A man walks into the oldest bar in Canada - The New Westminster Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon - affectionately called The Pit. The band deep into their first set, a tall handsome fella, white cowboy hat tipped back croons a silky ballad amidst the common din of glasses tinkling and rowdy bar chit-chat, walking past the bar’s portrait gallery and bawdy paintings of royalty and RCMP officer, In flagrante delicti, past the stage I politely nod to the cowboy crooner.
That is how this collaboration started, honestly.
At the break I approached the stage and stuck out my hand and said something like, “ your music was perfectly suited for this exact place, by the way - have we met before, you look very familiar?”
*Side note: This is NOT the cheesy beginning to a steamy gay romance novel - although it may sound that way, sometimes life is just uncommonly common and yet, strange and weirdly beautiful at the same time, filled with strange coincidences - this was one of those days.
Back to our story, so after the hi, I’m Andy, I’m Paul schtick, we wind through lists of names that deliver us to the money, the source of our connection. We land on the link -a mutual friend that had mentioned each other in separate conversations, the talented Brian Sanderson [Esmerine, Sheesham & Lotus &Son…] And suddenly I was “THAT GUY THAT DOES TINTYPES” and as we spiral through the degrees of separation weirdness, it is discovered that I actually live, not far from where Andy grew up - emails are exchanged, my girlfriend and I, listen to most of the last set and then spill out into the midnight sun of Dawson.
Sometime later several project planning emails and a few Tintype experiments later, we begin to figure it out. Andy emails me several images of the musicians from the time period he is fictionalizing in and one image in particular sticks with me. It was a studio photo circa 1928 of Ernest V. “Pops” Stoneman And The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers. The part of the image I loved the most was how the backdrop was undersized for the size of the group in-front and how you could see beyond “the fiction” to the reality of the studio/room they were in. This was not uncommon for the day, but most often the “overshot” would be cropped out in the final image.
THIS was what I HAD to do. I called Andy.
Ernest V. Stoneman And The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers
Taken in Galax, Virginia, in 1928. From left to right: Iver Edwards, George Stoneman, Eck Dunford, Ernest Stoneman, Hattie Stoneman, and Balen Frost.
I began by nerding over how in the Stoneman image it is a duality of fictions, not intentionally, but none the less, and I was amused by the idea of creating a painting - an outdoor “studio backdrop” and placing it outside and purposely seeing and photographing beyond it, and that being the place where our re-re-re-creation will take place - making it, as the kids say…Meta. Andy loved the idea and the album cover idea was born.
Now I was painting a backdrop AND making the wetplate images, which was totally fine, I always wanted to try painting a backdrop, now I have a project and a concept and most importantly a deadline. Andy’s novella of the Story of Hezekiah Procter became the inspiration and I began sketching. Not to give to much away - (cause you gotta buy the album now, right?!) But, in the novel there is a strike and some drama and a factory burns to the ground. The symbol of a burning building is loaded with metaphor, I LOVE metaphor - so it became the prime visual element and the perfect focal point to the image. During my research phase, I sent a random email to Stephen Berkman, the master of the 19th century sideburn AND of the modern wetplate backdrop. He so very graciously offered his time and we had a two hour conversation about, layout, composition and most importantly colour. Even though wetplate is essentially a colour blind emulsion - he had some interesting insights that I tested to be true. More on that some other time.
Materials were bought, canvas was sewn, 14 feet x 10 feet, a bunch of old lumber was pressed into service and I raised the sheet after priming, like a giant banner to my naivety in the whole process. Whatever…apply scaling & painting skills and get to it - one week till first day of shooting…hope there is no weather - Paul says somewhat optimistically out-loud - don’t tempt the fates…sometimes I never learn.
I won’t make the story any longer - you can just watch the time-lapse play by play, and see one week in ten minutes - spoiler alert, there was weather.
It is important to state that the character of Hezekiah Procter and his accompanying historical fiction is the genius of Li’l Andy, I merely gave Hezekiah Procter a place to be famous in. The music, the story, postcards - the whole Box Set can be purchased at the link below - all wetplate or backdrop questions…send me an email.
Peace.
