Winding Creek Collection

While on the (e)Motion set I began to think about how else motion could be expressed. Water seemed to be an interesting element that had many possibilities. So I spent the next nine months imagining ways to blend water with ideas, stories and emotions. Finding the right set to bring these ideas to life was solved by a couple of good friends. They owned property on Winding Creek which flows into Barton Creek just west of Austin.

I began testing concepts once this seasonal creek began to flow and the temperatures warmed up in the Spring of 2010. By late April, I began working at night with a new group of dancers. Unfortunately, the results were bad. Some of the images were beautiful but lacked depth or meaning. On top of that, it was an extremely difficult set. It took two hours to set up, hours of slogging through a creek at night and two more hours breaking down alone after midnight before driving back to Austin. This went on for weeks without creating any substantial images. I was disheartened and depressed to say the least.

One thing to note is that I let everyone know before we start working is that is ok to fail. We are trying things that have not been done before and some just won’t work. Letting everyone know this frees them to take big risks and be truly creative. Also what fails usually leads to something that succeeds. But at the end of those first few weeks, I have to admit my confidence in the process was severely shaken.

Finally after about a month I began to recognize a few elements that worked. I started taking pieces from different ideas and combining them. By mid to late June, we were able to begin creating some significant imagery. Then it was a race to get as much done as possible before the creek went dry. Fortunately it was an exceptionally wet summer and we were able to keep working until mid-August. Then as the creek went dry, Texas headed into one of the worst droughts in history adding another level of meaning to the fragile nature of these stories and their environment.

Aside from the slight lighting or darkening of an area there is no post production, meaning Photoshop, on these images. What you are seeing is what was created in real life on set. This is also true for the Winding Creek and Smoke collections.