Denny Henry

The gallery space in the Corcoran can be a fun and challenging environment to shoot in. The main challenge of shooting in the galleries is that the light levels are kept very low to protect the artwork.   The conditions give me a welcome excuse to shoot with my fast prime lenses.  

The image below is from a gallery talk that coincided with the annual all-senior show.  For the talk, a group of about 9 students spoke to gallery visitors about the work that they had in the show.  The talk was interesting for me because I  had seen and photographed all of the work in the weeks an months leading up to the show, but had never heard anything more about it than what was in the artists statements.  

Corcoran Students talking about their work in the gallery.

I've photographed a number of well knows artists since I've started shooting for The Corcoran Gallery. Chuck Close recently spoke about his life and work, and was one of the artists that was the easiest for me to relate.  When most artists talk about their early careers they may hint at struggles or lean years, but never really delve into specific challenges they faced.  Mr. Close spoke candidly about the challenges he faced both in life and art that helped to form him as the artist he is. One of the large reasons he was speaking so candidly is that he was being interviewed by his friend and biographer, Christopher Finch. Mr. Finch knows Chuck's history and was able to develop the conversation to reveal the history of Mr. Close's life and work, the same way he would in a printed book. 

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In my ongoing assignment to make portraits of students and faculty at the Corcoran, I've tried to make at least one portrait of each person that reflects their field of study or interests.  The portrait below is of Brittany, a recent graduate from the Interior Design masters program.  Brittany was very helpful in finding a location that would fit well for her portrait.  After letting her know what I had in mind for the portrait, she suggested a residence for which she had recently created some work.  I had previously met the owner at a few Corcoran events, and he was gracious enough to let us use his beautiful house as a backdrop. 

Because we were shooting in a person's home, I kept the setup minimal.  I didn't want to be running cables everywhere, and have lighstands littering the living room.  I used single battery powered monolight in a medium softbox.  

Although The Corcoran is a rather large building, I am often limited on interior locations that I can use for portraits.  All the great artwork and open areas always make the exhibition spaces the top of my list for portrait locations, and I almost never get to use them.  There are a variety of reasons why I'm never allowed to set up portraits in the gallery space.  I'm sure disrupting visitors, and setting up studio strobes next to priceless works of art are two big reasons right at the top of the list.  The upside to this limitation is that I have been forced to find places that I normally wouldn't use for portraits. 

The below picture was shot outside the director's office on the first floor of The Corcoran.  Half the room is used as an office, while the rest is filled with books from the director Paul Greenhalgh's personal collection.  If I had not been forced to find an un-occupied space, I probably would have completely overlooked this room.  Not because I dislike the room, but because it is simply a place I don't often have a reason to go. 

A few weekends ago, I shot the commencement ceremonies for the Corcoran College of Art + Design. For this year's ceremonies I shot video and ran a web cast along with my regular photography coverage.  Getting everything to work together took way more planning and prep than I had originally anticipated, but was well worth it in the end. 

This years graduation speaker was James Rosenquist, I want to be just like him when I'm old. 

The Corcoran's website now has a gallery of my images of graduation.