Nuptial Blitz
In August 2019, sitting on a couch in Portland, OR I flipped through my brother’s wedding album, fascinated by the story being told through these images, clearly directed by the photographer. I began researching wedding photography and became obsessed with how certain positions and gestures appeared so frequently. For example, the suit-wearing partner standing behind the gown-wearing partner and hugging ‘her’ waist (a trope I call “The Protector”).
Due to my personal views about the institution, I’ll never get married and experience wedding photography as a bride, but why couldn’t I participate in this ritual in my own way? With Dave Ratzlow as photographer, I began inviting friends to pose in wedding photos around NYC and Philly, generating thousands of images. More photos were created during the interactive performance. “Nuptial Blitz” explores the choreography of contemporary wedding photography and is a work that exists as both a performance and as a series of photographs.
Reviews
"It was exactly the prescriptive cliché of love and happiness that society seems to market and reproduce over and over again, but hilarious." - Bodies Never Lie, 1/14/20
"Witnessing moments of openness between performers and among audience members felt like discovery." - ThINKingDance, 1/13/20
Photography: Dave Ratzlow
Performers in live show: Gabrielle Revlock, Ellen Askonas, Bonnie Friel, Michele Tantoco + audience volunteers
Costumes: Gislane Maldonado + donors
At right: Exhibition of Nuptial Blitz photographs at the Nolen Art Lounge, Smith College, Northampton, MA