Strangers and Kandy
Why a local fashion model bared everything for 21 different photographers.
Any good artist will tell you: There's nothing like a good muse. Good muses give artists something to think about other than themselves. Like "What shirt is my muse wearing with those pants?" or "Do you think my muse has my Pavement CD?"
Zeus and Mnemosyne would be proud of Kelicia "Kandy" Pitts and the project she started with photographer Leah MacDonald.
Spied her: One of photographer Athena Tasiopoulos' contributions to the project
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"She's been a muse for sure, an open canvas for imagination," says MacDonald enthusiastically of Pitts, the lovely black model who opened herself to interpretation with The Kandy Project.
"Kandy was a partner in creating intimate content," says Robert Asman, whose manipulated silver photos aim to suggest transcendentalism coupled with what he calls "orgone energy."
Conceived as a book of MacDonald's photos of Pitts, The Kandy Project blossomed into a one-model/21-lens salute from photographers in a series of three exhibitions. The last of those exhibitions will occur under the shroud of sadness. The original host gallery — the newish Jane & Bert — suffered a great loss when co-owner/curator Jane Margolin died suddenly. Chris Jordan's SOL Gallery will now host the final show.
"No matter how bright things may be going, darkness rears its ugly head," says Pitts. But after six months of being stripped mostly bare by photogs of fine art, photojournalism, fashion and the avant-garde, Pitts has learned to adapt.
Eroti-king Tony Ward was working on a bondage-themed book when he got Pitts' call. He made a deal that was a mutually beneficial. "No one approached Kandy to consider a sitting that would be considered 'hardcore,'" says Ward, "and she was enthusiastic about working with me so she agreed to approach the shoot from a kinky perspective."
"All I can say is that everyone should experience mummification," says Pitts of the resulting freaky folly.
MacDonald — a figurative artist working with encaustic painted nudes, surreal environments and props — met Pitts five years ago at an InLiquid gallery sale. They became comrades, always shooting nude, always allowing Pitts to be the chameleon she'd imagined herself since childhood.
MacDonald's waxy, soft feminism and stark sexuality led Pitts to ask her to photograph her for a book back in February. But Pitts claims it was MacDonald who thought it would be fun to ask as many Philadelphia-based artists as possible to join in.
Artists, teachers, journalists, students, commercial photographers. Julia Lehman-McTigue, Dominic Episcopo, Ron Tarver, Lorraine Daley, Harvey Finkle, Paul Pugliese.
"There were no guidelines, media or format restrictions — no limits to the shoots," says MacDonald. "I tried to tap into her cultural and historic background as an African-American woman, but I was interested too with combining the black with white and crossing the line a bit by using ropes, nudity and masks."
The Chester-born print ad model came to The Kandy Project not just because she loves having her picture taken. She seems beyond the normal cult of personality of the fashion world because she was so willing to get her hands dirty in the name of art.
Then there's the other thing: Not unlike the I-am-a-camera mentality of an observational artist, Pitts' project seems to use the self-as-canvas ideal to create her own sets of observation. She's like a screen onto which 21 fantasies are projected. And none of them is hers.
"The fact that she is a person of color is appealing to me since my collection thus far lacks ethnic diversity," says Ward. "But I don't see the body of work as being particularly Afrocentric."
MacDonald, a white woman, has always been intrigued by black female values. "I've enjoyed fantasizing about her heritage, cultures, myths and legends and definitely put Kandy into my own drama." So much so that she claims Pitts was but an actress playing a role. "The images were conceived by the photographers' fantasies ... not Kandy's."
Not unlike the photographer and filmmaker Cindy Sherman, who used self-portraits to describe different social types, The Kandy Project used photographers to explore different aspects of "the self" — a single self, Kandy's self. And what did she find when they had finished?
"It helps you to learn about a variety of artists all at the same time and gives an opportunity to learn how to appreciate their perspectives," says Pitts of her suitors and viewers.
The third Kandy Project exhibit opens Fri., Nov. 3, through Nov. 30, at SOL Gallery, 209 Cuthbert St., 215-238-1120, www.solgallery.net.
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