Parker Day // Candy & Poison
Parker Day // "Icons" Portrait Series
Parker Day is an LA based photographer who has done everything from being a hairdresser to a being well versed night-life promoter. Ever since she was a kid, she would create stories about different people she would encounter, building a world of warped yet beautiful possibility. Along the way in her adult years, she began to make it a point to make connections with strangers who she would meet in person or others she would find online that would be interested in having her photograph them. Most of the subjects she finds happen to be a part of the club scene and /or artists, musicians and those everyday people that just happen to be living more of an alternative lifestyle. She started a portrait series called "Icons" focusing on these creatives where she would place her childhood influence in taking the subjects already unique and specific style and create a new character by pushing them to an even more extreme place. It is her goal to complete this series with 100 different models.
She came to visit NYC a few months back with the intention to shoot some of the people she connected with online or around town at our Brooklyn studio. She decided to try her best not to have too much influence on this batch of subjects and rather let them bring forth their own costumes, makeup and individual persona. Either way, she of course tagged her own trademarked look in the photographs she took with her use of amplified bright colors that pop like a neon comic book. These elements all make way for an altered reality that almost forces the audience into a playful nightmare state in which the models could be shocking and evil while still bringing a playful charm and realness. While in our rental studio she kept things fairly simple and straightforward by simply allowing her subjects to be themselves, which is certainly one of those unexplainable things that sounds easier said than done. This NYC Production can be seen at The New Yorker.
