The poster image for The Secret Garden. The model is one of the performers, artist and acrobat Milla Järvinen.
Another day, another immersive piece combining contemporary dance and circus, sound design, light design, photography, installations, apocalyptic visions and all-around bad-assery. It can only be another Flow Productions, er, production!
Pirjo Yli-Maunula is creating another immersive performance much in the vein of Varjakka (2014) and The Tower (Torni, 2016). This time it is called The Secret Garden and it will take its audience for a trip to a dark vision of a future where we live in a barren world. The piece is rooted in the realities of climate change and pollution, but it delves deep also into themes of human hubris, arrogance and utilitarianism.
Anyhew! I was tasked with photographing the poster image. As is usual with these kinds of productions, the visuals of The Secret Garden were in a very early stage in April, when we shot these images. The piece premieres in August and much of the costumes, light design, make-up, installations etc. just aren't going to be ready until very late in the process. This is par for the course and did not deter us this time, either.
I sat down with Pirjo and dancer Milla Virtanen for a preliminary meeting about ideas. The piece is performed at the Oulu Vocational College (Kempele unit) which has programs for gardeners working in Floristry and Horticultural businesses. The performance snakes through the various buildings on campus from very rough, industrial-looking halls to more intimate rooms. There are a number of greenhouses on site, and the idea was to use one of them to create a jungle. A jungle with body parts sticking through the foliage. I know!
So, to create this not-so-vaguely serial killer-ish vision we built the set with live plants with the help of gardener Jari Luoto. The centerpiece was a large and impressive Norfolk Island Pine and we brought in various other plants to create a lush, weird jungle look.
This presented a few challenges. First, I wanted to do this as much as possible in-camera, meaning three models posing in the 'jungle' at the same time. The problem was that we couldn't create an even wall through which everybody could stick their arms and legs. Instead there was shrubbery in different planes which meant that the talent had to get into very uncomfortable positions and try to reach way out front. They (Milla V., Milla Järvinen and Maria Littow) were game though and not easily discouraged.
Milla V. applying makeup to Milla J. This cell phone shot shows the three-dimensional unevenness of our 'jungle'. Also note that this was hard light all the way, speedlight on the left lighting Milla's back. The C-stand on the far left has a Profoto AcuteR 600 strobe positioned up high, maybe 3,5 meters, pointing down to create a top light.
In retrospect, this was a case of being too infatuated with the initial idea. We would have been better off had we taken--had I taken--a step back and realized that this was not going to work like we wanted to.
This is what we got:
This just wasn't right. I had many issues here: the angle of the leg/foot, the angle of the arm, the orange gel I stuck on the Profoto to try and get a little warm, inviting glow happening. Milla's back I was happy with as the spine looks really awesome, but all in all it was just messy. I didn't post-process this entirely either as it was a (disappointing) draft.
We took some detail shots as well:
'Too schmaltzy', said the director. Fine! Back to severed arms and headless torsos, then!
The idea was to create an image that conveys beauty but in an unsettling way. It should be enticing, but with a hint of danger. There's life but also decay. Not all gardens are paradises, after all. So the beautiful greens would be the luring part and then the weird body parts would be the disturbing aspect. Terrible and beautiful, see? A pretty flower would be just pretty without the undertones. It was a delicate balance.
Another shot from the initial session with a branch mimicking Milla J.'s spine. The white spine paint seemed like a good idea, but we ditched it later. Here, soft light. I mainly used hard light sources for this shoot, but shots like this called for a softer source.
So, what to do, what to do? We spent a good amount of time on this but in the end I felt I came up short. Pirjo shared my sentiment. 'Why don't we reschedule and shoot again?', she said. And so we did.
For the second shoot I made sure to take the good things from the first shoot and lose the sloppy things. To this end, I decided to go with just the torso and 86 the arms/legs and all that. Out went CTO gels as well: this was going to be pasty white skin on lush green folia--shrubbery.
I sat down with Milla J. and Pirjo and together we decided on a few poses for her. We wanted to emphasize bones and the vertebrae and her muscles. Basically anything that would make interesting lumps and ridges across her back. Shoulder blades were a big hit.
Light that with a gridded/snooted speedlight from the side as the key, the light raking across her back to accentuate the three-dimensionality of her bones and muscles. One light on top to light the jungle, pointing down-ish so as not to make it flat (still want the 'secret' in The Secret Garden) and fill it with another gridded speedlight from up high behind my back, on-axis with camera. Three lights, one acrobat.
And, so! This is the final poster with type and layout, designed by Tomi Hurskainen. The flower was a last-minute addition in the photo shoot. Post-processing is fairly minimal, mainly some fixes to the foliage in the bottom and I evened out the white body paint. The white was inspired by Nadav Kander's series, Bodies. 6 women, 1 man. He does exquisite work, that Nadav Kander.
I knew that this was going to be our hero shot. We did want a few other shots as well to have banner images in social media events, maybe stuff for flyers etc.
I love how Milla J.'s hand looks like the neck of a dead bird, a swan maybe.
Horizontal image for variety. This pose was an early favorite so we recreated it in the second shoot.
And we switched plants for the spine shot. This plant was gardener Jari Luoto's idea and it really is beautiful, contrasted with the white skin. Speedlight in an umbrella softbox on the left for this one. Gotta go soft for these types of shots.
This is a carnivorous pitcher plant. Don't stick your finger in there! Umbrella softbox for key light, filled with a white reflector from below.
After the second shoot I walked away satisfied that we had nailed our poster image.
I really need to emphasize Milla Järvinen's work in all of this. We laughed a lot during the shoot ('OK and now emote with your hand!') but really, the command she has of her body is what makes the shot. She had to convey meaning and emotion in a photograph that depicts an abstracted part of the human body. It ain't easy even for a seasoned and crazy-talented professional such as herself, but she pulled it off perfectly.