This past week I had the pleasure of photographing one of my favorite bands, Code Orange. The band was about to perform their album release show for their latest album, Underneath, right when COVID-19 hit the US. Rather than leave their fans in the dark, they performed in the empty venue and live streamed it for their fans. While I not only appreciated being able to experience their performance myself, I also resonated with their quick thinking and willingness to adapt to current societal conditions.
The past few weeks I’ve been exploring the many ways to execute remote photo shoots, via conferencing apps. Aside from exploring with was visually possible I also considered who would be ideal subjects for this new series. Code Orange, who had already made clear their willingness to be digitally re-interpreted, was the first that came to mind. So I reached out to their manager and pitched the idea. A few days later and they were in my studio, so to speak.
Over the span of an hour I shot three unique setups of each of the five members. I projected them onto a plastic light panel. I shot through a pane of glass, covered in rubber cement. I even projected them onto a clear trash bag, which ended up being my favorite images of them all.
Though I can’t wait for the quarantines to end and to interact with real life humans again, I will certainly continue exploring these remote photo shoots as I’ve only just begun to wrap my head around all the possibilites.
