by Christopher Duggan

Every summer, I dream of ways to make more art at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. I love photographing performances, and you know Inside/Out is my favorite space to shoot dance, but I was craving more. I’ve always been inspired by John Lindquist’s dance photos on the elevated platform behind The Ted Shawn Theatre. (Remember the photos I shared with you in January?) The landscape around the space has changed – there are more buildings, the Pillow Pub, the Doris Duke, and the vegetation has grown – but it’s still a perfect place to photograph dance in the natural light of the beautiful Berkshires sun.

I’ve also felt inspired by Richard Avedon’s simple, powerful portraits on white, but the set-up of my Natural Light Studio itself was inspired by my friend (and photography hero) Clay Enos. I wanted to do something similar to his Street Studio at Jacob’s Pillow, and he graciously told me how to construct the outdoor studio and encouraged me to enjoy the new creative space.

So for the last few weeks, I have been playing in my new studio with dancers from Morphoses, Inside/Out, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Yin Yue Dance, Tero Saarinen and many more. [Read more…]