World of One: The Stranger

The Stranger (from the series World of One)

“There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night”
- Albert Camus

April was a crazy month, but spring is finally here and in full swing. While I originally planned to shoot this picture on the benches next to the Trinity Church in Copley Square, the events of the Boston Marathon bombing totally derailed that plan. Instead, when I shot a Kung Fu Master piece for Sifu Zhou Xuan Yun, I opted for the timelier spring-inspired location.

This was shot at Lars Anderson Park, just down the hill from where I shot The Indecisive Battle. My friend Henry, who assisted me with The Indecisive Battle shoot, renewed his role as the button presser. Continuing with the theme of being alone in a crowd, this is the sister image to Invictus, which I mentioned in the previous World of One post. The Stranger is inspired by feelings of loneliness though, as opposed to those of solitude, as was the case with Invictus. For me, the pain of loneliness is sharpest when we are ignored by others; to illustrate this point, I wanted to juxtapose the feeling of alienation with inclusion, and I chose to do this by surrounding a lonely figure with an engaged crowd.

This picture is the 9th image in the World of One series since I switched to shooting it with film, which means I now have more World of One pieces shot on film than shot digitally. This small fact feels like a big victory for me, in part because the notion of doing these pics on film still seems ridiculous (and expensive) to me, and also because I always thought I would’ve run out of ideas by now. Instead, I am pleased and proud of how this work is developing, and excited to see where it will take me in the future.

Kung Fu Master: Zhou Xuan Yun

Zhou Xuan Yun, Daoist Sword (from the series Kung Fu Masters)

Zhou Xuan Yun, Daoist Sword White (from the series Kung Fu Masters)

Sifu Zhou Xuan Yun is a Master of Wudong-style (more commonly spelled Wu-Tang-style) martial arts. He grew up on Wudong Mountain, where he trained in Chinese martial arts since the early age of 10. At age 20, he left Wudong Mountain to wander as a monk for 4 years and to seek out a dialogue with other martial artists. In short, this guy (who resembles a bad guy from a Tony Jaa movie) has the classic hero back story of an old-school Chinese kung fu flick. And now he teaches in Boston!

I met Sifu Zhou through my friend Henry, who some of you might remember from my post Crouching Tiger, Hidden Photographer. We have been planning to do this shoot with Sifu Zhou for almost a year, but were unable to due to scheduling conflicts. While Sifu Zhou had originally wanted to do a shoot in the snow, when I informed him of the logistical difficulties of photographing in a blizzard, he opted for a shoot “under a tree with white leaves.” “Wonderful,” I thought. At least with white leaves we’d have a week or 2 to schedule a shoot, as opposed to a single miserable day, as is the case with shooting in the snow. Now all I had to do was figure out which trees bloom white in Boston (cherry blossoms).

Both of these images are collaged from photos that capture the movements in the “Daoist Sword” form, or “玄門劍” in Chinese. I love that these pictures function both as documents of a traditional cultural practice as well as cool things to look at and ponder. What draws me to this work is that, while it is clearly a work of fantasy, that fantasy is deeply rooted in the traditions of reality.

World of One: the Indecisive Battle

The Indecisive Battle (from the series World of One)

Above is the picture I had originally envisioned when I was shooting Painful Pleasures.

Internal Destruction

This image, Internal Destruction, was shot about two weeks earlier and is a previously failed attempt at creating the snowball fight of my dreams. When I completed the collage (after 12+ hours of work), I found myself grossly disappointed. Although I do see redeeming qualities about the picture, I feel like it is lacking what I like to call a "leading man," a central figure in the picture to pull in the viewer; also, I wanted there to be more of a mix of the two sides in the middle of the picture; more chaos, less order. Basically, I didn’t get the picture I wanted because I didn’t try hard enough.

On Monday 3/18, when I heard that we were going to get 4-12 inches of snow in Boston, I knew that this was my chance. I sent out an SOS on Facebook for volunteers to assist me with an early morning shoot the next day. I got one single volunteer, my buddy Dave (who also writes an awesome blog here), and I also got in touch with Henry, my assistant from Narcissus and Yin Yang Whisper. They agreed to wake up early and help me press buttons and chuck snowballs at me in the middle of a blizzard.

here's Henry, probably wondering why he volunteered to come on this shoot.

The morning of the shoot 3/19, the last day of winter, I woke my ass up extra early so I could shovel myself out of my driveway and pick up my friends. I had barely slept the night before, as thoughts of different scenarios of how the shoot would go kept running through my head. After having picked up Henry, I called Dave to let him know I was almost there, to which he replied, "Okay, I'm finishing a poo. I'll probably be out by the time you get here." At this point, I knew this was going to be a fun shoot.

Testshot when we arrived

By the time we arrived at Lars Anderson Park in JP, the weather had changed from heavy snow to hellish hail with gusty winds -- later, it would change again to freezing rain. So one of the first things Dave did when I picked out a spot to shoot was to put up a snow wall.

(Photo courtesy of Dave Shi)

But, as you can see in this picture, the snow wall behind me, while an appreciated gesture, didn't go up very high. So the winds still felt miserable. But I didn't give a shit. Sometimes that's how I know when I'm onto something good -- when I don't care about how much work I have to do to achieve my goals.

What followed thereafter were the two most painful hours of my life. During our first take, as soon as I yelled "action," Dave let out a war cry, screaming and running towards me with snowballs in hand. For a minute there, I was legitimately scared – his level of commitment to playing the character of the “attacker” was totally unexpected. I screamed back and let go a volley of snowballs. This continued for the first three rolls, until it was time for a wardrobe change. By the end of the shoot, my body felt so numb that I didn't even feel cold – but it was worth it.

After an hour of getting my ass kicked, it was time for a wardrobe change. (Photo courtesy of Dave Shi)

While this work is similar to Painful Pleasures, I think Indecisive Battle has a very different tone to it. I see Painful Pleasures as a picture that is more about self-destruction, particularly how self-destructive behavior is often fun; on the other hand, Indecisive Battle is a picture about indecision and personal conflict. For me, it illustrates how I feel when I'm trying to make tough decisions in life.

Henry and I checking the frame before shooting the White figures (Photo courtesy of Dave Shi)

Dave destroying his snow wall after we finished the shoot (Photo courtesy of Henry Lee)