Fall, 2014
Volume Six | Number Three | Fall, 2014
Cover Photo: Darren Pearson Editor-in-Chief:
Dan Buczynski dan@strongboxmagazine.com
Executive Editor:
John W. Davis, Jr. john@strongboxmagazine.com
Copy Editor:
Rick Szymanski
STRONGBOX MAGAZINE is a quarterly web publication born out of a love for all things creative. Each issue is available for download in PDF format, and is 100% free. Our goal is to have fun with art and photography, and share what we find interesting. If you’d like to participate, submit something today! All of the content in this publication is the sole property of the featured artist and cannot be used or distributed without their written permission.
facebook.com/strongboxmagazine
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Darren Pearson | 6
Angela Butler | 24
David Grim | 40
Poetry by Melissa Crouch | 4, 22, 38, 54
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photo by Dan Buczynski
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Prose: Melissa Crouch
Workroom
This is dark work, what we do— it stains what it touches. Spine-sung, bone-knotted, we hold our tools wet with our longing, blood and bile.
Watchers from the windows have no mind for it, cover their ears so as not to hear.
I don't blame them. Even as I stand on this far side I can scarcely see. But I see, I see.
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Darren Pearson
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Attraction to Light - Location: Barro, Spain. Settings: F5, ISO 100, 793 second exposure. Try as I might to remember where I drew what tentacle, at the end of a 13-minute light-painting I'm not really sure what to expect; I just hope the art is in frame. We ate a lot of calamari during our trip to Spain; this one is for all the Cephalopods.
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Darren Pearson is a resident of Los Angeles, where he works as Creative Director for Danger. By night, he explores the varying landscapes of California in search of the perfect scene for one of his life-sized light-sculptures. These lightsculptures are created through long exposure photography (the same technique commonly used to write a name with a sparkler or capture car trails at night). Pearson makes complex light-effect photographs, none of which are digitally manipulated. That is to say, all the painting is done in-camera.
Amargasaurus - Location: Hawthorne, CA. Settings: F5.6, ISO 100, 355 second exposure.
This place was perhaps the largest area I've ever attempted to photograph at night. Imagine entering a long abandoned mall where you're the only person there. It was haunting to say the least, and eerie sounds of metal and concrete would groan as we walked into the hollow structure. It became obvious I had to illustrate something large enough to compete with this sort of space! Therefore, here comes another light fossil — an Amargasaurus — characterized by its spiny back vertebrae. Special thanks to Sean for going with me on this adventure!
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Cage Rage - Location: Griffith Park - Los Angeles, CA. Settings: F7.1, ISO 100, 113 second exposure.
This is one of those places that probably won't exist forever, and several parts of it are now fenced off since the last time I was there only months ago. It's a bit of a liability for the city I suppose, former animal cages rusting on a park hillside where teenagers climb, graff, and do drugs. Glad to get some shots in while I can, it's a weird piece of LA history.
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Pachyrhinosaurus - Location: Abandoned railway - Paris, France. Settings: F5.6, ISO 100, 251 second exposure. Adventuring around Paris with fellow light-painter Stephane Baba. Had to get a good dinosaur in at this spot.
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Coast of Spain - Location: Barro, Spain. Settings: F5, ISO 100, 166 second exposure.
The light-painting process here was of trial and error. First shot was blurry - I corrected aperture to F5 from 3.5. Second shot, the colors red and blue were reversed and the end result didn't pop so I switched the blue lighted background with red. By the third or forth shot, things were looking like this. I love the texture these contrasting colors bring out on the rocks.
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Plateosaurus - Location: El Matador Beach - Malibu, CA. Settings: (Composite) Light painting at F7.1, ISO 100, 190 second exposure, Milky Way at F3.5, ISO 3200, 15 second exposure. Something about jagged rocks jutting out of the coastline speaks to a more primal Earth for me. The Milky Way is like icing on the cake. I went with the bi-pedal herbivore 'Plateosaurus' this time based on a recommendation from @ClairePdF on Twitter.
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Seahorse - Location: Torrey Pines State Beach - San Diego, CA. Settings: F13, ISO 100, 147 second exposure.
Blue hour light-painting on a mellow summer night in San Diego. This photo was difficult for the reason that every time waves came in, there were a bunch of sand crabs digging under my toes. To replicate this effect, try drawing a detailed picture with someone tickling your toes; it's quite a challenge!
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Snake - Location: Old LA Zoo - Griffith Park - Los Angeles, CA. Settings: F5.6, iso 200, 362 second exposure.
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Something Big - Location: Mt. Pinos - Frazier Park, CA. Settings: F5.6, ISO 100, 283 second exposure. When you have a large fallen pine in the background, elements of scale become important. The brilliant thing about using a single LED within a long exposure is how many different lines you can build-out to create subjects large enough to fit whatever frame. This light-fossil dinosaur must have been about 20 feet in length.
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To Live and Die in LA - Location - Downtown Los Angeles Settings: F13, iso 100, 164 second exposure.
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www.dariustwin.com facebook.com/thedariustwin @dariustwin on instagram/twitter
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photo by Dan Buczynski
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Prose: Melissa Crouch
Untitled
These burnt words shift, break, ash in air. All that is left is what isn't there.
Dark like the new moon, an eyeless socket.
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Who Wears The Crown? 24 | www.strongboxmagazine.com
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Queen Ivy 26 | www.strongboxmagazine.com
I met Ivy on instagram. After gaining a mutual respect for one another's work, we decided to work together. I combed through her Facebook modeling page to try and come up with a concept that wouldn't duplicate what she already had in her portfolio, and I was surprised to find that she had never done a shoot based on her actual modeling name. So that is what we decided to do.
A week prior to meeting Ivy, a friend of mine, Jenni MacDonald, got in touch with me to let me know that she wanted to work together to bulk up her portfolio. Jenni is a very talented makeup artist, so her timing was perfect to work on the project with Poison Ivy and myself. I made the headpiece in the following images from items purchased from the $1 store. The blue and purple hood is a “Bolli Bear Hood� from clothing store Bolli Imports in Kensington, Calgary Alberta.
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Leaves of Three, Let Them Be 28 | www.strongboxmagazine.com
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A Wind to a New Day
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Bolli Babe
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Dreamer
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Bolli Bear
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Light Struck 34 | www.strongboxmagazine.com
Green With Ivy
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Don't Build Walls, Build Bridges
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Ciao, Bella
Angela Butler: flickr.com/angelamarybutler facebook.com/angelabutlerphotography www.angelabutler.ca Poison Ivy: facebook.com/higgHpoiison Jenni MacDonald: jennimacdonald.wix.com/makeup
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photo by Dan Buczynski
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Prose: Melissa Crouch
Notice
The monster's through taking orders. He means it, by god.
Act II, scene III and he won't be there. The girl will just have to scream without him, break her own neck, tear off and eat her own arm, for a change. Maybe he'll get a job at a convenience store, work nights, sleep late. He can be the one to say, "Have a nice day," smile and wave at kids, face bills.
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Common Room in Maximum Security
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Hallway
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I’ve been to the West Virginia Penitentiary on four different occasions, and fortunately all of my visits have been as a tourist. Located in Moundsville, WV, the prison was in business from 1876 until 1995. Its notable alumni include one-time socialist candidate for President Eugene Debs, Hare Krishna-guru Keith Ham, and outsider artist Billy Foster. Perhaps its most prominent brush with fame was when it found itself the preferred destination of ultra criminal and cult leader Charlie Manson. Despite the harsh reputation of the facility, Manson wanted to be moved closer to his childhood home. The warden turned down his request. Each of my own visits to Moundsville has been colored by grisly stories of ultra-violence and harsh conditions. The volunteer tour guides who shepherd the “innocent” around the place are often former employees. During my most recent tour, a former C.O. named Chuck was our guide. He told us about an inmate named R.D. Wall, who was butchered in the boiler room after snitching on his mates. Chuck showed us where guards found Wall’s hide stretched across the grimy wall like a bed sheet. He also took the time to pull me aside to relate some more profane tidbits while the women in our little group wandered about on their own. Although it was the typical stuff (prison rapes and glory holes, etc.), I appreciated that he was going out of his way to make my trip thoroughly memorable. With each successive visit, I have become more and more grateful that I have managed to avoid incarceration. Even without a criminal population, the prison at Moundsville fills me with claustrophobic dread. Though the facility has been out-of-service for almost twenty years, not much of the physical plant has been altered. The psychic pain and suffering of its former inhabitants is palpable. I hope I have been able to cultivate some of that feeling in my photographs. Enjoy.
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Hallway Door (Open)
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Visiting Area
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Showers at Bottom of Tier
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Water Fountain in Cafeteria
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Mural in Recreation Room: Boys
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Mural in Recreation Room: Cool
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Open Toilets in the Yard
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Chapel and Outdoor Gym
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Medical Building Hallway
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Cells
David's Flickr site: flickr.com/GrimOne
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photo by Dan Buczynski
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Prose: Melissa Crouch
The Houses Aren't There Anymore
The houses aren't there anymore. Just some rubble and seeds that won't take. The only movement is plastic that ripples in the wind. Upturned bones of broken frames white in the moon's light. I drive by some nights when I can't sleep, spy through windows no longer there. Faces look back at me. Each time I hope they'll wave me in, night doors swinging open.
But the faces remain still, their plate expressions staring the simple truth— it's not the lack, but what comes after.
More from Melissa: thepumpkinhollow.blogspot.com oh-the-horror.blogspot.com www.pumpkinrot.com
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THANK YOU FOR READING.
STRONGBOX IS HEADQUARTERED IN PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
photo by Dan Buczynski