Broken Shoot with Amanda Herd

Two months ago I was speaking with a good friend of mine, a fellow artist named Amanda Herd. Amanda and I went to the same school and became friends supporting each other through our respective arts, with hers being ballet (and my GOD is she amazing).

We talked about doing a shoot but could never come up with something to incorporate her ballet into that would be really interesting.

She then told me about how she was recovering from a relationship with someone who seemed to be poisoning her, trying to convince her to stop seeing her friends, to stop DANCING, essentially, to stop living. He is in the army serving in the middle east and after several 2 a.m. talks with her I asked if she was interested in doing a shoot about her relationship for to me, what would be two good reasons.

1. It would be a great project.

and 2. It could be therapeutic and would be great creating something beautiful out of something so terrible to her.

So here is part 1 of a 2 piece collection featuring Amanda in a fragile state. She made a costume of tattered ballet dress pieces, we smeared her makeup, and went to a construction yard with lots of dirt and debris to try and make it resemble the middle east as much as possible.

Amanda is one of the most genuinely sweet girls I have ever met, and has a very big heart. Which is why it was difficult for me to ask her to bring up painful memories of her recent past to really bring out the emotion of the shoot. But she did it, and it shows.

The shot above shows several bullet casings as she holds her stomach in pain. The idea of using fake blood was blown as the fake blood was being... uncooperative. However I feel this works just fine as it conveys an internal pain. A physical gesture describing an emotional pain.

It was difficult to shoot her like this because it was somewhat chilly outside, and getting her in the muddy water was severely chilling for her. But it was a light hearted moment as we laughed about it and had fun with the situation.

All said and done, this was the first part of what will be a two part set. The second is about how she pulled herself together, and found the strength to recuperate after this devastating relationship, and started dancing again. The next set will be full of beauty and life, two of the best words I know how to describe my friend Amanda Herd. Keep an eye out for them to come soon.

the rest of this album can be viewed on my flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougwantsrevenge/sets/72157623104959677/