The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is a group devoted to re-creating the arts and
activities of the Middle Ages in the present. One of their activities is to create
large-scale mock wars, in which they wear period armor and engage in physically rigorous
combat. Not content to stage polite mock battles, they meet by the thousands on vast
fields, wearing full body armor and forcefully striking one another with rattan swords.
From 2003 to 2005, I photographed and interviewed heavyweight fighters from the SCA on
location at the sites where they reenact various battle scenarios. I present them to you
here under their SCA names and personas.
To create the images, I used a large-format 8 x 10 camera and then made custom platinum
prints from the original negatives. I chose antique photographic equipment and an archival
printing method to achieve a look that would be impossible to create using a modern,
point-and-shoot camera: the antique lenses have defects that make the images unique, and
the platinum prints evoke a certain timelessness with their exceptional detail and rich,
expanded tonal scale. Like my subjects, many of whom make their battle armor by hand over
hundreds of hours, I am using an antiquated creative process as an alternative to the
high-speed consumption and production of the present. Both my photographic process and my
subjects’ activities are anachronistic, all of us looking to the past for something
missing from the present.
Warriors are icons for an idealistic code of behavior that we can recall with affectionate
myopia—their faults forgotten, virtues exaggerated. Fascinated by their power, ethics, and
formidable attire, these present-day suburban knights are trying to emulate them; my work
is to try to understand their quixotic tendencies and to capture some of that mystique.
Since the mid-eighties, I have been a Venice-based artist, specializing in platinum printing.
The development of my work evolved from my film-school training and my background in classical and modern dance. These influenced the way I stage a set, light or choose a scene, and pose a figure.
We have been told that history repeats itself. A face rich with history can help us understand better who we are. I work with portraits because I believe that photographing a face can shed light on a person’s identity as well as the shared humanity, we all experience.
Awards 2020 International Color Awards, Honorable Mention, Portrait, L. A. Portrait Series: Richard Gehman
2017 Photo Independent, Best in Show, selected by Paul Martineau, Photo Curator at The Getty Museum
2011 International Photography Awards, First Place, Fine Art, Portrait, Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Age
1988 ArtQuest Competition Finalist: L.A. Portrait Series
