Square Magazine
Oct 2014
Venice featured in Square Magazine.
The Washington Post
Feb 2014
Story on the Venice show at Randall Scott Projects in The Washington Post
Exposed DC
Feb 2014
Review of Venice show at Randall Scott Projects, 2/14
VENICE in Installation Magazine
GUP / Guide to Unique Photography
November 2012
Seas Without A Shore in GUP
Huffington Post
October 2012
Seas Without A Shore in the Huffington Post
Art Business News
Fall 2012
BLINK
August 2011
ArtNews
May 2008
by Richard Chang
Chris Anthony frequently leavens his mysterious and macabre photographs with an element of humor, as was evident in the droll title of this show: “I’m the most normal person I know.” A rock music photographer and filmmaker, Anthony knows how to inject a sense of drama into his images, and the works here maintained a careful balance of dread and wonder.
The Los Angeles-based artist dresses both live models and prop dolls in vintage clothing and theatrical costumes, eerie masks and gauzy hoods, and assembles them in tableaux before blank draped backdrops or in ornate ballrooms. Anthony fills the frames with shadows and bathes his prints in sepia tones, embellishing some with flashes of crimson and gold.
In the show’s opening image, “Too Few Virgins” (2007), a bare-chested angel looks plaintively skyward as she hovers over a pile of mannequins and masks. The deliberate low-tech effects – wings and a conical dress that appear to be cut from cardboard and wrapped in cheesecloth-add an endearing touch to the self-consciously ethereal display. “Fear of Emotional Chemistry” (2007) shows a ghostly girl in a white dress asleep on a table while a lilliputian figure with wings alights on her hip – a dream come to life.
Anthony’s central figures are often asleep or unconscious as dark shenanigans swirl around them. In “There is Unrest in the Forest” (2007), a suited and bespectacled man slumps in a dentist’s chair while more than a dozen tiny figures with cones for caps and arms fiddle with medical equipment. Clearly the procedure won’t be pretty.
Eyemazing
2008
by Anna Holtzman
Photographer Chris Anthony has a problem with peo-
ple assuming that he has a dark and twisted nature. It
would seem forgivable, though, given the aesthetic of
his work. Featuring characters that resemble appari-
tions, ghosts, and insane asylum inmates – and set in
Victorian-looking environments; Anthony’s photo-
graphs bear the clear mark of his self-acknowledged
influences: morbid illustrator Edward Gorey, crime
novelist Agatha Christie, and actor Bela Lugosi – who
most famously portrayed Dracula – among others.
Still, the Los Angeles–based artist insists that his series
title I’m the Most Normal Person I Know is not partic-
ularly ironic. “A lot of people have a preconceived
idea of the kind of person I am,” he explains. “They
think I’m a dark and sinister individual, and I’m not at
all. I’d been to a gallery opening and run into some
people and got two or three of those comments. And
I was reflecting on it that evening and thought, ‘Fuck
that – I’m the most normal person I know.’”
The series is divided into two halves. In the first set,
the images are set in spacious, opulent rooms and are
peopled by life-sized models surrounded by bands of
little people – tiny costumed characters that have
been composited into the picture. In a photo titled
Chivalry Towards Ladies, a pale, rather ghoulish
Odalisque lies on a seashell-shaped lounge in the
middle of an empty ballroom and sucks her thumb
while four masked miniature ladies in ball gowns sur-
round her holding life-scale keys. Another shot, There
Is Unrest in the Forest, shows a man asleep in what
appears to be a turn-of-the-century doctor’s office set
up in another ballroom. Closing in on him is an army
of minute men with scissor-like arms and pointed
caps. The images are haunting – disturbing but beau-
tiful, in the way that a Grimm Brothers fairytale is
both fanciful and frightening at the same time. These
compositions, says Anthony, are based on “a child-
hood obsession I had with miniaturisation and
Lilliputia. I thought of it as human world being
explored by various bands of small characters.”
The second part of the series is composed of simpler
portraits of mannequins, dolls and masks shot against
a cloth backdrop. These humbly assembled tableaux
are “also connected to childhood,” says Anthony,
“and became a series of family portraits – through my
eyes as a child.”
While thematic threads tie the two halves of the series
together, the process by which they were made
“could not have been more different,” states the
photographer. “The bigger pictures were done on
location with a big crew; it was a whole production.
Whereas the smaller pictures were just me at home,
like a kid playing dress-up or theatre in his parents’
closet, but with my scary collection of stuff.” Also,
while the on-location pictures were shot with a large
format camera and involved a lot of digital composit-
ing, the at-home pictures were taken with a lens from
1860 and a piece of cardboard for a shutter, and
involved no post manipulation.
Throughout the series, Anthony saw to all of the art
direction and costume design details himself, and
most of the wardrobe is made up of pieces he already
owned. Costume and set assistants were used on the
location shoots only, and were there mostly to move
things into place, says the photographer, explaining,
“One of the reasons I needed a bunch of people is
because I was renting very expensive locations, and
there just wasn’t enough time. Some of the shoots
had around 20 to 25 people.” Due to the time con-
straints, each shot was carefully planned out before-
hand, though they were not storyboarded, because,
Anthony concedes, “I can’t draw worth a damn.
[Instead] I make a list of what I need.”
Working on large-scale productions such as these
location shoots was nothing new for Anthony, who
has worked as a director of music videos and com-
mercials for over a decade. “I don’t mind leading a
crew of people,” he asserts, “but the time constraints
are always a real drag. Ideally, in the future I’ll have a
large studio. I prefer to work slower and be a little
more pensive – a little more like the way a painter
would work.”
It was Anthony’s desire for more control over his work
process that led him to leave the world of film and
video roughly four years ago and return to his first
love, still photography. “It was a slow transition,”
he recalls. “I started picking up a still camera and
just having fun with it. And having control over it
– having an idea and being able to do it in a few days
without spending an exorbitant amount of money,”
whereas his film projects always required a much larg-
er scale production. “My ideas are always a little too
big for my own good,” he says, adding, “And that’s
what’s happening now too with my photography –
most of my ideas are a pain in the ass to execute
and are not cheap. But it’s nowhere near what it was
with film.”
The miniaturisation images are an example of this
issue – Anthony sprang for the expensive location
rentals at a turn-of-the-century hotel called The
Alexandria because he wanted a very specific period
look. “That period aesthetic meshes with me very
well and has since I was a kid,” he relays. “I grew
up in Europe and went to Italy a lot, and I spent so
much time in churches and museums, [gleaning
inspiration from] British Victorian painters and Pre-
Raphaelites and Symbolists. The colours and textures,
which are so important to me, just really make sense
[to me.]”
While some view his aesthetic as macabre, Anthony
states, “I don’t see it as dark and twisted, but as
beautiful.” He continues, “Victims and Avengers
[a previous series of photographs] is very dark. It’s all
about domestic violence. It’s very personal to me – I
grew up with domestic violence.” But he cautions
critics not to confuse his visual choices with a person-
al propensity toward the morbid. “Most people are
closed off to anything dark and sinister and just don’t
want to look at it,” he states. “I have no problem
looking into the darkest recesses of the human condi-
tion. And I think it’s healthy to do that.”
Photo+
May 2010
by Kim Aram
Tell us a little bit about yourself? (what kind of person are you as photographer?)
A lot of people have a preconceived idea of the kind of person I am. They think I’m a dark and sinister individual, and I’m not at
all. The period aesthetic meshes with me very well and has since I was a kid. I grew up in Europe and went to Italy a lot, and I spent so much time in churches and museums, gleaning inspiration from British Victorian painters and Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolists. The colours and textures, which are so important to me, just really make sense to me. While some view my aesthetic as macabre, I don’t see it as dark and twisted, but as beautiful. “Victims and Avengers” [a previous series of photographs] is very dark. It’s all about domestic violence. It’s very personal to me – I grew up with domestic violence. But one shouldn’t confuse my visual choices with a personal propensity toward the morbid. Most people are closed off to anything dark and sinister and just don’t want to look at it. I have no problem looking into the darkest recesses of the human condition. And I think it’s healthy to do that.
Where is home? and where are staying for now?
Los Angeles
When were you born? And where were you born?
I was born in the 70s in Stockholm, Sweden.
Do you have a plan for exhibition soon?
For 2010 it will mostly be various group shows. I’ll be showing a new piece called “Skam” at a show at the Bristol City Museum this summer.
What work as photographer are you doning now?(do you have any plan? Freelance project or work with Magazine etc.)
Right now I’m preparing for a new series of photographs that will shoot in different urban and rural areas in the US. I’ll be using
a lot of masks that I’ve been making for the past three months.
What gives you inspiration of the work? & 8. what message into the series? What story in it?
Lots of things, but mostly I was thinking about climate change and the effects global warming will have on the ice caps. It’s my exaggerated
idea of a future world where a lot of land has become submerged in ocean water. It’s always been my dream to travel to Antarctica but I still haven’t found the time or money to make the trip. About two years ago I was looking into the expedition companies that take you there and once again I was left with only my fantasies of the South Pole. I’m no expert by any means but I pay attention to the global warming reports and I thought how horrible it would be if the poles were to completely melt away in my lifetime. That’s when I started to imagine a future society of survivors submerged in sea water. I live in Los Angeles and there are many places along the coast I could have used for this series so no, it wasn’t a coincidence that I chose Venice Beach. It seemed fitting as I was indeed thinking of the slowly sinking Venice (Italy) which also happens to be my favorite place in the world. That was a neat piece of symmetry that appealed to me. The carnival aspect is certainly a nod to Venice. I can’t help but almost always inject a bit of theatrics into my work. And my love for performers and storytellers gives me this romantic notion that those sorts of people will always be vital for mankind. I designed the rest of the costumes/props to have come from the military or at least be very utilitarian.
It probably so hard to shoot photography with wave. How was that? Do you have some interesting episode?
The waves! Both the subjects and myself would be wading out in the ocean, usually very early in the morning and it was winter. The water was quite cold which didn’t really affect me (I grew up in Sweden!) but I felt bad for the models. Also, I chose to shoot the pictures with a large format camera which was very difficult to wield while being battered by waves and strong currents.
I heard actress and musician and artist were model in the work. Do you have a special reason to choose them for model?
Because they are friends and just happened to look right for it. Simple as that!
What cameras and films did you use for the series?
4×5 I used both neg and pos films by Kodak and Fuji
Do you have exhibition plan with the work?
It was first shown in Los Angeles at the Corey Helford Gallery last April and there are no current plans until New York next year. I would love to show this
exhibition in other cities around the world.
Do you have anything else want to talk about the work and yourself(if i did missing something. Let me know.)
I would really like to continue with the Venice series. I feel like I’ve just started and there’s a lot more left to do and explore with this idea. I want to go much deeper – literally!
Mocoloco
VENICE
by sabine7 / April 3, 2009
Chris Anthony’s Venice series of photographs is a stunning, theatrical collection of narratives set against the backdrop of a cold sea. Anthony creates a moody world – the mysterious civilization he calls Venice, an icy grey mix of fog and waves. As Anthony puts it, “Venice is a metaphor for a sinking city, deserving of nature’s wrath, leaving its citizens to tread water and explore new ways to sustain life on aquatic earth.” His subjects are like lost fairy tale characters who suddenly find themselves transported to a wet stage, yet carry on regardless. Brooms, masks, striped tights, music and racquets are only some of their props.
The Kaje
September 18, 2010
In the September issue of The Kaje we featured an interview with photographer Chris Anthony. We are now making the whole interview available on the blog, for all of you that want to know more about Chris, how he works and what he’s thinking! Best known for his use of vintage lenses, and also his work withMy Chemical Romance on the ‘The Black Parade’ album, we look beyond My Chemical Romanceand find out about Chris Anthony.
Firstly, why photography? Of all the mediums available what drew you to this particular one, and do you ever think there will be a time that you may move into another one?
The short answer is I love making images and since I can’t draw or paint, I use a camera. One day I will take a drawing class and then hopefully fulfill my dream of painting large canvases! And yet I think photography has an important role in the art world today but I do fear that with all the advances in digital technology that photographers and their audience will be relating to a screen as opposed to an organic piece of material and that I think is a great pity.
You are well-known for the “vintage” and Victorian-Gothic look of some of your work, working with turn of the 19th century lenses and photo software – why use the lenses? couldn’t you get the same effect with only digital enhancements?
The simple answer is No, you can’t achieve the same effect digitally, and I can always tell when photographs are manipulated to feel old and it screams artificial to me. I shoot everything with a large format camera and sometimes I use new lenses, sometimes very old ones, but the quality of the large negatives is superior to anything digital today (since I usually exhibit very large prints) and the versatility of the camera is unrivaled. I am less and less interested in digital manipulation in general, and I’m certainly guilty of my share of it. I’ve always done all my own retouching/compositing and it’s actually a lot of fun to do, but no matter how good the final results are there’s a veritable loss of soul that takes place the more you run an in image through the digital grind, in my humble opinion. I learned photography in the darkroom and I still am learning very old processes such as wetplate and platinum printing and I don’t want to come across as some photography purist, but images made in an organic way are simply so much more beautiful.
What’s your favourite lens at present?(and for those of our readers who don’t know what it does – what does it do for your work?)
It’s a French lens from the 1860s. I love it for portraits. Especially in color as the glass is not coated and not intended for color films and so it always yields interesting results that are wonderful and sort of muted.
We have to ask about the “My Chemical Romance” set of images you put together for the Black Parade album, how did that come about? Do you mind that a lot of people may know you best for that?
I was approached by Ellen Wakayama who is the head art director at Warner Bros Records. She had seen some of my work and showed it to Gerard Way and he thought I would be perfect for his vision. Gerard and I got on very well and it was a very happy experience from start to finish. I’m probably known in different circles for different things, but I definitely don’t mind that a lot of people connect me with the MCR work. It was just as fun a project to work on as anything I’ve ever done and the results are a kind of Epic Goth (!) that I’ve perhaps moved a bit away from today, but I’m still proud of the images.
From your 2009-10 collections, the group of images focusing on the beach and sea is very isolating and stark. It moves away from the “vintage” element of previous work, what did you want to achieve with this project?
Lots of things, but mostly I was thinking about climate change and the effects global warming will have on the ice caps. It’s my exaggerated idea of a future world where a lot of land has become submerged in ocean water. It’s always been my dream to travel to Antarctica but I still haven’t found the time or money to make the trip. About two years ago I was looking into the expedition companies that take you there and once again I was left with only my fantasies of the South Pole. I’m no expert by any means but I pay attention to the global warming reports and I thought how horrible it would be if the poles were to completely melt away in my lifetime. That’s when I started to imagine a future society of survivors submerged in sea water. I live in Los Angeles and there are many places along the coast I could have used for this series so no, it wasn’t a coincidence that I chose Venice Beach. It seemed fitting as I was indeed thinking of the slowly sinking Venice (Italy) which also happens to be my favorite place in the world. That was a neat piece of symmetry that appealed to me. The carnival aspect is certainly a nod to Venice. I can’t help but almost always inject a bit of theatrics into my work. And my love for performers and storytellers gives me this romantic notion that those sorts of people will always be vital for mankind. I designed the rest of the costumes/props to have come from the military or at least be very utilitarian.
If you could photograph anyone, in any place, with any theme – who, where and how would it be? No limitations at all!
I really can’t think of anyone. I’m not that interested in photographing celebrities. Then again, to go back in time and stand on the set of The Maltese Falcon and then do a portrait with Humphrey Bogart would be rather extraordinary.
What’s your main focus moving into the next few years?
Who knows? Hopefully a book. More shows in Europe. Doing more portrait work. Setting up a lab for collodion wetplate work…
Is there anyone in particular you are looking forward to working with in the future? Or is there a particular subject/theme that you really want to make time to explore?
I would love to work with Colleen Atwood again – she did the costumes for MCR. I’m working on a new series now that I can’t really write anything coherent about, but it will hopefully take me to various locations around the United States.
You are part of a new generation of photographers who are turning the old conventions on their heads, does that put a lot of pressure on you?
I don’t know that I’m a part of any particular group or movement so I don’t think about things like that at all.
Of all the collections you have worked on, which is you favourite and why?
Venice. I used to work more large scale, with a large crew and then a lot of post manipulation. These days I prefer to keep it much simpler and more organic. I always shoot with a large format camera and I’ve been using a lot of 19th century lenses and staying away from the computer. I don’t have any rules about it though, I just want to preserve as much of the moment captured as possible from now on and not tinker with it so much after the fact.
You have also been involved in the world of music videos – specifically directing The Dandy Warhols “Godless” video – how did that come about?
I was a director for a number of years when I still living in Stockholm. They saw some of my work, liked it and had me come over and make a couple of videos. Last two I made actually.
What are your influences, both creatively and photographically?
Everything and anything. Composers like Debussy and Satie inspire great cinematic images, so I always daydream with their music in the background. From authors like PG Wodehouse and Truman Capote. I see at least 6-7 films a week so I undoubtedly derive much inspiration from moving pictures. Ideas, though, or rather themes, come from different places. Sometimes from deep within myself or childhood. Or from the newspaper. I’m finding though that it is much better to be inspired than to think up new ideas if that makes sense. I think I’m more influenced by filmmakers and painters. People like Orson Welles, David Lean, Terry Gilliam and lots of others. Painters I love are Ensor and Bacon and Millais. Certainly there are photographers I love too; Julia Margaret Cameron, Joel-Peter Witkin, Sarah Moon and Sally Mann.
Photo District News
September 02, 2006
By Terry Sullivan
Vengeful Vignettes
Chris Anthony combines a 4×5 camera, a scanner and Photoshop to create a haunting and disconcerting world where violence is forever lurking in the shadows.
Los Angeles-based photographer and filmmaker Chris Anthony has a different take on panoramas. Instead of using a panoramic camera and wide lens to document a sweeping landscape, Anthony uses a 4×5 film camera, a scanner and Photoshop to create super-wide images of imagined interiors, into which he places objects or parts of objects that he has photographed. The result, seen in a recent series of images he calls “Victims & Avengers,” is macabre.
Take, for example, his image of a pale, Victorian brunette who glares at the viewer from within a reddish-brown room. The interior contains just a few objects: a doorway, an elaborately framed portrait, and the legs of a man, presumably dead. A hint of blood always appears in Anthony’s images, and here, the man’s shoes are stained red. There is one more object that Anthony has placed into this scene: a knife that the brunette clutches behind her back. Her confident stare makes you think she’s ready to come at you. But you remember that the space she inhabits is a figment of Anthony’s imagination. So you’re safe, at least for now.
The more you look at Anthony’s sinister scenes, the more puzzled you become. What are these women and children doing? Or more to the point, what have they done?
“Basically these pictures deal with domestic violence,” Anthony explains. He imagines that the women and children in his images have endured the abuse for a long time. What his scenes depict, he says, is “the final straw. They’ve taken vengeance and have murdered their husbands or fathers.” In depicting the aftermath of revenge, Anthony chooses to portray the “moment of release, like the calm after the storm.”
The subject matter hits close to home for Anthony. Domestic violence “is something I grew up with,” he says. “I saw it and heard it as a little kid. It’s been with me all my life—The uncomfortable and horrific situations that you’re in as a victim or a witness.” The 25 images in this series are fictitious, but there’s a palpable reality bolstering the invented settings. “I suppose it’s cathartic, or perhaps it’s some form of therapy, but it was something I felt strongly about. I chose to put it in this entirely different world, and in doing so, distance myself from it.” Though his images suggest a bygone era, it’s the photographer’s experience that gives the characters, props, and even the empty spaces in his images their charged quality.
That quality wasn’t lost on curator Hannah Sloan, who included Anthony in a group show titled “Queen of the Night: Women Under the Influence 1963–2006” at Berman Turner Projects in Los Angeles this past spring. “I wanted to do a theme about women on the border of reality and fantasy,” says Sloan, who also works under the name Elk. A friend introduced her to Anthony’s work. When she first saw “Victims & Avengers,” she says, she thought it was “a gruesome fairytale, which I thought [was] a good way to talk about domestic violence.” She also admired his skill at combining a turn-of-the-century esthetic with a modern one—”his ability to create a painterly effect digitally.”
Anthony usually exhibits his images as large prints, usually 4×7 feet. This size allows the viewer to see even tiny details of his characters and props clearly. “I wanted to have a lot of negative space and I wanted the viewer to feel these big, ominous, daunting rooms,” he says.
To output the images, Anthony again fuses the past and the present. He uses the 24-inch Epson 7800 Stylus Pro ink-jet printer, and for paper he chose a manufacturer that has been around for centuries. “I’ve settled on working with William Turner paper by Hahnemühle. It’s a very thick, cotton paper, with a little bit of texture. I love the feel of the paper.” The combination of an ink-jet printer and fine-art paper stock gives him the control and quality he wants, and allows him to vary the size of his prints. On his Web site, for example, Anthony sells a limited-edition portfolio, which measures only 10×20.
Sloan says fine-art collectors have been wary of digital prints, but Anthony’s large-scale prints were well-received. “I’m used to working with world-class collectors who are very cautious when it comes to buying anything that’s done digitally,” she says, “It was somewhat of a risk for me to show Chris Anthony in this type of group show,” she says, which also included traditionally printed photographs and large-scale paintings. In fact, Anthony sold a few of the large-scale prints in the series for somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000. “I was really happy with the reaction,” says Sloan.
Though he is only 36 years old, Anthony has been producing images—in one format or another—for more than half his life. During his teenage years in Stockholm, Sweden, he developed a knack for taking concert photos, which eventually led to a stint as an international freelance celebrity shooter. In his early twenties, after studying art history in Florence, Italy, he got involved in film. He directed music videos for such bands as The Dandy Warhols and commercials for such companies as Deutsche Telekom. Later on, he worked on short films and cartoons. “So for about 10 or 12 years,” Anthony says, “I hadn’t worked with still pictures.” But about four years ago, he moved to the U.S., eventually making his home in L.A. “The irony is that as soon as I got to Hollywood, I gave up film for still photography.”
It’s a career move that feels like the right one for Anthony, at least for now. But with 25 prints in his “Victims & Avengers” series complete, he feels that body of work may be drawing to a close. “However, if there’s ever the possibility of doing a book on this theme in the future, I might very well revisit this theme and do some more.”
Nylon
Paper
LA Weekly
Juxtapoz
Juxtapoz
Utata
Daily duJour
Pop Photo
Black Book
Brightest Young Things
American Photo
LA Splash
Oct 2014
Venice featured in Square Magazine.
The Washington Post
Feb 2014
Story on the Venice show at Randall Scott Projects in The Washington Post
Exposed DC
Feb 2014
Review of Venice show at Randall Scott Projects, 2/14
VENICE in Installation Magazine
GUP / Guide to Unique Photography
November 2012
Seas Without A Shore in GUP
Huffington Post
October 2012
Seas Without A Shore in the Huffington Post
Art Business News
Fall 2012
BLINK
August 2011
ArtNews
May 2008
by Richard Chang
Chris Anthony frequently leavens his mysterious and macabre photographs with an element of humor, as was evident in the droll title of this show: “I’m the most normal person I know.” A rock music photographer and filmmaker, Anthony knows how to inject a sense of drama into his images, and the works here maintained a careful balance of dread and wonder.
The Los Angeles-based artist dresses both live models and prop dolls in vintage clothing and theatrical costumes, eerie masks and gauzy hoods, and assembles them in tableaux before blank draped backdrops or in ornate ballrooms. Anthony fills the frames with shadows and bathes his prints in sepia tones, embellishing some with flashes of crimson and gold.
In the show’s opening image, “Too Few Virgins” (2007), a bare-chested angel looks plaintively skyward as she hovers over a pile of mannequins and masks. The deliberate low-tech effects – wings and a conical dress that appear to be cut from cardboard and wrapped in cheesecloth-add an endearing touch to the self-consciously ethereal display. “Fear of Emotional Chemistry” (2007) shows a ghostly girl in a white dress asleep on a table while a lilliputian figure with wings alights on her hip – a dream come to life.
Anthony’s central figures are often asleep or unconscious as dark shenanigans swirl around them. In “There is Unrest in the Forest” (2007), a suited and bespectacled man slumps in a dentist’s chair while more than a dozen tiny figures with cones for caps and arms fiddle with medical equipment. Clearly the procedure won’t be pretty.
Eyemazing
2008
by Anna Holtzman
Photographer Chris Anthony has a problem with peo-
ple assuming that he has a dark and twisted nature. It
would seem forgivable, though, given the aesthetic of
his work. Featuring characters that resemble appari-
tions, ghosts, and insane asylum inmates – and set in
Victorian-looking environments; Anthony’s photo-
graphs bear the clear mark of his self-acknowledged
influences: morbid illustrator Edward Gorey, crime
novelist Agatha Christie, and actor Bela Lugosi – who
most famously portrayed Dracula – among others.
Still, the Los Angeles–based artist insists that his series
title I’m the Most Normal Person I Know is not partic-
ularly ironic. “A lot of people have a preconceived
idea of the kind of person I am,” he explains. “They
think I’m a dark and sinister individual, and I’m not at
all. I’d been to a gallery opening and run into some
people and got two or three of those comments. And
I was reflecting on it that evening and thought, ‘Fuck
that – I’m the most normal person I know.’”
The series is divided into two halves. In the first set,
the images are set in spacious, opulent rooms and are
peopled by life-sized models surrounded by bands of
little people – tiny costumed characters that have
been composited into the picture. In a photo titled
Chivalry Towards Ladies, a pale, rather ghoulish
Odalisque lies on a seashell-shaped lounge in the
middle of an empty ballroom and sucks her thumb
while four masked miniature ladies in ball gowns sur-
round her holding life-scale keys. Another shot, There
Is Unrest in the Forest, shows a man asleep in what
appears to be a turn-of-the-century doctor’s office set
up in another ballroom. Closing in on him is an army
of minute men with scissor-like arms and pointed
caps. The images are haunting – disturbing but beau-
tiful, in the way that a Grimm Brothers fairytale is
both fanciful and frightening at the same time. These
compositions, says Anthony, are based on “a child-
hood obsession I had with miniaturisation and
Lilliputia. I thought of it as human world being
explored by various bands of small characters.”
The second part of the series is composed of simpler
portraits of mannequins, dolls and masks shot against
a cloth backdrop. These humbly assembled tableaux
are “also connected to childhood,” says Anthony,
“and became a series of family portraits – through my
eyes as a child.”
While thematic threads tie the two halves of the series
together, the process by which they were made
“could not have been more different,” states the
photographer. “The bigger pictures were done on
location with a big crew; it was a whole production.
Whereas the smaller pictures were just me at home,
like a kid playing dress-up or theatre in his parents’
closet, but with my scary collection of stuff.” Also,
while the on-location pictures were shot with a large
format camera and involved a lot of digital composit-
ing, the at-home pictures were taken with a lens from
1860 and a piece of cardboard for a shutter, and
involved no post manipulation.
Throughout the series, Anthony saw to all of the art
direction and costume design details himself, and
most of the wardrobe is made up of pieces he already
owned. Costume and set assistants were used on the
location shoots only, and were there mostly to move
things into place, says the photographer, explaining,
“One of the reasons I needed a bunch of people is
because I was renting very expensive locations, and
there just wasn’t enough time. Some of the shoots
had around 20 to 25 people.” Due to the time con-
straints, each shot was carefully planned out before-
hand, though they were not storyboarded, because,
Anthony concedes, “I can’t draw worth a damn.
[Instead] I make a list of what I need.”
Working on large-scale productions such as these
location shoots was nothing new for Anthony, who
has worked as a director of music videos and com-
mercials for over a decade. “I don’t mind leading a
crew of people,” he asserts, “but the time constraints
are always a real drag. Ideally, in the future I’ll have a
large studio. I prefer to work slower and be a little
more pensive – a little more like the way a painter
would work.”
It was Anthony’s desire for more control over his work
process that led him to leave the world of film and
video roughly four years ago and return to his first
love, still photography. “It was a slow transition,”
he recalls. “I started picking up a still camera and
just having fun with it. And having control over it
– having an idea and being able to do it in a few days
without spending an exorbitant amount of money,”
whereas his film projects always required a much larg-
er scale production. “My ideas are always a little too
big for my own good,” he says, adding, “And that’s
what’s happening now too with my photography –
most of my ideas are a pain in the ass to execute
and are not cheap. But it’s nowhere near what it was
with film.”
The miniaturisation images are an example of this
issue – Anthony sprang for the expensive location
rentals at a turn-of-the-century hotel called The
Alexandria because he wanted a very specific period
look. “That period aesthetic meshes with me very
well and has since I was a kid,” he relays. “I grew
up in Europe and went to Italy a lot, and I spent so
much time in churches and museums, [gleaning
inspiration from] British Victorian painters and Pre-
Raphaelites and Symbolists. The colours and textures,
which are so important to me, just really make sense
[to me.]”
While some view his aesthetic as macabre, Anthony
states, “I don’t see it as dark and twisted, but as
beautiful.” He continues, “Victims and Avengers
[a previous series of photographs] is very dark. It’s all
about domestic violence. It’s very personal to me – I
grew up with domestic violence.” But he cautions
critics not to confuse his visual choices with a person-
al propensity toward the morbid. “Most people are
closed off to anything dark and sinister and just don’t
want to look at it,” he states. “I have no problem
looking into the darkest recesses of the human condi-
tion. And I think it’s healthy to do that.”
Photo+
May 2010
by Kim Aram
Tell us a little bit about yourself? (what kind of person are you as photographer?)
A lot of people have a preconceived idea of the kind of person I am. They think I’m a dark and sinister individual, and I’m not at
all. The period aesthetic meshes with me very well and has since I was a kid. I grew up in Europe and went to Italy a lot, and I spent so much time in churches and museums, gleaning inspiration from British Victorian painters and Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolists. The colours and textures, which are so important to me, just really make sense to me. While some view my aesthetic as macabre, I don’t see it as dark and twisted, but as beautiful. “Victims and Avengers” [a previous series of photographs] is very dark. It’s all about domestic violence. It’s very personal to me – I grew up with domestic violence. But one shouldn’t confuse my visual choices with a personal propensity toward the morbid. Most people are closed off to anything dark and sinister and just don’t want to look at it. I have no problem looking into the darkest recesses of the human condition. And I think it’s healthy to do that.
Where is home? and where are staying for now?
Los Angeles
When were you born? And where were you born?
I was born in the 70s in Stockholm, Sweden.
Do you have a plan for exhibition soon?
For 2010 it will mostly be various group shows. I’ll be showing a new piece called “Skam” at a show at the Bristol City Museum this summer.
What work as photographer are you doning now?(do you have any plan? Freelance project or work with Magazine etc.)
Right now I’m preparing for a new series of photographs that will shoot in different urban and rural areas in the US. I’ll be using
a lot of masks that I’ve been making for the past three months.
What gives you inspiration of the work? & 8. what message into the series? What story in it?
Lots of things, but mostly I was thinking about climate change and the effects global warming will have on the ice caps. It’s my exaggerated
idea of a future world where a lot of land has become submerged in ocean water. It’s always been my dream to travel to Antarctica but I still haven’t found the time or money to make the trip. About two years ago I was looking into the expedition companies that take you there and once again I was left with only my fantasies of the South Pole. I’m no expert by any means but I pay attention to the global warming reports and I thought how horrible it would be if the poles were to completely melt away in my lifetime. That’s when I started to imagine a future society of survivors submerged in sea water. I live in Los Angeles and there are many places along the coast I could have used for this series so no, it wasn’t a coincidence that I chose Venice Beach. It seemed fitting as I was indeed thinking of the slowly sinking Venice (Italy) which also happens to be my favorite place in the world. That was a neat piece of symmetry that appealed to me. The carnival aspect is certainly a nod to Venice. I can’t help but almost always inject a bit of theatrics into my work. And my love for performers and storytellers gives me this romantic notion that those sorts of people will always be vital for mankind. I designed the rest of the costumes/props to have come from the military or at least be very utilitarian.
It probably so hard to shoot photography with wave. How was that? Do you have some interesting episode?
The waves! Both the subjects and myself would be wading out in the ocean, usually very early in the morning and it was winter. The water was quite cold which didn’t really affect me (I grew up in Sweden!) but I felt bad for the models. Also, I chose to shoot the pictures with a large format camera which was very difficult to wield while being battered by waves and strong currents.
I heard actress and musician and artist were model in the work. Do you have a special reason to choose them for model?
Because they are friends and just happened to look right for it. Simple as that!
What cameras and films did you use for the series?
4×5 I used both neg and pos films by Kodak and Fuji
Do you have exhibition plan with the work?
It was first shown in Los Angeles at the Corey Helford Gallery last April and there are no current plans until New York next year. I would love to show this
exhibition in other cities around the world.
Do you have anything else want to talk about the work and yourself(if i did missing something. Let me know.)
I would really like to continue with the Venice series. I feel like I’ve just started and there’s a lot more left to do and explore with this idea. I want to go much deeper – literally!
Mocoloco
VENICE
by sabine7 / April 3, 2009
Chris Anthony’s Venice series of photographs is a stunning, theatrical collection of narratives set against the backdrop of a cold sea. Anthony creates a moody world – the mysterious civilization he calls Venice, an icy grey mix of fog and waves. As Anthony puts it, “Venice is a metaphor for a sinking city, deserving of nature’s wrath, leaving its citizens to tread water and explore new ways to sustain life on aquatic earth.” His subjects are like lost fairy tale characters who suddenly find themselves transported to a wet stage, yet carry on regardless. Brooms, masks, striped tights, music and racquets are only some of their props.
The Kaje
September 18, 2010
In the September issue of The Kaje we featured an interview with photographer Chris Anthony. We are now making the whole interview available on the blog, for all of you that want to know more about Chris, how he works and what he’s thinking! Best known for his use of vintage lenses, and also his work withMy Chemical Romance on the ‘The Black Parade’ album, we look beyond My Chemical Romanceand find out about Chris Anthony.
Firstly, why photography? Of all the mediums available what drew you to this particular one, and do you ever think there will be a time that you may move into another one?
The short answer is I love making images and since I can’t draw or paint, I use a camera. One day I will take a drawing class and then hopefully fulfill my dream of painting large canvases! And yet I think photography has an important role in the art world today but I do fear that with all the advances in digital technology that photographers and their audience will be relating to a screen as opposed to an organic piece of material and that I think is a great pity.
You are well-known for the “vintage” and Victorian-Gothic look of some of your work, working with turn of the 19th century lenses and photo software – why use the lenses? couldn’t you get the same effect with only digital enhancements?
The simple answer is No, you can’t achieve the same effect digitally, and I can always tell when photographs are manipulated to feel old and it screams artificial to me. I shoot everything with a large format camera and sometimes I use new lenses, sometimes very old ones, but the quality of the large negatives is superior to anything digital today (since I usually exhibit very large prints) and the versatility of the camera is unrivaled. I am less and less interested in digital manipulation in general, and I’m certainly guilty of my share of it. I’ve always done all my own retouching/compositing and it’s actually a lot of fun to do, but no matter how good the final results are there’s a veritable loss of soul that takes place the more you run an in image through the digital grind, in my humble opinion. I learned photography in the darkroom and I still am learning very old processes such as wetplate and platinum printing and I don’t want to come across as some photography purist, but images made in an organic way are simply so much more beautiful.
What’s your favourite lens at present?(and for those of our readers who don’t know what it does – what does it do for your work?)
It’s a French lens from the 1860s. I love it for portraits. Especially in color as the glass is not coated and not intended for color films and so it always yields interesting results that are wonderful and sort of muted.
We have to ask about the “My Chemical Romance” set of images you put together for the Black Parade album, how did that come about? Do you mind that a lot of people may know you best for that?
I was approached by Ellen Wakayama who is the head art director at Warner Bros Records. She had seen some of my work and showed it to Gerard Way and he thought I would be perfect for his vision. Gerard and I got on very well and it was a very happy experience from start to finish. I’m probably known in different circles for different things, but I definitely don’t mind that a lot of people connect me with the MCR work. It was just as fun a project to work on as anything I’ve ever done and the results are a kind of Epic Goth (!) that I’ve perhaps moved a bit away from today, but I’m still proud of the images.
From your 2009-10 collections, the group of images focusing on the beach and sea is very isolating and stark. It moves away from the “vintage” element of previous work, what did you want to achieve with this project?
Lots of things, but mostly I was thinking about climate change and the effects global warming will have on the ice caps. It’s my exaggerated idea of a future world where a lot of land has become submerged in ocean water. It’s always been my dream to travel to Antarctica but I still haven’t found the time or money to make the trip. About two years ago I was looking into the expedition companies that take you there and once again I was left with only my fantasies of the South Pole. I’m no expert by any means but I pay attention to the global warming reports and I thought how horrible it would be if the poles were to completely melt away in my lifetime. That’s when I started to imagine a future society of survivors submerged in sea water. I live in Los Angeles and there are many places along the coast I could have used for this series so no, it wasn’t a coincidence that I chose Venice Beach. It seemed fitting as I was indeed thinking of the slowly sinking Venice (Italy) which also happens to be my favorite place in the world. That was a neat piece of symmetry that appealed to me. The carnival aspect is certainly a nod to Venice. I can’t help but almost always inject a bit of theatrics into my work. And my love for performers and storytellers gives me this romantic notion that those sorts of people will always be vital for mankind. I designed the rest of the costumes/props to have come from the military or at least be very utilitarian.
If you could photograph anyone, in any place, with any theme – who, where and how would it be? No limitations at all!
I really can’t think of anyone. I’m not that interested in photographing celebrities. Then again, to go back in time and stand on the set of The Maltese Falcon and then do a portrait with Humphrey Bogart would be rather extraordinary.
What’s your main focus moving into the next few years?
Who knows? Hopefully a book. More shows in Europe. Doing more portrait work. Setting up a lab for collodion wetplate work…
Is there anyone in particular you are looking forward to working with in the future? Or is there a particular subject/theme that you really want to make time to explore?
I would love to work with Colleen Atwood again – she did the costumes for MCR. I’m working on a new series now that I can’t really write anything coherent about, but it will hopefully take me to various locations around the United States.
You are part of a new generation of photographers who are turning the old conventions on their heads, does that put a lot of pressure on you?
I don’t know that I’m a part of any particular group or movement so I don’t think about things like that at all.
Of all the collections you have worked on, which is you favourite and why?
Venice. I used to work more large scale, with a large crew and then a lot of post manipulation. These days I prefer to keep it much simpler and more organic. I always shoot with a large format camera and I’ve been using a lot of 19th century lenses and staying away from the computer. I don’t have any rules about it though, I just want to preserve as much of the moment captured as possible from now on and not tinker with it so much after the fact.
You have also been involved in the world of music videos – specifically directing The Dandy Warhols “Godless” video – how did that come about?
I was a director for a number of years when I still living in Stockholm. They saw some of my work, liked it and had me come over and make a couple of videos. Last two I made actually.
What are your influences, both creatively and photographically?
Everything and anything. Composers like Debussy and Satie inspire great cinematic images, so I always daydream with their music in the background. From authors like PG Wodehouse and Truman Capote. I see at least 6-7 films a week so I undoubtedly derive much inspiration from moving pictures. Ideas, though, or rather themes, come from different places. Sometimes from deep within myself or childhood. Or from the newspaper. I’m finding though that it is much better to be inspired than to think up new ideas if that makes sense. I think I’m more influenced by filmmakers and painters. People like Orson Welles, David Lean, Terry Gilliam and lots of others. Painters I love are Ensor and Bacon and Millais. Certainly there are photographers I love too; Julia Margaret Cameron, Joel-Peter Witkin, Sarah Moon and Sally Mann.
Photo District News
September 02, 2006
By Terry Sullivan
Vengeful Vignettes
Chris Anthony combines a 4×5 camera, a scanner and Photoshop to create a haunting and disconcerting world where violence is forever lurking in the shadows.
Los Angeles-based photographer and filmmaker Chris Anthony has a different take on panoramas. Instead of using a panoramic camera and wide lens to document a sweeping landscape, Anthony uses a 4×5 film camera, a scanner and Photoshop to create super-wide images of imagined interiors, into which he places objects or parts of objects that he has photographed. The result, seen in a recent series of images he calls “Victims & Avengers,” is macabre.
Take, for example, his image of a pale, Victorian brunette who glares at the viewer from within a reddish-brown room. The interior contains just a few objects: a doorway, an elaborately framed portrait, and the legs of a man, presumably dead. A hint of blood always appears in Anthony’s images, and here, the man’s shoes are stained red. There is one more object that Anthony has placed into this scene: a knife that the brunette clutches behind her back. Her confident stare makes you think she’s ready to come at you. But you remember that the space she inhabits is a figment of Anthony’s imagination. So you’re safe, at least for now.
The more you look at Anthony’s sinister scenes, the more puzzled you become. What are these women and children doing? Or more to the point, what have they done?
“Basically these pictures deal with domestic violence,” Anthony explains. He imagines that the women and children in his images have endured the abuse for a long time. What his scenes depict, he says, is “the final straw. They’ve taken vengeance and have murdered their husbands or fathers.” In depicting the aftermath of revenge, Anthony chooses to portray the “moment of release, like the calm after the storm.”
The subject matter hits close to home for Anthony. Domestic violence “is something I grew up with,” he says. “I saw it and heard it as a little kid. It’s been with me all my life—The uncomfortable and horrific situations that you’re in as a victim or a witness.” The 25 images in this series are fictitious, but there’s a palpable reality bolstering the invented settings. “I suppose it’s cathartic, or perhaps it’s some form of therapy, but it was something I felt strongly about. I chose to put it in this entirely different world, and in doing so, distance myself from it.” Though his images suggest a bygone era, it’s the photographer’s experience that gives the characters, props, and even the empty spaces in his images their charged quality.
That quality wasn’t lost on curator Hannah Sloan, who included Anthony in a group show titled “Queen of the Night: Women Under the Influence 1963–2006” at Berman Turner Projects in Los Angeles this past spring. “I wanted to do a theme about women on the border of reality and fantasy,” says Sloan, who also works under the name Elk. A friend introduced her to Anthony’s work. When she first saw “Victims & Avengers,” she says, she thought it was “a gruesome fairytale, which I thought [was] a good way to talk about domestic violence.” She also admired his skill at combining a turn-of-the-century esthetic with a modern one—”his ability to create a painterly effect digitally.”
Anthony usually exhibits his images as large prints, usually 4×7 feet. This size allows the viewer to see even tiny details of his characters and props clearly. “I wanted to have a lot of negative space and I wanted the viewer to feel these big, ominous, daunting rooms,” he says.
To output the images, Anthony again fuses the past and the present. He uses the 24-inch Epson 7800 Stylus Pro ink-jet printer, and for paper he chose a manufacturer that has been around for centuries. “I’ve settled on working with William Turner paper by Hahnemühle. It’s a very thick, cotton paper, with a little bit of texture. I love the feel of the paper.” The combination of an ink-jet printer and fine-art paper stock gives him the control and quality he wants, and allows him to vary the size of his prints. On his Web site, for example, Anthony sells a limited-edition portfolio, which measures only 10×20.
Sloan says fine-art collectors have been wary of digital prints, but Anthony’s large-scale prints were well-received. “I’m used to working with world-class collectors who are very cautious when it comes to buying anything that’s done digitally,” she says, “It was somewhat of a risk for me to show Chris Anthony in this type of group show,” she says, which also included traditionally printed photographs and large-scale paintings. In fact, Anthony sold a few of the large-scale prints in the series for somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000. “I was really happy with the reaction,” says Sloan.
Though he is only 36 years old, Anthony has been producing images—in one format or another—for more than half his life. During his teenage years in Stockholm, Sweden, he developed a knack for taking concert photos, which eventually led to a stint as an international freelance celebrity shooter. In his early twenties, after studying art history in Florence, Italy, he got involved in film. He directed music videos for such bands as The Dandy Warhols and commercials for such companies as Deutsche Telekom. Later on, he worked on short films and cartoons. “So for about 10 or 12 years,” Anthony says, “I hadn’t worked with still pictures.” But about four years ago, he moved to the U.S., eventually making his home in L.A. “The irony is that as soon as I got to Hollywood, I gave up film for still photography.”
It’s a career move that feels like the right one for Anthony, at least for now. But with 25 prints in his “Victims & Avengers” series complete, he feels that body of work may be drawing to a close. “However, if there’s ever the possibility of doing a book on this theme in the future, I might very well revisit this theme and do some more.”
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