by Christopher Duggan
It will be almost 10 months before dancers return and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2015 kicks in. I love the Pillow so much and am filled with gratitude to have spent 9 summers there. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to create pictures and make a contribution to this historic place.
To me, nothing says “The Pillow” more than the Inside/Out stage. I spent the last few days of the festival working through more than 20,000 photos from the 2014 summer festival and wanted to share some highlights from this amazing dance space.
I’ve said it before, but the Inside/Out stage is my favorite stage to photograph dance. It’s hugely challenging working with the available light, the crowd and making choices on where to shoot from. It keeps me on my toes. There’s never a perfect spot, only the perfect way to make a picture in the spot I’ve chosen.
And more than just the dance on the stage, it’s the atmosphere, the trees, the sunlight, the patrons, the kids and everything put together that tells the story of Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires.
He photographs dancers in the studio and in performance, for promotional materials, portraits and press, and he often collaborates with his wife, Nel Shelby, and her Manhattan-based dance film and video editing company Nel Shelby Productions (nelshelby.com). Together, they have documented dance at performances from New York City to Vail International Dance Festival.
Christopher Duggan Photography also covers the finest wedding venues in the Metropolitan and Tri-State areas, in Massachusetts and the Berkshires, and frequently travels to destination weddings.
His photographs appear in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Knot, Destination I Do, Photo District News, Boston Globe, Financial Times, Dance Magazine, and Munaluchi Bridal, among other esteemed publications and popular dance and wedding blogs. One of his images of Bruce Springsteen was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and his dance photography has been exhibited at The National Museum of Dance and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.
His Natural Light Studio (http://www.christopherduggan.com/portfolio/natural-light-studio-jacobs-pillow-photography/) at Jacob’s Pillow is his most ambitious photography project to date – check out his blog to see more portraits of dance artists in his pop-up photo studio on the Pillow grounds.
