【CNN 20150202】装死者

满仓

【中文标题】装死者
【原文标题】Fake deaths: The great pretenders
【登载媒体】CNN
【原文作者】Thom Patterson
【原文链接】http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/02/us/cnnphotos-still-lives/










有时候，人们需要装死。

这就是摄影师Eliot Dudik在他的系列作品“仍然活着”中隐藏的基本含义。

这些图片让我们看到美国内战表演者的不为人知的一面，同时又引发了对两件事情触动我们内心的问题的讨论——生存和死亡。这是一个代代相传的习俗，热心人士和历史狂热分子利用周末的时间再现美国南北战争的场景，假装他们死于战场。

Dudik用他的镜头捕捉到这些装死者的面孔，有的人闭上眼睛，有的人睁着眼睛；有的人目光斜视，有的人直勾勾地看着镜头。照片的主题令人颇为不安，但我们知道他们还活着，所以还是颇具吸引力的。Dudik说：“当你看到这些照片的时候，有一种生死轮回的感觉。这种奇怪的感觉让我们的目光无法轻易离开，而且让我们开始思考自身的生死问题，以及战争究竟意味着什么。”必须承认，这是一个沉重的话题。为了让人们更愿意接受他的作品，Dudik插入了一些幽默，他设法去了解这些表演者为什么会选择扮演生者，活着死者。









Ed Keith已经在战场上“死”过148次，他说他决定不再扮演死者。Dudik说，Keith现在“把死亡交给了年轻人”。

Dudik说：“这番话的确震撼了我。”他决定着手把这个拍摄计划做大。

在历史重要战场宾夕法尼亚州的盖茨堡，另外一位表演者说：“他不是每次都会死掉，因为他是为数不多的几个体格健壮、能支撑到战役结束的人之一。”第三位表演者说，他“几乎每次都死，因为这样比较符合现实”。Dudik说：“还有一个人告诉我，他不能死在草地上，因为他会过敏。”

2015年是内战结束150周年纪念日。根据美国退伍军人事务部提供的数字，内战一共导致南北两方50万士兵死亡。Dudik的工作让他认识到这些表演背后隐藏的庄严的理由。

“仍然活着”来源于其姐妹篇“破碎的土地”，后者主要关注南北战争战场的景色。Dudik说：“我小的时候就对战争很着迷，谈不上喜欢，而是恐惧的那种着迷。基本上战争的场景都能把我吓得不轻。”国家在19世纪60年代陷入的大混乱让他想到今天的政治格局。Dudik说：“我感到国家已经因为政治的分裂而陷入瘫痪。”









说到器材，他使用的是一个老古董。Dudik的作品全部用胶片和所谓的“观察照相机”拍摄，最早可以追溯到19世纪。Didik说，观察照相机与作品的主题更加吻合。在“仍然活着”的拍摄过程中，他很愿意给表演者解释这个相机的运作原理和超长的曝光时间。

Dudik让每个表演者都躺到一个架起来的台子上，营造出一种他们悬浮于地面的感觉。他爬上一个梯子，用照相机对准下面的表演者，然后钻进“黑布”，打开快门，拍摄照片。“我个人对数码摄影不怎么感兴趣，我并不反对它，它的很多设计非常优秀。但是对我来说，更喜欢胶卷……操作它的过程……和它呈现出来的效果。”

今年32岁的Dudik在16岁之前生活在宾夕法尼亚州中部的一个绵羊农场，之后随家人搬到马里兰州。他对摄影兴趣最终让他在南加利福尼亚州和佐治亚州获得了大学学位。他的作品被多次发表，去年他还获得了PhotoNOLA评论奖。

最近，Dudik说他的生活发生了一些变化。他在弗吉尼亚的威廉玛丽学院授课的同时，还在帮助完成这所学校的第一个正式摄影项目。“教学，以及亲自参与艺术创作过程令人兴奋，因为你可以和很多优秀的人合作。我很高兴有这样的机会。”












原文：

Sometimes, people pretend to die.

That's pretty much the basic idea behind "Still Lives," a thought-provoking series of portraits by photographer Eliot Dudik.

These images reveal a whole new perspective on America's Civil War re-enactors. But they also aim to spark conversations about two things that touch us all: life and death.

For generations, enthusiasts and history buffs have been spending their weekends re-staging historic clashes of the War Between the States, pretending to lose their lives on the battlefield.

Dudik uses his camera to study these faces while they fake death. Some have their eyes closed. Some, open. Some looking away, others looking directly at us. The subject is unsettling. But because we know they're really alive, it's somehow captivating.

"I think there's a shifting back and forth between life and death as you look at them," Dudik said. "When there's this oddness and this shifting, I think it holds our attention a little longer, which hopefully brings us into each of our own individual conversations about what life and death means and what war means to us as individuals."

Admittedly, the concept is a heavy one. To make it more approachable, Dudik injected a bit of humor. He started collecting reasons why re-enactors choose to live or die during their performances.

After "dying" on battlefields 148 times, longtime re-enactor Ed "Doc" Keith told Dudik he has decided to quit dying. Now, Dudik said, Keith "leaves the dying to the young."

"That statement really stuck with me," Dudik said. And it propelled him to jump feet first into the project.

Another re-enactor told Dudik at historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that "he doesn't die very often because he's one of the few that are actually in shape and can make it all the way across the battlefield."

A third re-enactor said he dies "almost every time because he finds it more realistic," Dudik said. "Another guy told me he doesn't die in the high grass because he has allergies."

2015 marks 150 years since the war's end. The death toll totaled nearly 500,000 Union and Confederate soldiers, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Dudik's project helped him understand and respect the solemn reasons behind the re-enactments.

"Still Lives" was inspired by its sister project, "Broken Land," which focuses on landscapes linked to the Civil War.

"I've always been fascinated by war in general since I was little -- not so much in a romantic way -- but more in a frightening way," Dudik said. "It's always kind of scared the crap out of me, basically."

The dramatic rift the nation felt in the 1860s reminds him of today's political landscape. "I feel like the country is basically paralyzed by the divide in politics," Dudik said.

When it comes to equipment, this guy leans totally old school. Dudik shot the project entirely on film, using what photographers call a view camera, which has a basic design dating back to the 19th century.

Projects can become more collaborative with a view camera, Dudik said. During the "Still Lives" portrait shoots, he enjoyed explaining to the re-enactors how the camera works and its long exposure time.

Dudik photographed each re-enactor as they laid on a suspended platform, giving the impression they were hovering above the ground. Dudik then climbed up a ladder to access his camera, which was aimed down toward the re-enactor. Once underneath the camera's "dark cloth," he opened the shutter and captured an image.

"I personally don't enjoy digital photography that much," Dudik said. "I don't have anything against it. I think it works marvelously for lots of applications. But for me, I'm pretty devoted to film for ... the way I work with it ... and the way it looks."

Dudik, 32, spent most of his first 16 years growing up on a sheep farm in central Pennsylvania before moving with his family to Maryland. His interest in taking pictures eventually led to college degrees in South Carolina and Georgia. He has been published several times and last year he won the PhotoNOLA Review Prize.

Lately, Dudik admits life has become a little crazy, as he juggles teaching at Virginia's College of William and Mary while helping create the school's first formal photography program.

"Teaching and being intimately involved in an academic art department is a great inspiration and motivation and it provides an incredible collaborative community," Dudik said. "And I'm very thankful for that."