The Interloper

Fascinated with how Hollywood makes something real out of the unreal, White works with special effects technicians and live models to recreate the artificiality that in Hollywood passes for reality. He builds the installations with a bunch of Hollywood stereotypes of the kind found in old Partridge Family reruns. The colors are bright, 1970's vintage, as are the situations, except every once in a while, something doesn't fit.

Charlie White doesn't take photographs. He constructs them. Like a Hollywood director, he orchestrates scenes, commissions sets, hires actors, and employs a visual effects team. Then he oversees a grueling postproduction process in which each element of the shoot is digitized, scrutinized, and perfected down to the pixel. In essence, he captures an entire f/x film in one frame.

For The Interloper, White hired scenic artist Jonathan Williams to paint a 24- by 35-inch Kinkade-esque work. The resulting canvas was digitally recorded by a stat camera at Warner Brothers Studios and printed onto a 20- by 36-foot backdrop. White ordered grass and bushes and built the rolling hill in the foreground. The backdrop and set were put together at a photo studio. White commissioned the two puppets with soft features, making each look like an eerie cross between a Muppet and a real child. Over the course of a day, three child actors interacted with the puppets in a variety of scenarios. White shot the scenes on 4- by 5-inch film, and selected more than 20 pictures from the 150 he shot. He then separated out the components he wanted to use and recombined and manipulated them with Photoshop. He superimposed a digital scan of the canvas over the backdrop to have better control and more detail. A lightjet printer output the final image on 3- by 5-foot photographic paper.
-Jenn Shreve