TGP Choice - Wayne Schoenfeld's " Circus of Life"

TGP Choice - Wayne Schoenfeld's
" Circus of Life"

August 5, 2005

TGP Choice - Wayne Schoenfeld's " Circus of Life" - Article

Wayne Schoenfeld's
" Circus of Life"
by Rex Weiner

An Insider's Look At This Unique Project

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Introduction

I am tipping my straw boater to a lissome beauty while a Keystone Cop chases my son past the tiger cage, in front of which sits a pair of Siamese twins next to a topless fire eater, a juggler, a clown, two bellydancers and a strongman swallowing a sword, as four-foot tall Mighty Mike pedals by on a unicycle. “Hold it!” someone yells – and a series of flashes pop off.

It’s all part of “The Circus of Life,” a scenario devised by Los Angeles-based photographer Wayne Schoenfeld (www.WayneSchoenfeld.com), whose unique and arresting tableau vivant work is on a grand scale, requiring the large casts, crew and Hollywood sound stages usually employed by filmmakers.

“I create and populate my own world,” says Schoenfeld, a successful entrepreneur turned fine art photographer whose allegorical works evoke the epic quality of classic paintings by Delacroix or Jacques Louis David, and involve religious and socio-political imagery. “I’m asking questions about the world we live in,” he says.

Indeed, his last series was titled, “There Are No Answers If The Questions Aren’t Asked.” The series enjoyed a popular showing in April, 2005 at the Kim Young Seob Gallery in Seoul, the largest exhibition ever of an American photographer in S. Korea. The proceeds from sales of Schoenfeld’s work, and his books published by Great Circle Books (www.GreatCircleBooks.net), go to charitable organizations.

The sets at the cavernous Sound Stage 1 were dressed on Monday and Tuesday, June 27 - 28 and lit by Hollywood-trained crews. It all looked pretty close to the storyboards sketched by Schoenfeld’s art director Yuda Acco.

The live tiger and elephant originally envisioned, however, have been replaced by stuffed versions. “There was something about ten gallons of elephant pee that made me compromise that one little feature of this, otherwise, thoroughly authentic Circus of Life,” says Schoenfeld.

A cast of thirty-two populated Schoenfeld’s “The Circus of Life” two-day shoot, arriving Wednesday and Thursday morning for the 8 am call, reporting to make-up and costume. Many of them were members of Schoenfeld’s repertory of actors and models who’ve appeared in his previous shoots such as “Through the Eyes of Man,” “The Miss Liberty Series,” and “Vanity.”

Production manager Susan Anderson worked with a casting agent and with Wini McKay, director of The LA Circus, a supplier of authentic circus props as well as knife throwers, jugglers, tight-rope walkers and other circus-arts performers.

Once assembled on the set, Schoenfeld directed the placement and activities of his cast, looked through his lens, and examined test shots on his computer screens. He captured the final shots with two locked-down cameras, a KODAK Pro SLRN and a CONTAX 645 Body with a KODAK DCS Digital Back.

The final selected shots will be blown up to four feet by five feet for a gallery exhibition in Los Angeles scheduled for early 2006, at which time Schoenfeld’s unique circus will really come to town.

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