Stage Dad: A Different Kind of Portrait
A seven-year project yields 49 conceptual photos of performing arts high schoolers
To see a larger version of this collage, click on the image.
As the first class of students at the Academy of Metropolitan School of the Arts prepared to graduate, I wanted to do something that went beyond your typical cap-and-gown portrait photography.
The premise was simple: Find a way to photograph these seniors — a group of aspiring dancers, singers, and actors — showcasing their chosen craft in mostly non-traditional settings. Seven classes later, we have built a gallery of portraits of 49 graduates, many of whom now work professionally in the performing and visual arts.
And to think, it all started when I saw a bunch of shadows in a converted prison.
Shooting in the Shadows
Three of our kids trained for years at MSA’s studio, and Nicholas took part in summer camps there when he was in high school. It was during this period that I became interested in photography, partly a tribute to my father and a way to be closer to my teenagers. Nine years ago this month, I started my career as a freelancer, and by the time the Academy opened in the fall of 2013 I was shooting almost every MSA event.
Ben was home during the 2013-14 school year, having finished the “Billy Elliot” tour at the end of ninth grade. He and Emma were enrolled as sophomores at Lake Braddock Secondary School, and both did their dance training at MSA. At the time, the nonprofit organization had locations at the Workhouse Arts Center (a repurposed section of the former District of Columbia prison) and on the outskirts of Alexandria.
The twins split their time going between the two studios depending on class schedules, but we found ourselves spending more and more time at the Workhouse during the summer of 2013. One day, as Ben worked on his own in one studio, I went into another — soon to be the Academy’s classroom — and saw a series of shadows coming through the large window with the afternoon sun.
I told him to hurry into the room and do some moves so I could see what I could get, not knowing at the time that this would be the start of a long-term project that shows no signs of ending soon.
This was my favorite shot.
That fall, as his junior year began, Ben was cast in the national tour of “Newsies” and left home again. As I mentioned in a previous “Stage Dad” column, we decided to enroll him at the Academy, which then was in its second year.
The Academy’s partnership with Laurel Springs provided him with a steady curriculum, and our relationship with MSA allowed Jill and I to keep tabs on his schoolwork and progress while he was on the road. (It also helped that we knew his tutor.)
Ben and Emma graduated as the Academy finished its third year. By this time, I had been doing an “Art & Dance” series of photos around the country, and I wanted to give something back to the Academy’s first set of graduates. We ended up taking a series of portraits using the former prison grounds as a backdrop. Ten students, including Ben, earned diplomas that first year; I used the photo I had taken of our son in the classroom as his “portrait.”
Pleased with the result, I decided to do the project again as the Academy’s second class graduated and have continued it since. I’m grateful to MSA for allowing me to develop the gallery and for displaying the portraits outside the Academy office. I especially enjoy seeing the younger kids glance up at the photos as they walk into a dance class after the school day ends.
Who knows? Maybe one or more of them will be part of the gallery someday, too.
‘Ballerinas Playing Pool’
Each shoot, in its way, is unique. The best ones are collaborative, when the students bring ideas that we can expand on and refine. Most are done in a single day — in groups ranging from three to seven — although the pandemic and other factors have thrown wrenches into the process for the past couple of years. Fortunately, since I work as the studio’s photographer, I’m familiar with the students and their abilities, which expedites the process.
Not all the graduates are dancers, who in some respects are the easiest to shoot. Actors and singers can present a conceptual challenge, but that also can be fun, especially when the locations are interesting or somewhat unique. Over the past seven years, we’ve done graduate shoots in MSA’s black box theater, in Old Town Alexandria, at National Harbor, and at various memorials in Washington, D.C.
I’m pleased with how the portraits have turned out, but a personal favorite are two photos that weren’t meant for the gallery wall. Two years ago, at the end of an Old Town shoot that we squeezed in just before the pandemic started, I convinced the school’s principal to let me take the group into a neighborhood bar for a photo I wanted.
Earlier that fall, I passed a frame store that had the classic “Dogs Playing Poker” painting in its front window. For some reason, that led me to these two photos, which I titled: “Ballerinas Playing Pool.”
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