Location: Ruins
Prop: mirror
Extra: fog or smoke
This is what the magic Plinko board from @emerald___dreams on Instagram chose as the prompt for her photography contest. Being an avid follower of this account for many years, I was so excited to be able to participate in this creative contest concept. I, of course, texted my beautiful friend Colleen (who is my muse for all things weird and out-there) and she agreed to shoot with me and help make the vision come to life. We set a date, and from there it was up to me to finalize the concept.
Searching for ruins
While I was THRILLED to be able to create something that one of my favorite creators would be judging, I have to admit that my heart sank a little when I saw the word "ruins". You see, Lea (the owner behind the @emerald___dreams account) lives in Germany. Beautiful castle ruins abound. Charleston, South Carolina? Not so much. This little area of the world just wasn't settled during the times when castles were castle-ing. I set to researching as many possible options as I could find, and it proved to be more difficult than I expected.
Anything resembling the "ruins" that I had in my brain (old churches and forts, mostly) were fenced off, not allowing anyone from the public to have access due to their historic significance (and ne'er-do-wells vandalizing such places, ruining it for the rest of us). I quickly realized that I had to abandon my original thought process and re-evaluate what "ruins" meant.
When I opened up my search, I still felt my possible options lacking, but one spot stuck out to me: Stono Baptist Church in Ravenel, SC. Primarily, it is open to the public and I could have access to it without issue. But what really drew me to it was the beautiful 19th century piano, reportedly the original from the origins of the church, standing alone in the middle of the single-room worship spot. The church itself dates back to 1842 but was destroyed in a fire some years later. The one that is currently standing is from 1884, with some reports that it is haunted.
The piano as i saw it on the internet (yes, this is foreshadowing)
Copyright Tony Bigley, 2019
Spirit
Once I had settled on this location, I needed some inspiration. I recalled one of my favorite paintings, Spirit, by George Roux. Coincidentally, this was painted in 1885, one year after the church was restored. It depicts a ghostly woman seated at a piano, who seems to have caught a man working at his desk by surprise. It tells such a compelling story, and I decided it would serve as my loose inspiration for this shoot.
shoot day
As a photographer, one of the most frustrating things is not being able to control the weather. Unfortunately, the day that Colleen and I had scheduled to shoot, it just so happened to absolutely downpour. Neither of us felt like it would be safe to head out to a church that is literally falling down in the middle of a storm (although secretly I was a little sad to be missing out on the gloomy light), so we postponed for the following afternoon. After a lunch at Taco Boy, we took the 35 minute drive out to Ravenel. The church was thankfully very easy to find. I was nervous that it may have been demolished or roped off by now, since the last photos I was able to find of it online were pre-pandemic, but it was still standing tall and waiting for us to come inside.
Walking into the church was a bit of a shock. The church was in a much higher state of disrepair than I had seen in my research. Right off the bat, the thing that stood out to me was the piano - or, lack thereof. It was lying on its side on the floor, with no keys or strings to be found. It was, essentially, a piano skeleton. And boy do I love skeletons, so I immediately decided it was going to work. We hoisted it up off of its side, found some wood and a cinderblock to prop it up with, and went to work.
Shooting with Colleen is always so therapeutic for me, because I don't have to constantly give her instruction. I always tell her that she can read my mind, but I truly think she can. Every motion she makes is exactly what my brain wants her to do next. We spent about an hour in the intense heat shooting in three different outfits, but I think my favorites are the first ones we took in the white dress. But I can't help but LOVE the drama of the red dress/robe combo, which, if you've been around since the beginning, we've shot her in before and ended up on a magazine cover.
So without further ado, I present to you the results of Lea's Plinko board photo challenge. I hope you love them as much as I do.
