“The companions leaned close to hear the last wish of the warrior, but the wind and the falling water raised their voices and dispersed her whisper to the elements; she belonged to them again, now and forevermore.”
This photo, taken in May 2016, features (left to right) Maureen Yasko, Elizabeth MacDougald, Jennifer Mickelson, and Libby Beyreis of Babes With Blades Theatre Company in a session directed by Morgan Manasa for the Babes’ Joining Sword and Pen playwriting contest, in which playwrights create a work based on the chosen image.
Babes With Blades is an all-woman Chicago theatre company that produces plays that include fighting roles for women. My very first Chicago theatre session was for Babes With Blades in 2010, and we’ve worked together on many projects since.
Joining Sword and Pen
We captured several images in this May 2016 session. Our goal was to present a variety of options to Babes With Blades, from which they would select a final photo that would inspire the Joining Sword and Pen contest. The photo above was ultimately not the one used for the contest, and a different image from our session inspired the play The Lady Demands Satisfaction by Arthur Jolly, which premiered in August 2018.
Yet, every time I have looked back on this particular photo of the warrior women around the pond, I’ve wondered who the characters were and what had just happened between them. What did their various garments represent? Where were they from? How well did they know one another? Maureen’s character leans in close, taking the arms of the fallen companion, while Libby’s character places her hand upon the subject’s head. Jennifer’s character crouches, expression as hard as the steel she holds. The daylight illuminates Elizabeth’s character’s face while the others’ faces are shaded. The scene occurs near falling water—a brook or stream where purple flowers grow. The image raises many questions and answers few of them. It’s up to the viewer to decide the story.
Creating Scenes
These photographs and the conversations around them on that day inspired me to take my work in the direction that would become Distant Era.
We had spent the morning coming up with ideas for images, and as we shot, each image seemed to suggest a different story. This doesn’t automatically happen, of course: I was fortunate to be in the company of fellow storytellers and performers who can create nuance in an image with a single gesture. For example:
In the following image, Elizabeth’s character looks out to sea while Maureen’s looks down upon her. Elizabeth’s expression is soft; Maureen’s is more intense—her hand almost reaches out toward Elizabeth. Almost. There’s a lot going on between these two characters, but it’s left to us to decide. As it should be.
We were wrapping the session after a productive morning. We’d all had a good time making these scenes, and I think we were all realizing how much we’d enjoyed it. Maureen mentioned that she’d love to find a reason to do it again, and the more I thought about it, so did I.
Bottled Lightning
I got lucky with that session: my subjects were skilled professionals and they were well lit in spite of the brightness of the day. The problem with doing the kinds of fantastic/evocative images and portraits we were talking about was that I didn’t know how to do them reliably or repeat the process accurately.
There are many things I might do differently if I shot and edited these images today. I would diffuse the bright daylight (definitely). I would likely supplement with flash if I could get away with it. I was using my first digital SLR, the Canon 40D, and a kit lens. I would probably touch up the images in different ways. But I didn’t know about any of those things back then—I only knew that I suddenly wanted to learn them.
Experimentation
Over the next few years, I gradually gathered the knowledge I needed to create the kinds of character portraits we talked about on that sunny day in 2016. I received help and advice from other photographers, like my friend Greg Inda, who dispelled misperceptions about the differences between natural light and flash, explaining “light is light.”
Experimenting with character portraiture, I started to figure out what styles I liked best. As I experimented with light over the years, Elizabeth and Maureen returned to make the kinds of images that are the photographic DNA of Distant Era.
Above: Elizabeth MacDougald, classical lady
Above: Maureen Yasko as “Kate the Barbarian” from a “Shakespeare characters as D&D classes” session directed by Mary-Kate Arnold
That sunny day in 2016 inspired Arthur Jolly’s hilarious play The Lady Demands Satisfaction and fundamentally inspired the direction of my own work. I suppose it should come as no surprise: when friends come together to make things in a positive creative environment, inspiration is bound to strike.
Here’s a list of the other magnificent plays that Babes With Blades Theatre Company has produced from the Joining Sword and Pen competition.
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