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Scripps Ranch-based photographer John Hancock says he wanted to shoot portraits of as many San Diego musicians as he could. “What’s the coolest way I could do that?” The answer came in the form of an epiphany: have them strike a pose holding their instrument in a chair.
Or on a chair, next to a chair, or under a chair. The musician could do pretty much anything, so long as the same chair was in every frame. But it couldn’t be just any chair. It had to be the right chair.
There is a prop chair in the photo studio in Mira Mesa that Hancock works out of that almost made the cut. It is upholstered in bordello-red velvet. Perfect! “I said let’s do a thing called The Red Chair. Well, we couldn’t do that because it’d been done before. It’s porn.” And so the quest to find a photogenic chair without a history was on.
“And I needed a good, sturdy chair. I knew people were gonna be jumping on it and standing on it. I went everywhere – antique shops, flea markets.” Nothing. “I was on the brink of going back to the red chair when I looked on Craigslist and finally saw the chair.” Hancock had wanted a high wing-back chair with some soul, which the Craigslist item had. And another good quality: "It was only 50 bucks.”
A local photographer named Cory Pfahler actually came up with the project’s name: the Musical Chair Series. And as of this writing 14 local musicians have sat in the chair for Hancock including Joey Harris, Lindsey Young, Astra Kelly, and more. “I’m shooting Lindsay White tonight. Sunday, I’m shooting Lisa Saunders. Robin Henkel – I gotta schedule him.”
Otherwise, the chair sits in Hancock’s living room in between sessions. “It’s such a good chair. I may keep it. It’s becoming my TV watching chair.”
The chair as prop in modern photography is a familiar device. Los Angeles artist Ted Meyer (he lived and worked in San Diego for years) shoots the Black Chair Series. Sebastian Szwajczak stacks piles of chairs then perches models on them. And the Panton Chair turned 50 at the end of 2009 and was celebrated in the photo series How to Undress for Your Husband.
The Red Chair is in truth a pay-per-view porn site. It is a masturbatory freakout of tawny Playboy-like models lounging about (naked) on a red chair. It is the same chair in every image. The only thing that changes from frame to frame is the model.
This, at least in principle, was what Hancock had envisioned with (clothed) local musicians. Only the chair remains the same in the series.
dk3 photo studio owner Dave King is also the Musical Chair series sponsor. When Hancock finally has enough images in the series he says he’d like to have some shows around town. “Maybe get a book out.” For the foreseeable future, he calls this a long term project.
Hancock shoots Lestat’s shows and the Adams Ave Street Fest and the Roots Festivals. He shoots at Anthology, and he also supplies NBC’s SoundDiego.com with concert images.
“I love music,” he says. “But I can’t play a note.”
He'd like more musicians to pose, says interested parties can contact him via email at [email protected]. Short of using a chainsaw or a cigarette lighter and some BBQ fluid Hancock puts no limitations on what a musician might do with the chair during a photo session. “Right now it’s all been studio shots. It might be cool to get the chair out into the public, maybe at Adams Avenue Street Fair. Sit people down, say let’s take a picture.”
Scripps Ranch-based photographer John Hancock says he wanted to shoot portraits of as many San Diego musicians as he could. “What’s the coolest way I could do that?” The answer came in the form of an epiphany: have them strike a pose holding their instrument in a chair.
Or on a chair, next to a chair, or under a chair. The musician could do pretty much anything, so long as the same chair was in every frame. But it couldn’t be just any chair. It had to be the right chair.
There is a prop chair in the photo studio in Mira Mesa that Hancock works out of that almost made the cut. It is upholstered in bordello-red velvet. Perfect! “I said let’s do a thing called The Red Chair. Well, we couldn’t do that because it’d been done before. It’s porn.” And so the quest to find a photogenic chair without a history was on.
“And I needed a good, sturdy chair. I knew people were gonna be jumping on it and standing on it. I went everywhere – antique shops, flea markets.” Nothing. “I was on the brink of going back to the red chair when I looked on Craigslist and finally saw the chair.” Hancock had wanted a high wing-back chair with some soul, which the Craigslist item had. And another good quality: "It was only 50 bucks.”
A local photographer named Cory Pfahler actually came up with the project’s name: the Musical Chair Series. And as of this writing 14 local musicians have sat in the chair for Hancock including Joey Harris, Lindsey Young, Astra Kelly, and more. “I’m shooting Lindsay White tonight. Sunday, I’m shooting Lisa Saunders. Robin Henkel – I gotta schedule him.”
Otherwise, the chair sits in Hancock’s living room in between sessions. “It’s such a good chair. I may keep it. It’s becoming my TV watching chair.”
The chair as prop in modern photography is a familiar device. Los Angeles artist Ted Meyer (he lived and worked in San Diego for years) shoots the Black Chair Series. Sebastian Szwajczak stacks piles of chairs then perches models on them. And the Panton Chair turned 50 at the end of 2009 and was celebrated in the photo series How to Undress for Your Husband.
The Red Chair is in truth a pay-per-view porn site. It is a masturbatory freakout of tawny Playboy-like models lounging about (naked) on a red chair. It is the same chair in every image. The only thing that changes from frame to frame is the model.
This, at least in principle, was what Hancock had envisioned with (clothed) local musicians. Only the chair remains the same in the series.
dk3 photo studio owner Dave King is also the Musical Chair series sponsor. When Hancock finally has enough images in the series he says he’d like to have some shows around town. “Maybe get a book out.” For the foreseeable future, he calls this a long term project.
Hancock shoots Lestat’s shows and the Adams Ave Street Fest and the Roots Festivals. He shoots at Anthology, and he also supplies NBC’s SoundDiego.com with concert images.
“I love music,” he says. “But I can’t play a note.”
He'd like more musicians to pose, says interested parties can contact him via email at [email protected]. Short of using a chainsaw or a cigarette lighter and some BBQ fluid Hancock puts no limitations on what a musician might do with the chair during a photo session. “Right now it’s all been studio shots. It might be cool to get the chair out into the public, maybe at Adams Avenue Street Fair. Sit people down, say let’s take a picture.”