I'm going to write in English so this gets along fast... this photo is the most important thing about this post anyway!
We got the first couple of pictures that were taken in a spontaneous photo shooting session in the "East Bay" (of the San Francisco Bay) last summer, and can't wait for the rest to arrive! The photographer, Niki Stranz, is an old friend with whom I used to spend hours philosophising about music and performance and life.
Over the years she has turned to photography, and has developed a real knack for capturing the magic relationship of charactor and surroundings... a relationship that has a lot to do with our work and is one of the reasons we chose our name "Random Acts of Beauty".
The photo session involved throwing the masks and costumes we had with us (we were performing "Tip of the Iceberg" over there) into the trunk of Niki's car and driving through the back streets of Emeryville, Oakland and Alameda. Some of the neighborhoods were industrial, some were marina, and some were slightly sleezy. Suddenly Niki would cry out "that's it!" and we parked, changed our costumes (rather ungainly in the back seat), chose which mask charactors would appear at the location, and then "became" the Ravens, the Cockroach, Coyote or the Selkie for a time. All the while Niki was clicking away shouting "cool!" and "crazy!" and "more!" in her exuberant Southern California way.
Niki has been busy but finally she worked over the photos to her satisfaction and sent us two as a sample. We were so captivated by the two photos of the Ravens that we were inspired to redo the entry page of our web site.
Such photo sessions are a strange sort of performance for us. They tell so enticing stories, the masks immediately change the environment and visa versa... but there are no audiences. Perhaps the internet will be a way to share these moments.
L. Shirts
