ICONS: Eikoh Hosoe

© Eikoh Hosoe

On May 6, 2010, Eikoh Hosoe was presented with the 18th-Annual Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Photography by the National Arts Club. This great evening was hosted by Master of Ceremonies Dr. Stanley Burns, President O. Aldon James, Jr., and Catherine Johnson, Chair of the Photography Committee, with whom I work very closely. The unbelievable list of previous honorees names some of my favorite artists, including Duane Michals (1994) and William Eggleston (2003).

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LEVIATHANS behind the scenes: The Siren’s Song

The sea monster for my first LEVIATHANS shoot was torn between two worlds. Sirens have often been mistaken for a kind of mermaid, sitting upon a rocky shore or swimming very nearby, luring sailors to their deaths with its song. In later Greek mythology folklore, Sirens are sometimes portrayed as aquatic and mermaid-like, and in fact, the Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, and Portuguese words for “mermaid” are Sirena, Sirène, Sirena, Syrena, Sirenă and Sereia. Even in biology, the order Sirenia is comprised of fully aquatic mammals, including the dugong and manatee.

John William Waterhouse, Odysseus and the Sirens (1891)

The Sirens were actually portrayed as three bird-women parented by the river god Achelous and Chthon, otherwise known as Mother Earth. These dangerous beauties resided in a flowery meadow on an island, perpetually calling after their father who had gone to the sea and left them all behind. Another story had them banished to the island (possibly the Isle of Capri) after losing a singing contest with the Muses, and so they took out their frustrations by luring sailors to swim ashore, pouncing on them and ripping their flesh with their talons, then adding their bones to the piles already littering the island. Yet another tells of their ultimate demise, throwing themselves into the ocean after Odysseus passed without succumbing to their song.

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LEVIATHANS behind the scenes: Stories of Sea Monsters

I’m a big fan of the work of William Blake (1757-1827), an English poet, painter, and printmaker (three of my greatest passions!). His paintings and writings all have a sharp apocryphal edge to them that I find really interesting. You are probably familiar with his painting “The Great Red Dragon And The Woman Clothed With Sun,” which was a pivotal part of the plot to the 2002 film Red Dragon. But his work went largely unknown during his lifetime, and due to his entrenchment in mysticism and enlightenment philosophy (including modern anarchism), he was considered mad by most of his peers. (Plus he often spoke of seeing “visions” from an early age, but who am I to judge?) Later critics and artists have come to revere Blake as a master without equal.

I happened upon his painting “Behemoth and Leviathan,” which is part of his series of illustrations based on the Book of Job. The inscription he used from the Bible is incredibly creepy: “Behold now Behemoth, which I made with thee.” Blake’s extensive use of symbolism included designating the right hand as good and the left as evil. In this painting, God is clearly pointing at these creatures with his left hand.

William Blake, "Behemoth And Leviathan" (ca. 1805-1810)

But why did Blake only draw attention to the Behemoth with the inscription? I felt quite certain that it was due to the fact that the Behemoth was some kind of hellish creature, and that the Leviathan was some figment of one of Blake’s visions, perhaps based on some mythological sea creature mixed with childhood nightmares.

I was wrong.

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LEVIATHANS: Naga

Fig. 45.—Monachus Mare, lured into deep sea cage with walrus blubber, June 25, 1871. The head clearly means to trick prey into not seeing its true size. And to think that J.S. believed it an Architeuthis dux!

Visit LEVIATHANS to view the photo series and to read behind-the-scenes features!

LEVIATHANS: Siren

Fig. 87.—Sirenia Alcaecaelia, caught in our fishing net, July 16, 1871. Note the partial metamorphosis of the spine. One of only three known specimens ever captured alive!

Visit LEVIATHANS to view the photo series and to read behind-the-scenes features!

WONDERLAND behind the scenes: The FRAGMENT Shots

For each of my photo series, I like to supplement the really orchestrated shoots with some spontaneously captured images that I like to call FRAGMENTS. Sometimes these FRAGMENTS happen before the thought behind a photo series even comes along, even planting the seed for an entire concept shoot. Other times, I will happen upon a scene so appropriate for whatever it is that I’m working on, I can’t resist taking yet another photograph.

The opening FRAGMENT shot in the WONDERLAND series, “Hotel Wonderland”, is a bit of both. I had completed the “Alice Falls” shot, and so I was digging for inspiration to help me continue developing the idea. On a trip to NYC, I decided to go sightseeing on one of those double-decker buses, just to take some pictures and see if anything caught my attention.

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WONDERLAND: Alice’s Mushroom

Her name had always been written on that magical mushroom.

Photographer/Creative Director: HUSVAR

Visit WONDERLAND to view the photo series and to read behind-the-scenes features!

WONDERLAND behind the scenes: A Mad Cocktail Party

As soon as I had finished making “Alice Falls” (see A Different Kind of Rabbit-Hole for that story), I remember feeling very certain that I wasn’t done pursuing this idea. But my Alice’s mind had just disintegrated—what could possibly happen after that? Well, nothing. It was so inconvenient that I been inspired by the very first big event of the original Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland story. So I did what every artist does when they run into a question they can’t answer: I changed the question. What happened to my Alice before she falls?

Once I had the basic idea for the story (see My Version of the Story for that—um, story), I knew that there was only one event from the book that could encapsulate the events that sent my Alice over the edge, and that was the Mad Tea-Party.

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WONDERLAND: Alice Stripped

Stripped of her former life, Alice at last finds bliss in an illusory Wonderland.

Photographer/Creative Director: HUSVAR
Model: Brooke Rewa
Wardrobe Stylist: Andrew Slyder
Photo Assistant: Luke Copping
Production Assistant: Nadejda Petrova
Lighting Consultant: Chris Santucci
Makeup Stylist: Anna Malskaya
Hair Stylist: Josselyn Scott
Wardrobe Assistant: Monika Byrne
Assistants: Laura Sargent & Emilee Hoelscher

Visit WONDERLAND to view the photo series and to read behind-the-scenes features!

WONDERLAND behind the scenes: A Different Kind of Rabbit-Hole

Though I don’t really remember what initially drove me to do the WONDERLAND photo series, I distinctly remember becoming obsessed with showing Alice falling down the rabbit-hole in a wholly modern and unique way. As it often is with creative work, the “why” doesn’t matter once the “how” starts asking its questions. And so “Alice Falls” (aka “The Spiral”) became the first shoot I did for WONDERLAND.

I knew that I wanted my rabbit-hole to be all in Alice’s mind, but not in the same dreamlike manner that the original Alice fell into Wonderland. This wasn’t going to be that strange but generally pleasant journey into the imagination. I wanted to show the disintegration of her mind as she fell into herself, like a snake swallowing its own tail. I wanted to see what was left of her sanity devoured by her thoughts. What better way to show that than a whirlpool of words?

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