Pleasant Enough All the Same, February 15, 2009

Last night was the closing performance of the Court Theatre's production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck. As was with every performance during the play's month-long run, the crowd was fantastic, and many of the patrons were gracious enough to allow me make a portrait of them for the installation.

268, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

269, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

270, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

Below is a shot of Art Shay, whom I had the opportunity to meet and talk with for a few minutes. I can't express enough how much I admire his work, and will follow his advice to 'just keep shooting' as if it were scripture.

264, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

And this is how the completed installation looks, 270 images strong. It'll be on display until March 17th, at which point the images will be available for free for whomever would like to claim one.

Wall Installation-Complete, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

As ever, the completed set can viewed here. Yes, I know the numbering is off. Don't judge me.

And finally, thanks to Gapers Block, for featuring the project on their web site and not editing out the line referring to Dick Van Dyke.

Pleasant Enough All the Same, February 14, 2009

Hot damn.

248, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

252, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

One more day to go, nine more photos to shoot and hang, and the whole shebang will come to an end. Peep the Progress over here, as tomorrow the installation shall be COMPLETED.

Pleasant Enough All the Same, February 13, 2009

Here's a few shots from Friday night at the MCA. This being the final weekend of The Wild Duck in the Court Theatre means it is also the final weekend for the portrait project. Still, after all these sessions there's always, always, an abundance of interesting folks to photograph. Check them all out right this way.

238, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

244, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

242, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

Pleasant Enough All the Same, February 12, 2009

Looking at the complete collection of portraits from the Wild Duck project, it's pretty difficult not to see similarities between certain images. Sometimes the likeness is thematic while other times it's purely compositional. Rarely (OK, never) is it planned, and usually not discovered until after the fact when the images have been printed out and hung on the wall. Thursday night had two such instances. The first photo looks like it could shack up with this one and have a real nice life together. The second one and this one are like distant cousins who only see each other once a year during the holidays, and forget how they're related in the first place. The bottom two still need a match. Thankfully there's still three days to go; plenty of time for an accidental pairing to occur...

230, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

225, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

228, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

229, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

Pleasant Enough All the Same, February 11, 2009

The final week of The Wild Duck portrait project at the MCA in underway. Although I've now been to the museum many, many evenings photographing people in basically the same setting night after night, opportunities still emerge for trying different things, or for framing subjects in a slightly different manor. The first image below is a prime example, as the subject was sitting in such a place as to allow for being shot through the bake-stand on the concession table in the Court Theatre lobby. I'm Positive that, in past nights, other folks have been sitting where she was, but it had never occurred to me to try a shot like this. Repetition breeds Experimentation. The remaining three images are a bit more Wonted (again with the thesaurus!) , but still fit the overall theme and feel of the project, which can be viewed in its entirety by clicking here.

218, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

216, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

214, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

213, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

Four Weeks Down, One More to Go

Here's how the portrait project installation looks after four weeks. After consulting an abacus and carrying zeros and minussing negative integers and then applying Pascal's Theorem (math is Not my strong suit) it has been deduced that there is still, at the very least, 64 spots to go, with room to expand. By next Sunday, when all is said and done, I'll be damned if that wall isn't full as the dickens with portraits.

Wall Installation, Week 4, originally uploaded by Christopher Hiltz.

If you can't make it down to the MCA to see all of the simulacrums (thank you very much, Dr. Thesaurus) in person, then click here to see them on your computer screen.