Gentleman Jack: A Southern Gothic Shoot
I like a Southern Gothic vibe and I like cinematic images. I also like working with Jack Waddell, who has unique, razor sharp, handsome features. I had been toying around in my head the idea of using the old cabins in the Daisytown area of Elkmont in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as a place to stage some pictures of, well, a macabre type . . .
Here is something that bugs me when Halloween approaches. Suddenly, girls pop up saying, “Let’s do a Halloween shoot! I’ll be a sexy vampire angel . . .” No. I do not want to photograph what I call Party City Shitty costuming. Hey, if you do cosplay and you put serious effort into your characters, call me. I did a great session in the past with a dear buddy, Don Barbee, who cosplays as Negan from The Walking Dead.
But I would rather do something like tableaux that suggest horror. And Jack in a black suit has the look of an itinerant preacher man out of a Flannery O’Connor story, carrying a bible in hand and a bottle of cheap whiskey in a battered valise. So I figured, sure, let’s start there . . .
While photographing Jack on the porch of the Appalachian Clubhouse, a couple of tourists happened by and asked us what we were doing. That gave me an idea. I asked them, “Would you be willing to play the role of corpses?”
Husband: “What?!”
Wife: “Heck yeah - what do we need to do?”
Jack and I had walked the cabins beforehand so I knew where I wanted to set them up. Thank goodness for people who see the fun in making something unusual. And me? I am never shy about asking.
So be careful in the deep woods of the South. You might meet Gentleman Jack. Who is he? Is he just a con man - or does he have a darker side?
Or could he be . . . Old Scratch?
The woods hold a lot of secrets. Don’t become one of them, if you know what I mean.
If you think Jack looks familiar, we took time out from our gory tale to also do some fine art nudes, as show here on this blog.
I should add that I am very much appreciate the photography of Gregory Crewdson, whose work inspires me to do creative shoots such as this one.
Call me if you have ideas for a story . . .