TIME TO PICK SOME PHOTOS!!! Vote vote vote! (Patreon)

HELLO! Hoooo boy exciting times, folks! An announcement & a request. 

1) The Announcement:

I've settled on the title! Slow Circus: VACUUM [vol. 1]

Since this is (*hopefully?*) going to be a series one day – one that I can take beyond the VACUUM act, and feature/write about other artists or other acts – it seemed perfect to have the overall title be Slow Circus. It's the perfect umbrella to house all this higher-production-quality, long form written/visual circus content that I'm adventuring into, and lets me explore the concept of expanding the ways we think and talk about circus over multiple titles.

(2) The Request:

I need YOUR help choosing between some of the photo sets will be going in the first instalment of the Slow Circus series!!!  [I'll be asking for your input and insights on other photosets, but just starting with a few today!). Today we are looking at some B&W sets from Irem Harnak.

The sample sets are at the bottom of this post; all of these will eventually be making their way to see the light of day, but for now I just want to take the temperature on which ones really stand out to you: your votes might also help me decide what order they appear in in the book! (If you like all of them, well .... great!)

If you've got some thoughts or feelings about these 3 photosets today, let me know in the comments!

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We voted to do this in 2 or 3 smaller installations on my last survey. This is great, because it lets me get the production quality I want (fancy layflat binding, hardcover, nice paper), takes the pressure off writing EVERYTHING at once, and lets me feel out the process/experience of this new type of project without throwing all of my eggs into one basket.  

As a result, I've now got so many beautiful photos to choose from, and we get to decide which ones go into the first volume. Here's what you need to know before you peep the photoset options below:

(a) There are three photographers I worked with: Denise Grant, Irem Harnak, and Paul Hillier.  I'm still waiting on photo release contract return from Paul, so for my own sanity, we're going to be choosing from Denise and Irem's photosets.
 
Irem's photos run a wide gamut: her photosets are in both black-and-white and in colour. The colour ones have this beautiful dreamy feeling, like a painting. In our creative, I requested that we explore how the vacuum tower/latex distorts portrait work from something that starts out like the modelling work we used to do together, and slowly devolves into a distorted, grotesque version of my face (because of the pressure from the latex). I intentionally selected photos from this set where I look bizarre.  We also explored mixing organic matter (flowers, leaves) with the latex -- an uncommon combination -- as well as non-grotesque, full-body explorations of how the shape and presentation of a body changes as the latex closes around it (like stop-motion film).


(b) The written content for volume 1 is going to be an essay introducing the concept of Slow Circus (probably a preface); some creative nonfiction [an act description similar to the one I did for Issue 2 of Writing the Circus], and a long form essay that touches on apparatus and perception of the performer (this will touch on how our perception of a performer as male or female changes the way we experience and interpret contortion movement, and how this in turn can feed into a sense of something being beautiful or something being grotesque).

***For inquiring minds: (Volume 2 of the Slow Circus: VACUUM will have the essay that explores the relationship between spectacle and risk -- basically I'm going to let myself go wild and explore & elaborate on what I introduced in Issue 1 of Writing the Circus).

• Remember!: There's only 50 pages in this book: let's say that I can only fit 30 images into it, as a safe starting point. 

I grouped photos from each shoot into rough families. These aren't hard and fast categories, just a little organization to help us pick better. Check out the watermarked sample pages below and tell me which ones you like best together!