In January, we photographed magician-musician John Sturk, president-elect of the Society for American Magicians, for the cover of their M-U-M Magazine. For this session, we were thrilled to return to one of the most beautiful theaters in Rogers Park for a lively and fun afternoon with the talented Mr. Sturk.
The Rhapsody Theater
We photographed the first part of our session at The Rhapsody Theater in Rogers Park. This was my first time back into this beautiful space in many years. Under managing partner and artistic director Ricardo Rosenkrantz, the new Rhapsody Theater that inhabits the former Mayne Stage, former Act One space has emerged as an exciting venue for magic, music, and live events in the neighborhood.
The Hammond Organ
Magician-musician John Sturk is not only the president-elect of the Society for American Magicians but a skilled Hammond organist. I hadn’t seen a Hammond organ since childhood. My grandfather used to own a small one, and as kids we delighted in playing with the double rows of keys and the various switches on the organ. Seeing John with the organ brought back old memories. I can’t accurately explain what a Hammond organ is. Suffice it to say that it’s an old, rare, and specialized instrument with double rows of keys that John Sturk plays artfully!
Photographing the Rhapsody
Our objective in the Rhapsody Theater session was to capture an image of John for the cover of the Society of American Magicians’ magazine, M-U-M, announcing the official beginning of his presidency this year. For this photograph, John would appear in his element, onstage at the Rhapsody Theater. He’d be in professional dress with the house behind him, as if he were preparing for a show, with the house just about to open. The Hammond organ was to be in the shot, as well as various accoutrements—wand, hat, props, and so on.
To get the right exposure for the theater, we photographed the house without flash, dancing the dance of aperture, ISO, and f-stop and making the usual decisions about the settings to use with the available light. Once we had properly exposed for the background, we added a single large umbrella to illuminate John and the Hammond organ. I always bring a bit too much for any given session. In this case, the large umbrella was ideal. We tried a small, hard modifier for a short sequence, but that wasn’t right for this look.
Lighting Effects
In the midst of our session, the Rhapsody’s managing partner and artistic director Ricardo Rosencrantz entered. He gave us a number of other ambient lighting options for the session. His team even offered to illuminate the votives on each of the tables in the audience. They also offered to light up the back of the theater with any color we liked. We were only too grateful to accept their kind assistance!
The votives added a kind of magic to the photograph. Rather than a dim house in the background, dozens of little bright lights appeared. These added some extra class to the image, and in my opinion changed the character of the pre-show audience. When Ricardo’s team brought up the purple lights in the background, those lights, which spanned two pillars, added some lovely atmosphere to the scene as well.
We photographed several different looks and arrangements in the Rhapsody space in order to give John as many options as he needed. We photographed the images directly into the computer so that John could see them on the monitor and we could leave the theater knowing that we’d achieved the look we were going for. Then we headed to the studio.
The Studio Session
After the Rhapsody session, we created some individual portraits for John that he could use for his business and brand. In studio, we photographed John against a gray background with the keyboard he plays in shows. We photographed several variations of these, until we decided we were happy. Then, as an afterthought, we changed the light and took some dramatic photographs on a brown painterly background. I love how different the brown background photos turned out. Both backgrounds and lighting setups show different aspects of John.
In conclusion, we had a wonderful time photographing John and getting to know him. I’m enormously grateful to John for bringing Distant Era on to for this project. And I’m honored. At one point in our session, president-elect John Sturk told us that the longest-serving president of the Society for American Magicians was none other than Harry Houdini, who held office from 1918 until his death in 1926. John is now part of a storied tradition with a direct connection to an American legend. It was wonderful to glimpse that world for an afternoon.
Finally, I’m grateful to magician Edd Fairman and Erin Gallagher for referring John to me. As ever, endless thanks to Distant Era Elizabeth MacDougald for her invaluable assistance.
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