lengthy series. I settled on “The Curious Wanderings of Whipplestitch.”
I wanted to be able to place Whipplestitch in environments where one would naturally feel vulnerable. (In a parking garage late at night, running along a path alone in the forest, sitting in a bathroom stall, alone in a library, etc.) But the series should start at a place where clowns originate – either a circus or carnival. Fortunately, a small carnival came to the parking lot near the mall.
I went to ask the manager permission to shoot on the property and after hearing about my idea, he declined. He didn’t want me on his property. I offered him a couple hundred dollars in order to be photographed once the park was closed and again he turned me down. He said that tripods were not allowed because he didn’t want anyone photographing the children. His position was understandable, but I would be the least of his worries. People with cell phones recording in HD and posting it online to social media like IG and Snapchat were flying under his radar.
PHOTOGRAPHING THE CLOWN: PHASE 3
The weather was overcast and I’d spent most of the day preparing for a 10-15 minute shoot. Because I needed a decoy to use as a focusing prop and to check lighting, I contacted one of my students who is interested in off camera lighting to see if he’d be willing to assist. He agreed and we met up at the parking lot just outside the carnival’s perimeter. I set the lights up and quickly dressed. The mask was very heavy and I realized immediately that I was going to be sweating profusely. With sweat dripping down the inside of my mask and struggling to balance the ambient light, the light of the carousel and the strobe, I was getting frustrated. The wind (which was totally non existent) kept blowing the balloon straight down. The balloon failure was the last straw. I let go of the string and watched it drift into the storm.
POST PRODUCTION: PHASE 4
FINAL IMAGE: PHASE 5
“Welcome.”
Canon 5d mark IV. Sigma Art 85mm f1.4 f6.3 1/50 ISO 400
I would love to hear your feedback. Please leave comments and suggestions for locations that you think would be ideal for a character like Whipplestitch! You can also follow the series on Instagram. @Whipplestitch
