I was asked to photograph the actors in the Backstage at the Santa Paula Theater Center production. The show was Bugs. Very dark but I did not know that when I showed up to shoot the cast. The title Bug reminded me of bugs on a windshield. I brought a thick piece of plate glass to the shoot. I asked everyone who came in to pose for me with their face smashed against this sheet of glass. I photographed each face under glass. Everybody said yes and went right to it. The results were very unpredictable. One subject lives in Santa Paula so I am including his portrait in the Santa Paula Portrait Project series.
The next phase of the project was to decide what to do with the images. I’ve been exposed to ATC lately. Those are Artists’ Trading Cards. Artists can make cards 2.5×3.5. They can only be traded or given away, not sold. I printed up batches of 5 or 10 depending on how the layout worked out for gang printing. I applied an over-lamination material and cut them to size. I wrote CCTC on the back (Creature Company Trading Card) with the edition number and initials. Then I gave them away.
Go to the Santa Paula Theater Center web site for more info on their productions.
