My theatre photography is almost always about the show. I’m in the audience, watching and capturing the imagery on stage, little more than an audience member. But recently, David Hobby (Mr. Strobist himself), was give a unique opportunity to become part of the show.  He was asked to shoot the images that would be projected up on stage during a production of Tennessee Williams’ American classic, The Glass Menagerie.

One of the original devices used in the play is that of projections. They pop up in the set and are keyed to various memories and perception-vs-reality stuff. It happens maybe a dozen times throughout the play, and is sort of like a flashback in a movie. Tennessee Williams was under contract with a film studio when he wrote it, and it may have originally been seen as a movie.

The projections are not always included in modern performances. But to Michael’s credit, he absolutely wanted to try them. So we started working through the process, designing photos to be projected at different moments in the play. The good news: They would be displayed on a 12-foot-wide screen. The bad news is that the height is less than four feet. That’s a pretty stripey aspect ratio, which created some problems to be solved.

Read about his experience here.

Filled Under : theatre