On October 25th, Misnomer had the pleasure of being involved in a very cool collaborative photo shoot with photographer Tanit Sakakini and Nightjar Creative  in Brooklyn, NY. Jennifer Harmer choregraphed the shoot - translating Misnomer's signature movement vocabulary into still shots. Jenny Campbell was one of thirty models involved in the day long shoot outside of 3rd Ward. Check out all of our behind the scenes photos on our Flickr page.

Slideshow photos by Maia Macdonald
 

 Thoughts from Choreographer Jennifer Harmer
Working on the "Sand County" photo shoot for 'NightJar Creative' was a wonderful outreach project to take on for Misnomer.  NightJar asked me to choreograph this photo shoot for their website.  My goal as choreographer for the shoot was to embed key visuals from Misnomer's repertory into the scenes, much like we did with the "belt loop" sequence in the Bjork music video.  My most successful use of our repertory in the shoot was during the 'Baptism Scene'.  I modified the cover shot of Chris and Andros from our rep piece "I'm Staying A Little Longer", and it worked beautifully.  You can compare the photos below:

 

In the photo below, I am setting the models as 'witnesses' to the Baptism Scene.  I took this still from "Too Late Tulip" and showed it to the models on set in order to try and place it in the scene.

We worked with around 30 models for a large group shot (including Misnomer's Jenny Campbell) and my goal here was to use some movements from the opening of "Land Flat".  We were only able to keep one signature movement in the final shot, and I had Jenny and another woman in the foreground executing it.  The set was very detailed and lush, with moss and cranberries strewn about for detailing.  An antique unicycle and a large wooden wheel were used to symbolize the few precious belongings that the caravan of travelers would take with them on their journey.
       Though there were numerous rain delays throughout the day, but they didn't seem to dampen the creativity or excitement and focus on the set.  I worked straight through an 8-hour day with nary a bathroom or water break and hardly noticed it.  If that isn't an excellent work environment (which NightJar Creative emphasizes) I don't know what is.  I look forward to sharing with all of you the chosen photographs once the editing and re-touching process is completed.  In the meantime, you can check out the photographer's other excellent work at TanitSakakini.com.

Thoughts from Misnomer dancer Jenny Campbell
Being part of a group photo shoot was a new experience for me.  I was a little intimidated at first to be around a large number of models but everyone on set proved to be very welcoming.  Tanit was a lot of fun to work with.  She had a great energy to her and was a wonderful director.  Her and Jen made a great team.

I really enjoyed posing for the "Look Book", when everyone had their individual photos taken.  The day had consisted of staying still for long periods of time in the cold but the Look Book was done inside and I had a lot of fun dancing around in a crazy outfit.  


Photo by: Maia Macdonald