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Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits
Featuring a series of 100 richly-colored, high resolution portraits in an oversized, deluxe, square format edition
Enriched with several essays, including one by Rolston himself, as well as archival photographs of many of the figures in Rolston's portraits and a history of the Vent Haven Museum and its collections
Influential American celebrity photographer, director and creative director Matthew Rolston turns his eye for portraiture to a new cast of characters with the launch of Talking Heads, The Vent Haven Portraits. Using techniques he has honed over decades of celebrity portraiture, and marking his first foray into the world of fine arts, Rolston has captured the inherent humanity of a rarely-seen collection of unique entertainment figures: ventriloquist dummies. Unearthed from the intimate and obscure Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, Rolston used a rigorously formal photographic approach to bring out the power in the faces of these figures through a series of 100 portraits, or "headshots".
Rolston painstakingly selected the faces he was most drawn to and, in particular, those that conveyed a sense of character through pronounced aging, exaggerated features, and ornately painted faces, drawing the eye directly to the sometimes disturbingly human quality of each dummy. Breathing new life into these inanimate figures, Rolston's photographs channel a sustained and energetic presence that is at once commanding, totemic, and touchingly familiar.
Enriched with several essays, including one by Rolston himself, as well as archival photographs of many of the figures in Rolston's portraits and a history of the Vent Haven Museum and its collections
Influential American celebrity photographer, director and creative director Matthew Rolston turns his eye for portraiture to a new cast of characters with the launch of Talking Heads, The Vent Haven Portraits. Using techniques he has honed over decades of celebrity portraiture, and marking his first foray into the world of fine arts, Rolston has captured the inherent humanity of a rarely-seen collection of unique entertainment figures: ventriloquist dummies. Unearthed from the intimate and obscure Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, Rolston used a rigorously formal photographic approach to bring out the power in the faces of these figures through a series of 100 portraits, or "headshots".
Rolston painstakingly selected the faces he was most drawn to and, in particular, those that conveyed a sense of character through pronounced aging, exaggerated features, and ornately painted faces, drawing the eye directly to the sometimes disturbingly human quality of each dummy. Breathing new life into these inanimate figures, Rolston's photographs channel a sustained and energetic presence that is at once commanding, totemic, and touchingly familiar.
- GenresPhotography
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 16, 2013
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 15, 2013
"They are overwhelmingly, intensely, human objects."
Matthew Rolston visited the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, and was, like many visitors, drawn by the personalities of the 700+ ventriloquist dummies.
They are performers, as integral to the partnership as the humans who give them voices.
The larger-than-life faces in Rolston's photographs do, indeed, speak.
"It isn't just the voice that is thrown; it is the imagination...the dummy gives voice to the psyche."
One of the essayists cites the influences of Warhol, Avedon, and Penn on these images. But I see more clearly his reference to shamanistic ritual and religious festival: giving birth to street theater. I see Shakespeare, the circus, vaudeville, Liberace, Lollapalooza, Broadway, Madonna, the Rolling Stones.
You can certainly find some of these images online, but the size of each face is part of the impact. The details, the huge eyes, are essential to the expressiveness. If you live in NYC, NYPL has a copy to borrow. Look for it in a bookstore, if one still exists where you live. Or give up a few lattes and buy your own copy.
Matthew Rolston visited the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, and was, like many visitors, drawn by the personalities of the 700+ ventriloquist dummies.
They are performers, as integral to the partnership as the humans who give them voices.
The larger-than-life faces in Rolston's photographs do, indeed, speak.
"It isn't just the voice that is thrown; it is the imagination...the dummy gives voice to the psyche."
One of the essayists cites the influences of Warhol, Avedon, and Penn on these images. But I see more clearly his reference to shamanistic ritual and religious festival: giving birth to street theater. I see Shakespeare, the circus, vaudeville, Liberace, Lollapalooza, Broadway, Madonna, the Rolling Stones.
You can certainly find some of these images online, but the size of each face is part of the impact. The details, the huge eyes, are essential to the expressiveness. If you live in NYC, NYPL has a copy to borrow. Look for it in a bookstore, if one still exists where you live. Or give up a few lattes and buy your own copy.
March 19, 2018
Was hoping for more background, but otherwise a nice book of ventriloquist dummy portraits.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews