Imaginarium

Imaginarium

This one started off entirely different from what you see now. As always, it started with a model shot against a blank background, and a floor was added, a few details to suggest a room, and then the bright light in place of the man's face. It was deep blue, and pretty empty, and sat like that for about a week. I was struggling with what it wanted to be. On the one hand, it seemed to be saying something about being your own light, your own power source, lighting up the dark places. But another idea hit me that could have worked, about the fourth wall, that imaginary wall separating the audience from the drama on stage, the wall created by the suspension of disbelief. This idea was more interesting to me, and I started trying to turn my scene into a stage of sorts, even trying to add an audience in the foreground. But this was slowly turning into a Wizard of Oz scene, of seeing what's behind the curtain, and that is very similar to the fourth wall concept actually.

But for whatever reason, this idea just didn't want to implant itself here, but somewhere between that idea and the other one, a new one formed, a very simple one, and the process of getting it done was literally art imitating life, or at least my life in the day it took to complete it. I went to my basement, to my little studio area where I have my gear and some odds and ends, some props that I've collected for shoots. I shot everything I could think of: old cameras, binoculars, even my furnace pipes.

That random process of shooting everything but the kitchen sink became the spirit of this image, and what it was trying to say all along. We see a man in a room of sorts, but the wall has become a sky with stars, the floor shows reflections of water, and a very intricate assembly of machinery adorns the ceiling and floor - the toys of the trade. And that trade is imagination, and the point of this is you can build something from nothing with some imagination, just like the building of this image. Any room can become something else, any idea can come to be if you work at it. The point of this image, light as it is, is unbridled creativity, turning nothing into something.

I feel a special affinity for this one, almost like it's a self portrait, because this one speaks to my process itself, of trying things until something forms. It is cluttered, it is busy, but this is what creativity looks like before it is tamed, at least mine does. Every element of this piece is a photograph I have taken in the last year. There are a few nods to the absurd here: birds on wires, but the orbs are floating all by themselves. Many objects from previous images make appearances here in different contexts: the face of the scale in "the WorkForce" can be seen in the lattice work, the projectors from "On The Road To Find Out" and some of the keys from other images are tucked in here and there - even the dragons from my viking miniature boat are there if you look hard enough. There is a winding film strip emanating from the man's head - he is literally producing images from his fertile mind - the light of imagination so bright it obscures his face and illuminates his little workshop. And that is something I am fortunate enough to have - a place in my house that I can make a mess, shoot pictures, and try things - my own little imaginarium.

An imaginarium is a place devoted to imagination, much like a planetarium is devoted to cosmology. It can be a museum, a theater, anything, even a little space in the basement, like mine!

Model: Ed Barron

A before and after version of this image can be seen on my Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/MichaelBilottaPhotography