Documentation

The first ice portraits were taken through ice found on the banks of the Concord River. It was hard to hold up these sheets and also control the composition of the shots.

We then tried shooting through large blocks of ice brought in from a local ice company. We needed a fork lift to stack them. They ended up being to thick but at least I got to use it for the Madscope title shot.

 

Finally most of the portraits were shot through ice created with large wooden frames. We found boiling the water first and pouring it very slowly into the frame created the most clarity. Many more ice sheets cracked badly than survived.  We set up a studio in the garage so the subjects would not freeze while endlessly posing. Even so it was really cold because we could not heat it up above freezing or the ice would melt.

All the videos were shot with  the Canon Vixia HD. I am from Brazil and do not skate well but I learned over the making of this video. Having roller skated as a child I think helped but not much. I wore contractor knee pads because I fell so often

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Thin blades on ice are way more slippery than rubber wheels on asphalt.

 

When it came time to mount the pieces, two panels were built to accommodate the     space at the Library. 2×4 lumber was used to build the frames and construction paper for the front.

The monitors were mounted with strips of plywood attached to the back of 2×4′s.

 

 

 

Below  the final installation. For future installations i may have them without frames.