Thursday, August 18, 2011

Dancing In Public


Dancing In Public


Levitation over an Avedon at Barnes and Noble

Durell Comedy of Limon Dance Company was annoyed when he saw Jordan Matter claim in a TV interview that he’d worked with all the major dance companies in New York. "No you haven't!" he posted on the photographer’s Facebook page. This was the result of the collaboration that emerged.



Picnic
After more than two years in New York City, Matter recently took his project on the road. On Fourth of July weekend, he took this picture of Rachel Bell of Dance USA and her boyfriend in Towson, Md.

Spread between a helicopter and an aircraft carrier

The process of creating this photograph with dancer Marcella Guarino was documented by a German TV station. Matter was disappointed that the helicopter operators insisted on turning off the vehicle’s blades.


Rushing for the subway

Jeffrey Smith of the Paul Taylor Dance Company had to leap dozens of times before Matter got the timing of the photo just right, according to the photographer’s blog.


Waiting for the A-train

Lisa Cole from the Boston Conservatory had an impressive dare-devil streak, Matter recounted. Don’t get any ideas: Dancers move about a million times faster than the average human.
 

Back flip in Bryant Park

Minsung Kim’s back flip freaked out the guards in Bryant Park. He and Matter were eventually kicked out of the New York City park—but not before getting this shot.


Yankee Stadium

Matter considers this one of the most difficult photographs he ever made. Dancer Parisa Khobdeh got only three jumps in before they were kicked out. “There is security everywhere … and about 10,000 people watching us,” he recalls.



100-foot drop

This photograph of rhythmic gymnast Evgeniya Chernukhina, taken this month is one of the most recent additions to the series. “She has been training eight hours a day in Russia since she was four,” Matter writes on his blog, which explains why he was comfortable asking her to pose on a wall with a 100-foot-drop in New York City’s Fort Tyron Park. Everyone around them was so freaked out, they had to look away, he says.


Water fight

Matter’s images often rely on spontaneous ideas. The water gun in Chernukhina’s hand was borrowed from a stranger in the park.

Sun leaping

John Heginbotham flies over people tanning in Central Park.


Levitating over Columbus Circle

Matter says that he’s gotten spoiled by his subjects: “If I could imagine it, then they could probably do it.” Here, Michelle Fleet manages to look poised while jumping into the air.



Shopping, Madison Avenue

“The idea of being alive in the moment” is what inspires the project, Matter says. Here, Arianna Bickle takes shopping to a new level.


Dancing In Public

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