R.Kelly Clipperton

Music and Photography.  Styling and Music.  Writing and Producing.  Everything I love to do overlaps, feeds from one to the other somewhat seamlessly...   

 

As a self taught photographer, trained in theatre, I creates sets.  Sets.  Scenarios.  Costumes. Relationships.  Stories.  Working best in guerrilla style, un-controlled environments, I am indebted to my models and actors, musicians and dancers whose enthusiasm and fearlessness are paramount to my process and final results. I do the styling, make up, costumes and props, spending hours on that compared to the minutes it takes me to shoot, (on film until late 2012) and then digitally I build and enhance the images until completed to satisfaction. The final works are printed on plexi, sheet metal and maple in a scale inviting the viewer to feel privy to the dramatic scenes.  I enjoy composite where one subject will portray numerous characters in the study.

 

2014's "Los Coristas" and 2011's "TOP 30" are very music influenced series with the former being a tribute to the life and challenges of the back up singer.  Each image is named after a song from the era that inspired it.  

 

The impetus for "TOP 30" was the album It’ll End In Tears by This Mortal Coil.  My head flooded with images as I kept thinking of this title. No influence from the original album artwork, the band or the music, I just let the title feed me ideas…resulting in 30 works inspired by album titles.

 

I made the creative choice to exclude white from the printing process which creates a mystical, and in the case of plexi, translucent effect that allows the medium to inform the result greatly. All pieces are 1 of 1, never to be created again.