Feaverish Photography Blog

Photo by Neil Krug

I’ve been looking forward to this day since I first saw Neil Krug’s incredible photos of Joni Harbeck on Flickr. Starting today, limited edition prints are for sale on their website. The upcoming book, a coffee table art book of 200 images, will be ready for publication by August. Joni and Neil were kind enough to talk with me over email earlier this week.

Photo by Neil Krug

Aaron: So, first I wanted to know how the collaboration came about. Had you worked together before?

Joni: We had never worked together before this project; in fact we first met late last year. Since we were both in the industry on different sides of the camera for years, it was natural that we quickly started playing around with ideas. Late one night we were shooting for fun with a Polaroid camera, this Indian headdress i made, and a cigarette, and this amazing picture turned out. We posted it the next day online and the response was incredible. As we continued to shoot and receive public interest online, Neil suggested we self-publish a book of our work. Thus began Pulp Art Book and off we went shooting one vignette after another.

Photo by Neil Krug

Neil: I had the idea to shoot something in the style of a vintage Robert McGinnis paperback cover years ago, but didn’t have the ability to pull it off. Immediately after we did the headdress shoot she’s referring to above I realized we had touched on that aesthetic with the Polaroid film. It was after that shoot we realized we had great chemistry and it was something we both wanted to pursue.

Photo by Neil Krug

Aaron: What was the inspiration for the pulp theme?

Joni and Neil: The inspiration for the pulp theme comes from our collective appreciation for the artistic expressions and societal life of the 1960s and 70s. Old LP covers, Giallo posters, vintage book covers, and B-movie cinema themes have defined our taste for this project. Initially we wanted to capture something simple and sexy; as the shoots progressed, however, natural story lines emerged. We wanted to capture almost the smell of those decades and express them in our own way.

Photo by Neil Krug

Photo by Neil Krug

Aaron: The photos cover a wide thematic range, from the Wild West to a kind of new-agey commune to ’50s housewife. Besides pulp itself, is there a unifying theme or narrative? Are you telling a story with the photos?

Neil and Joni: The strongest unifying theme of the book is our loose connection to that 1960s and 70s visual aesthetic. The book is split into several vignettes ranging from a spaghetti western theme to a Bonnie and Clyde revival to the struggles of a 1950s housewife. These series definitely tell the story of each character.

Photo by Neil Krug

Neil and Joni (cont.): In another vein, our Mystic Series touches upon surrealism and spirituality similar, for example, to the imagery of our favorite Jodorowsky films. These photographs do not tell a story frame by frame but instead each photograph expresses an idea individually by itself.

Photo by Neil Krug

Aaron: The photos look like they were a lot of fun to make. Were you trying to get a specific shot from each scenario? I mean, was it all planned-out beforehand? Or was there a lot of improvisation?

Joni and Neil: This project has been so much fun, from the shooting aspect to styling it! Often one of us has an idea and then we both play off it, creating something bigger and sometimes utterly different than what we originally planned to shoot that day. Although some shoots are well planned, all have a huge element of improvisation and we work off each other really well.

Photo by Neil Krug

Photo by Neil Krug

Photo by Neil Krug

Aaron: Why did you choose to use Polaroid film? Did you know going into the project that that’s what you wanted to use?

Neil and Joni: After our first shoot with the Indian headdress we knew we wanted to incorporate as much Polaroid film as possible into this project. Some pictures had to be shot digitally to get the composition to work, but mostly we have been able to achieve what we had in mind simply with a Polaroid camera.

Photo by Neil Krug

Photo by Neil Krug

Thanks, Joni and Neil! Once again, limited-edition prints are available today at their website, and the forthcoming book, a coffee table art book of 200 images, will be ready for publication by August 1st. They’re currently looking for a publisher.

Update (June 8, 2009): Video trailer for the book on YouTube.