Jacob Cogwright decides to stay in 1986 while watching Queen live at Wembley. The machine only ever went back from present day which was 1979. His efforts to get back to 1979 resulted in a last ditch attempt where he overcooked the controls and dashed forward in time.
Well, what can i say about this series? It’s now complete but not necessarily the way I would have liked for a few reasons. To create something like this body of work a lot of things and people have to come together. I think we managed it on the three occasions that were the featured iconic moments in time, with the other being the introductory portrait of Jacob Cogwright.
That was pretty much set up and taken without the stress of the main images. Nevertheless they sit well as a set and I am very proud of them and my friends around me. It did get a little easier in terms of time spent on the actual execution of the image by the time we were to end. The reason for the ending after just three stops in time was because six of us had to make the arranged date while all holding down day jobs and shift work. This was a huge obstacle not to mention to build the set.
This was made from reclaimed junk but to tell the story as best as I could I still incurred a cost that amounted to about £400. The time to build took about 3 months but that’s related to the time we could put in due to work commitments. A lot of hours and toil went into this set not to mention the electrical set up that was extremely amateur. We used so many extension cables and light bulbs that it became a very busy rear of the time machine. We also had the luxury of using some lighting rigs from my friend at Zelma sound and lighting. This gave me the chance to light differently for each moment in time.
As for the shots themselves, they were challenging for a lot of reasons. The main challenge was mixing all the wonderful colours of the ambient lights with the strobes. We had to shot at 1/4th of a second and make sure the models were still to get the images sharp. To hold the last pose that Mark aka Freddie Mercury did was a challenge. After that the sparklers were lit and the smoke pumped. We were up against it and had to get this right in camera which I love and it is a rewarding thing. These images usually take between 50 and 70 shots to get right now that I have looked back on the work.
The behind the scenes video would also be done by Gez and Anthony with Deaks assisting. This is just another element thrown in to test us. Sarah our very own hair and make up artist and friend does an amazing job because I feel that I can be quite controlling in what I want and expect. The characters I use are nearly always people i know or everyday people which I feel adds to the stories. It says “hey this could be me in time travel”
The one thing that I feel I want to explore is selling my artwork as limited editions and sets. I believe that they are great talking points and very personal. The joy and love I get from making these images feels wasted just sat on a hard drive or exhibited for a week here or there. I want people to have something personal and special to keep.
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