One Triiibe, One Vision
When National Geographic photographer Cary
Wolinsky met up with seasoned performance artists Alicia, Kelly and
Sara Casilio the result was TRIIIBE, a collection of inspired
collaborative work.
Throughout a career that saw him work actively for National
Geographic for just shy of 35 years Cary Wolinsky earned himself a
reputation for shooting pictures that went way beyond conventional
reportage. As his projects became more conceptual, he began
creating images that required pre-visualisation and
orchestration.
His skill at realising these concepts was to be put to a different
use once he retired from National Geographic in 2005. One day he
was attending a retirement party being held in honour of George
Greenamyer, a public sculptor who worked at the Massachusetts
College of Art, and he was struck by the extraordinary contribution
of two of the attendees. "George is bearded, a bit portly, balding
a little and always wears dungarees," says Cary. "Two of the
Casilio sisters, who are triplets, arrived dressed exactly as
George. I was struck by this and wanted to find out more about
them, and when I learned that all three of them were guerrilla
performance artists I asked them if they would like to try working
on some photographs together.
"We discovered that although we could film their street
performances effectively, the same work did not translate into a
dramatic still photograph. So together we hit the drawing board and
began creating ideas that became 'performances' designed
specifically for the camera, effectively a collision of performance
and photography." Together with other collaborators 'TRIIIBE' was
formed, and the team worked on a series of images that explored the
idea of identity. The decision was made early on to produce prints
that were colossal in size, and it became clear to Cary that his
regular 35mm-style DSLRs were not going to be able to produce files
that could stand enlargements up to five metres wide.
"After testing several cameras for our projects we choose to use a
Hasselblad for our TRIIIBE photographs because of the extraordinary
resolution and colour depth we are able to achieve when making
these large prints," says Cary. "I was able to buy a second
hand H3DII-31 and 80mm lens from someone who had only ever shot
around 100 frames with it and the Hasselblad technical team
enthusiastically helped us with problem solving when deadline
pressures were looming. The results were fantastic, and even when
you walk right up to the prints you can't believe the
quality".
A recent project undertaken by TRIIIBE saw them asked to put on an
exhibition at the 808 Gallery in Boston, an 11,000 square foot
venue run by Boston University that formally had been a Cadillac
showroom. Huge windows faced out onto the street, and it gave
TRIIIBE the opportunity to think big, and they rose to the
challenge by creating a series of seven triptychs entitled 'In
Search of Eden: A Work in Progress.'
Seen in the flesh they were remarkable pieces that dominated the
space. Set up like altarpieces, the triptychs had the feel of
medieval artworks, deliberately echoing the religious imagery of
the time but bringing things up to date with modern intrusions such
as computer cables and fast food containers. The show was a
sensation and led to TRIIIBE being asked to exhibit their work at
the Dodge Gallery in New York, where their images caught the
imagination of private collectors. Following their success there
the group is now looking to exhibit in Europe and
Asia.