Tuesday 31 May 2011

Oops! I DD it again!

(No, I’m into Britney’s music, but the title was fitting)
Silent Lamb Dinner by *GothicNarcissus
Apparently, when Jimmy Richter and I join creative forces the results are particularly profitable, and very interesting for fellow dA people. I’ve got the class, he’s good at marketing and selling his image, and it’s probably the combination of the two things that work so well. So, after Ashen Death, here comes my second Daily Deviation, Silent Lamb Dinner, again with him modelling. Perhaps not the very best of my work, but it proved to be very effective at least. I’m really thankful to Pullingcandy, who featured it, apparently with no suggestion at all (unless whoever suggested it wished to be uncredited, in which case I thank them anyway), and to all the people who watched, faved and commented it.
I think it would be nice to spend some words about this work: at least for me, it was a very sudden thing, as Jimmy told me about the concept right before shooting, when we met for other business plus photography and had to try and come up with something which didn’t require too much preparation and time (we’ve got a lot of ideas, but they would take quite a lot of time, which we didn’t have that afternoon). Dim candlelight, still life elements on the table and a classic painting-like feel to portray a cannibal’s dinner (as this is the behind-the-scenes part, I can say it without spoiling the magic of the work). We set up the black background and the accessories, Jimmy got ready and we shot. Jimmy’s original idea included vampire fangs, but as the open mouth attempts looked silly, I suggested that we scrap the fangs part and he just keep his mouth shut; I though it worked better also because it would have been pointless for a vampire to have a piece of raw human meat in his plate, wouldn’t it? So, the shoot was done quickly and smoothly, the postproduction took just a couple of attempts before both of us were satisfied. And there came the difficult part: giving it a title.
Although we roughly have similar ideas, there’s a substantial difference between us: I seek quality while he seeks popularity. As a result, I tend to keep it subtle, sophisticated and suggestive, while he’s more direct and explicit, as you can clearly see by the two radically different interpretations we gave about the same subject with my Automatic Lover and his I Sell Sex For Money: same theme, same working team, with totally different outcomes and feelings.
Thus, giving this work a title was a real delivery. I would have left it up to Jimmy, as giving a title to someone else’s idea is not the easiest task, but I just didn’t like his Human Meat suggestion: it would have spoiled the whole chemestry of the work, as it wouldn’t have had any more secret to disclose and would only rely on the model’s looks to work. Thanks but no, thanks. We came up with at least twenty possible titles, including some biblical-themed ones like Judas’ Last Supper, Corpus Et Cruor and Cain when I suggested that kind of cultural reference under Lady Gaga’s influence (I’m still in love with Judas, baby). Finally, after dropping definitively the Last Supper reference, I decided to just leave it up to dear old Hannibal Lecter and make a pun on The Silence Of The Lambs. Which Jimmy wasn’t exactly happy with, but proved a good idea, as many suspicious or half-worried “What is he eating?” coments popped up, and Pullingcandy herself praised the ambiguity of the work in the comment to the DD feature.

And that’s this work’s story. I wish to thank again those who supported it, it really means a lot to me. I hope those drawn by Jimmy’s good looks will also appreciate other parts of my work, as in the next days I’m going to publish some nature shoots I took during the Silver Lining session. See you soon!

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