Wegman World

From WW: New Video Work

This fall I'm working on a video piece which will be projected as part of the Urban Video Project in Syracuse, NY. It will be without sound which is a challenge to me. Almost without exception, my video pieces have been been audio driven, seen here in a clip from The Hardly Boys, and Stomach Song.

 

 

 

 

In my early videos the hazy black and white of the cathode ray emission and magnetic audio reproduction were married in blessed union. Now the image, divorced from sound, must learn to live alone.

And so I am relying heavily on the hypnotic gaze of my new dog Flo to get the viewer's attention. What more I have yet to determine. Maybe that will be enough. These questions will hopefully be answered in the time consuming process of recording and editing.

Flo during a recent shoot.

-- WW

Stay tuned over the next few weeks for clips of WW's new video work!

Flo Day: In the Studio

 

 

WW has been shooting lots of video since returning to NYC. Here is a clip of a work in progress...try to stay awake!

Hardly Any Answers to Hardly Any Questions

On the set of The Hardly Boys

Who, or what, are the Hardly Boys?

The premise of the Hardly boys is that the dogs Crooky and Batty, not unlike Frank and Joe Hardy (the characters they parody), are amateur detectives sniffing out clues using their super dog powers to track down criminals. When these powers are called upon they lose their human elements, hands, uprightness, clothing and turn into dogs.

How do you do it?

I am frequently asked how I turn the people into dogs.  Simple:  First I remove their added clothing while the actors who provide the arms and hands from behind slip away. Then I carefully lift the people creatures off their specially made stools and set them on the ground.  Voila. Dogs!

Still on the set of The Hardly Boys

The poor dogs. Have they ever been injured?

Never.

Do they like doing it?

Yes.

How much do they get paid?

Nothing.

How much do the actors who act behind the dogs providing gestures with their arms and hands get paid?

Little.

One more question.  What was the most difficult scene in The Hardly Boys?  

Getting the two dogs to look in different directions in the scene where the psychotic nurse and evil caretaker return to the cabin where the boys (girls) have found the maps of the garnet mine.

--WW

Do you have a question for William Wegman about art, life, or photography? Or something else? Lunch, maybe? Leave your question in the comments, and if it's really good, or really easy, WW will answer on the blog.

The Way I Work

 

    Lately I have been concerned with lighting more than I have in the past. I am using less of it and printing on a high gloss paper. Balloons look especially good lit this way and printed on this special paper.

All images copyright William Wegman, 2011

    With that in mind I searched my prop room for materials and items that would lend themselves to this treatment. I found red glossy wrapping paper. This produced some fairly interesting shots using my most stationary model, Penny.

    After a few variations and modifications the paper became annoying to work with, in the way it crinkled and slipped off the dog.

                    
    After that I got back to my usual general lighting and proceeded to photograph my more athletic model, Candy, shown here.  

    This is the way I work. I get an idea and I start working then I get another idea.  I can be moody sometimes.

--WW