Last Updated on 09/05/2016 by Chris Gampat
All Images by Charlie Naebeck. Used With Permission.
“I am a firm believer that the image exists in the interaction between subject and photographer, and not actually in the camera,” says Charlie Naebeck, in reference to his Kinetic series. “A lot of photographers are the other way around where they think the end game is what is important. It is not, it is simply the byproduct of the experience.”
Naebeck was first inspired to work on his Kinetic series by shooting some behind the scenes images for his friend and famous photographer Jordan Matter, who at the time was working on a Dancers After Dark series. “I watched how graceful and beautiful that the dancers movements were as they fluidly lept through the air hitting each jump. In that moment I became inspired…” he says. Not long after he was contacting dancers of his own, playing with ghostly movements, multiple exposures and the Kinetic series began to take shape.
Part of what stands out to us about Naebeck’s work here is his process with multiple exposures and long exposures – which is very counter intuitive to what most photographers do in such situations. “Most photographers would simply set up the camera on a tripod and hope for the best. The camera for me is not on a tripod for most of the work, and most images are driven by the adventure that I share with the dancers that I collaborate with.” Naebeck notes about his shooting process.
The resulting images and these unique collaborations with these dancers is something that really forces you to take in the whole frame to make sense of it all. You can see more of Naebeck’s Kinetic series over on his website, where he is also looking for more individuals to collaborate with on the project.