Pantheon

"Pantheon" is a portfolio of color carbon photographic portraits inspired by, and in honor of, the legendary 1930’s Goddess series created by the English photographer Yevonde Cumbers, more famously known as ‘Madame Yevonde’. Dressing and posing her society friends as Greek and Roman goddesses, she created a photographic statement of feminine empowerment unusual for that era. At a time when the work of the few professional female photographers was limited to monochrome family portraiture, Yevonde mastered the newly introduced “Vivex” color pigment print process to create artistic photographs that were expressive of her personal vision. A technical innovator and early champion of women's rights, she was truly a social and photographic pioneer worthy of contemporary esteem.

“Pantheon” expands Mme Yevonde's use of mythology as visual metaphor for modern existence by using both male and female archetypes. While it was certainly Mme Yevonde's intention to show the “divine feminine” as a civilizing influence on humanity, the attributes she portrayed (strength, courage, wisdom) are not specifically female.

Like Mme Yevonde, I have photographed my friends, both in studio and in natural settings, as modern representations of classical deities. Using a mixture of humor and sensuality, the images reveal the contradictory, multifaceted dimensions of these mythic characters.

Also similar to Mme Yevonde, I have printed the photographs using the 19th century color carbon process.  Long recognized as the ultimate photographic color print process, the color carbon process - or the “carbro/Vivex” variant used by Mme Yevonde - was considered “obsolete” by the 1960's. Replaced by a variety of photographic materials that were faster, easier and cheaper to use (albeit of lesser quality), the commercial manufacture of color print pigment films ended in 1996.

Printed using hand-made color carbon pigment films, these contemporary images are unique in their ability to physically evoke the "look and feel" of Mme Yevonde's iconic photographs as well as expand her representation of the classical Pantheon as metaphor.