These past weeks, Distant Era has shown off a new 2025 series called Golden Age of the Silver Screen, a project focused on exploring hard light and the glamor of Hollywood’s big studio era. This week, we introduce Charissa and Russell Johnson to the series.
So far in Golden Age of the Silver Screen, we’ve shown:
Elizabeth Quilter, whose images bring to mind Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong and Fred Astaire
Gary Henderson, who evoked personalities like Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Orson Welles, Walt Disney, and Vincent Price
The Johnsons
I met Charissa and Russell Johnson during my time working as an editor at the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (then called the OI). Charissa and I created books and magazines about the study of the ancient Near East. As the department’s two full-time editors, we worked together on every step of the publishing process, from copyediting to layout to proofing to book and cover design to hiring printers and working with our distribution partner to managing part-time staff and more—a vast scope of responsibilities that required great attention to detail and constant focus.
Charissa is also a phenomenal professional photographer, and we often compare notes. Russell teaches at UChicago, where (in my words) he does the good work, teaching others to communicate respectfully and openly about their beliefs. Since 2019, Charissa and I have talked about shooting a project together, and six years later, we finally made it happen.
The Session
The Golden Age of the Silver Screen session with Charissa and Russell was different from the others in that with two subjects I had to think differently about how to balance the session between both and how to use my hard light sources when there were two subjects in frame rather than just one. These being experimental sessions, I hadn’t thought overly much about this beforehand.
Hero Noir
Russell brought a look of classic Hollywood elegance to the session in his suit coat and tie. We began with a setup I’d seen photographer Lindsey Adler create, using a white background and two flats that shaped the background light into a single column. We found a checkerboard lighting pattern in which the highlights of Russell’s face stand out against the dark background. Then the main light falls off, casting the rest of his form into shadow, which contrasts with the bright column of light behind him. We positioned our main light slightly higher, shading Russell’s eyes in a way that suggested a character from a noir film.
Cigarettes and Hat Tricks
For her inspirations, Charissa sent a variety of images, several featuring a character with a cigarette holder, some backlit with a smoky silhouette, and some in 1920s fashion. We combined these inspirations and played with some projected patterns on our background to make a series of dramatic images.
We imitated the backlit-smoke shot pretty closely.
Garrus the Cat took an interest at this point and wanted to be in all the shots, as usual.
I’d wanted to get some pictures of Charissa and Russell as a couple. At one point, Russell had a great idea for a scene with these two characters, as if they’re passing one another, perhaps in a dream sequence on a movie set. We see the lady pass by, carefree and haughty with her cigarette, as our noir hero looks back over his shoulder in her direction. We tried this with some projected patterns, but perhaps our favorite shot occurred when the pattern didn’t fire at all, and we just see these two characters on a plain black-and-white background.
I am grateful to my friends the Johnsons for spending their time and creative energy to make this experimental session with me.
