Took this video at my cottage this weekend with the help of my dad and my neighbors, including their daughter Erin who agreed to play the lonely drifter for me. This is sort of an expansion on the idea I had previously created in this photo, but in video version. I’ve been trying to transition into video these past few months, and I’ve been reading a lot and learning a bunch of new programs. It’s such a complicated art form, mostly because it incorporates almost ALL the other art forms…I still have so much to learn! So please forgive the lack of steadiness in the camera- I didn’t have a tripod and I was in water!
Crazy story- somewhere along the course of shooting and then editing this photo I must have come in contact with something unusual as I had an anaphylactic reaction and had to be rushed to the hospital! My lips and throat started swelling up and I got hives all over me- and it kept coming back every 4 or so hours when my Benadryl started running off. How frightening! Especially because I’ve never had one before and I have no idea what it could have been. Thankfully, everything turned out okay- they gave me lots of drugs and I ended up finishing the editing while lying in the E.R.. Oh the adventures that come along with shooting!
For those who were unable to make it to American Dollhouse Exhibit here is a short trailer taken from the DVD which was released exclusively to donors of the project. Blake Hodges shot the footage and Chris and I edited it together in Final Cut. Hope you enjoy!
So pleased to finally have a new website up for you to feast your eyes upon! My previous design…which I loved for a long time, and still continue to receive lots of compliments on…has been out of date for a while now, both in terms of design and content. I had designed it back in 2008 (before I had adventured into the wonderful world of photography and the likes), so the design had been intended to showcase merely a single headshot and a short blurb on one page all the while creating some nice interaction and hopefully showing viewers a bit of my personality.
However, as I delved deeper into my photography, it became clear that people were no longer simply visiting my website to see my headshots and that my photography should play a larger role in the general layout. This was pretty much impossible in the old design, mostly due to all the busy flashiness of it all. No longer did I need a DESIGN to showcase who I was…I needed something cleaner and more subdued so my photos could do the talking.
I think this new website does just that. I’ve given it a clean black background so all the photos preview nicely on it, as well as a more modern touch for easier browsing.
Additionally, you’ll notice this new website now plays on mobile devices such as iPads & iPhones. Sadly, apple has taken away our ability to interact with flash websites on their devices, so our websites have had to adapt. So while I do miss my flash, I’m happy that this website is now much more accessible to people and I’ll add, much easier to update.
This new design also gives new life to my blog which has been languishing in the peripheral of my online presence for some time. You’ll see that the blog is now integrated with the main page, and includes the news, latest flickr posts as well as behind the scenes videos and essays. So everything can now be found in one place and you don’t have to search for it. I hope to be updating it with news and photos much more frequently now that it is properly integrated into the site.
Anyways, I hope you like the new design. Please feel free to browse around and tell me what you think! Feedback is much appreciated!
Many of you were witness to the rough cut of the American Dollhouse teaser video during our fundraising campaign, but I thought I’d upload the final product which was shown in the exhibit during the dream sequence. Basically what happens is, you see the characters living in the dollhouse for three consecutive days and every night they go to sleep and this projection plays, which represents their repressed fantasies and of course foreshadows events to come. I think this version is lightyears better than the teaser we did, so hopefully you’ll feel the same!
Now that this project is behind me, I look forward to devoting much more time to learning filmmaking and video editing more in depth. But filming this short, albeit experimental piece was a great first lesson!
Via Flickr:
This will most definitely go down in history as my most dangerous shoot ever. I was so scared to crawl across the melting ice caps at my cottage to get this, I almost didn’t do it! But I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t, and I was right. So thankful not to have fallen through to that ice water below!
I have never been away from flickr this long before. Feels weird, but at the same time quite refreshing. I’ve had so much going on the past 4 months with my dollhouse show (which was a success!) and obtaining a new visa to live in the U.S. (which I am currently home in Canada waiting on), that I’ve scarcely had time to think about photography. After all this time away, it felt strangely blissful to sprawl across the melting ice in sheer agony. Like coming home
We were so pleased to hear that Rebecca Haithcoat of the L.A. Weekly was in attendance of our opening night show of American Dollhouse. We were even more excited when we read the review.
A few highlights from the article:
“Chris Barnett and Leah Johnston stage a multimedia production that succeeds not only in indulging childhood fantasies but also in expanding the idea of what theater can be.”
“Calling American Dollhouse a play doesn’t do it justice, Barnett and Johnston may be showing us a glimpse of theater’s future.”
American Dollhouse, directed, produced and designed by Leah Johnston & Chris Barnett, opens at Gallery Godo in Glendale. Five performances only! To pre-order your tickets, visit TheAmericanDollhouse.com
Thanks to the donations of many generous friends, family and followers through Kickstarter, American Dollhouse is now a greenlighted to begin production! Not only did our show get funded, but we surpassed our goal and raised nearly $8,000 towards American Dollhouse. Indie art is alive and well in Los Angeles!!
Over a year ago, I began a sort of self-prescribed therapy which consisted of writing poems then illustrating them with photos I took. These ‘photo-poems’, which began as a desperate attempt to escape my own reality, have since evolved into a rather all-encompassing series, chronicling the ups and downs of everything I go through both personally and professionally. It’s been an amazing journey so far, and so many of you have been there from the beginning, supporting and encouraging me to keep writing and creating. I am so pleased to announce that I have released my first collection of photo-poems in a book entitled, ‘Poetic Portraits’ which is now available for purchase through Blurb.
I am so glad I accidentally stumbled across this site last year and met all of you. Hard to imagine my life without these things…
“This book features my best work as taken from my poetry series, as well as a brand new introduction on how this series and concept came to be. Spanning a broad range of poetic and photographic styles, ‘Poetic Portraits’ spins an enchanting narrative through themes of love, loss and artistic hunger, which will both haunt and inspire the reader long after the book is done.”
