Photography

Portland Photographers' Forum Newsletter

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This Month's Meeting: Wednesday, August 19, 7:00 p.m.

Guest Speaker: Christopher Perez Alternative Histories

"Ideas for my large multi-year photographic image projects arrive when least expected," Chris Perez says."As I read various novels by Jules Verne, Tom Robbins, Ian Banks, Terry Pratchett, and Susanna Clark I could almost see what images from Alternative Histories might look like. In similar time, I worked with Tribal Fusion bellydancers to see where I might be able to take a related idea. Talking with NagaSita (one of my models) I learned that there are active communities of people engaged in the pursuit of Alternative History ideas of Tribal Fusion, Noir Victorian Gothic, and Steampunk. These styles are based on the idea that we live not in a uni-verse, but rather, in a vast multi-verse of time coincident Alternative Realities, just like the novels I was reading." "My photographic project swiftly incorporated these ideas and extended them to include the thought of how image might look as they pass through a "seam" between the various multi-verses. There would be hints familiar to us, such as graphic design elements from 1880 Paris, France. Images would be stressed and somewhat distorted due to the pressures placed on them as they passed through a "seam". Clothing styles could be emblematic, in the case of Steampunk, of what might happen if oil never replaced steam." "This is how my overly active, geeky, complex mind works. This is how my Steampunk, Tribal Fusion, and Noir Victorian Gothic series of images came into being."