The Twelve
It is important to state that I do not consider myself to be evangelical nor am I intending to offend those who are. I believe that knowledge is the basis for true understanding. It is through using the medium of photography that I seek to gain understanding of a topic I now know more about.
The purpose for my interpretation of these emissaries is to depict a reincarnation of the Apostles as urban messengers en-route to continue their mission with the intent to create an avant-garde means of access to their stories. In each scene they are embodied by a crossbreed of urbanites, hipsters and rock stars that act out the struggles and emotions in relation to the martyrdom, patronage and/or the miracles attributed to each.
The process of depicting the Apostles began after reading a brief history of Saint Peter, the first of Jesus' Disciples. Inspired to gain a deeper understanding of the subject I decided to produce my own depiction of him on a bus. While considering the concept of Saint Peter using this urban form of transportation, I realized that the bus, with its many sections, could serve as a setting for the depictions of the remaining Apostles. The bus, with its access to a large demographic, would allow these modern-day Apostles a new means of reaching a great diversity of people, transporting them from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city as they spread the word to all whom they encountered.
The Apostles were chosen, named and trained by Jesus of Nazareth to accomplish the mission of spreading "good news". Often referred to as "The Twelve", they lived and worked with Jesus during his ministry. To bring “The Twelve” into a new light I referenced their stories, the texts attributed to them and the painted depictions from the 15th to 17th centuries. Synthesizing the sum of my research with my current fascination for doppelgangers, I sketched out the concepts with the intent to construct an emotional tone that I felt would resonate with these solitary messengers and their quests.
From research to completion this project took over two years. Throughout the first year, many test shots were staged within a bus parked inside a large hangar allowing me to resolve the technical challenges of shooting in such a constricted space. To address some of these challenges, each concept was drawn to scale in order to plan strobe, model and camera placement. Preparing all the aspects of each scene I gathered together a team which included hair stylists, make-up artists, illustrators, assistants and models to create the final images captured using a medium format camera and a combination of artificial and natural light.