The red chair project

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The red chair project

Postby trebs on Fri Jul 01, 2005 12:55 am

Hi all.

Here's a taster of what a couple of us crazy Europeans did on Monday...

Image

There's a gallery here with a load more shots:
more red chair pics

What is it?

Simple. A red chair taken to the city and left to interact with the people.
9 out 10 people were more than happy to play along and be "seen" with the chair. A great day, some great people.
I think the red chair will be seeing some more cities soon. :)

Regards, Rob.
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Postby PiroStitch on Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:08 am

Great idea :D Wonder what would happen to the red chair if it was here in Melbourne or up in Sydney...probably disappear within an hour :?
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Postby WadeM on Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:08 am

I love it. So Euro :)

I've actually walked around where some of those were taken (city centre etc)

Love the Jewish guy and the horse drawn cart.

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Great Idea....

Postby rjlhughes on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:08 am

Hi Trebs - excellent idea.

I was exploring the effect of ipods and mobile phones on our lives and how we interact with high touch high tech when I did The Silver Sphere Project.

http://www.corpcoms.com/SilverSphere/

And what a great idea for getting people to pose for portraits!
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Postby birddog114 on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:12 am

We may start a D70 project here in Sydney :lol:
Nice idea of the Red Chair project
Last edited by birddog114 on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby trebs on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:26 am

Thanks everyone.

Although this idea of common-thread portrait isn't new, we really wanted to push the aspect of total strangers stopping in their tracks and smiling, interacting with each other, and of course, being with the chair.
Nothing was posed at all. Everyone was left to do as they wished with the chair.
As you see, the results are very broad. I was stunned at the number of folk that actually agreed to take part. Massive success.
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Postby rjlhughes on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:46 am

It's an elegant chair of course, and so it brings out the best in cultured people. Be interesting (perhaps more arty) to play with less desirable objects. But your hit rate would go way down, I'm sure.

thinking.....
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Postby Manta on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:50 am

Fantastic shots Trebs - loved the project concept and the results speak for themselves. Apart form the photographic record, I love the idea that you have given each of your subjects something to take away from the experience, something that, for a few minutes at least, put some whackiness into an otherwise humdrum day. Well done.
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Postby sirhc55 on Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:26 am

Fantastic shots and idea trebs - I really like the tough guy and his pooch plus the lady with the ice cream and pooch :lol:
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Postby gstark on Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:56 am

What a remarkable, and well executed project.

I'm impressed!
g.
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Postby Glen on Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:56 am

Rob, that is a brilliant concept well executed. Liked the whole series :D :D
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Postby Marvin on Fri Jul 01, 2005 3:29 pm

I really like the muted colours and the red chairs in the pictures Rob. Looks like a fun day! Well done!
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Postby Greg B on Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:20 pm

Great stuff Rob, I love the idea of a project, and this looks like an excellent project. A winner on every front, interesting and inspiring photography.
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Postby meicw on Fri Jul 01, 2005 7:44 pm

Had to add my opinion. I agree with everyone else. Great idea and fantastic shots. Well done.

Regards
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Postby big pix on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:28 pm

what can one say....... great idea......great images......

cheers
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Postby mudder on Fri Jul 01, 2005 8:56 pm

Great idea... The images seem so full of life and natural as in homely...
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Postby Matt. K on Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:40 am

Birddog
I don't think we should steal somebody else's ideas. We are much more creative than that. How about a blue chair? :lol: :lol: :lol:
Regards

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Postby sirhc55 on Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:42 am

Matt. K wrote:Birddog
I don't think we should steal somebody else's ideas. We are much more creative than that. How about a blue chair? :lol: :lol: :lol:


Matt - we are on the same wavelength :wink:
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Postby rjlhughes on Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:51 am

The synchronicity of ideas is interesting.....and that's why I was so motivated to mention the Silver Sphere Project which I did months ago, with the a95. Even the name is so similiar.

I wonder if somehow we both tapped into someone else's idea too.

Irving Penn did that wonderful series of people around the world in his tent, of course.
Bob

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Postby gstark on Sat Jul 02, 2005 6:16 am

Matt. K wrote:Birddog
I don't think we should steal somebody else's ideas. We are much more creative than that. How about a blue chair? :lol: :lol: :lol:


I was thinking in terms of a sofa.

More seriously, what if ...

Within each of the areas where we have a presence ....

each of those regions organises a project shoot such as this ...

but they're all timed to occur on the same day ....

What the project would be is open but to be determined, and all regions shoot their version of the same project on the same day ...

Thoughts y'all ?
g.
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Postby trebs on Sat Jul 02, 2005 7:05 am

I heard and saw the sofa idea ages ago.
I'd totally forgotten about it when I was kicking ideas around with a buddy.
I came to the chair idea because it was big enough to be "present" in any shot, yet light enough to lug around town.

Red was just the pot of paint I had in the garage. :)

I've had a lot of people on other forums point out that it's not an original idea, but what is? Not much.
Original is the fact that we went and did it with the slant on the people's reactions. The chair being highlighted as the common factor that unites them.

If it's inspired more people to go out and interact with the public, that can only be a good thing !

I have a book here which was also inspiring, was made years ago for cancer research. People in the UK were asked to send in photos made on one day., the photos were sorted, put in time order and published. That way there was a 24hr record made of the day, seen by hundreds of people, from all sides of the UK. Great idea.

I wish you all good luck on any projects, and thanks for all the feedback.

Rob.
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Postby leek on Sat Jul 02, 2005 8:03 am

G'Day trebs... or should I say goede-dag...

I love the idea behind this project and the fact that you managed to engage so many people... Great work...

I am a little disappointed by the photo of the guy with the Guinness... Is that the best beer you could find in Antwerp? Surely a bolleke De Koninck would have been more fitting for that great city... :lol:

There is another large coffee table book called USA 24 or something similar which does similar to the UK book that trebs mentioned...

Building on the ideas from previous messages, how about we do a charity book too??? 24 hours down-under... Maybe something better left for the summer months, but we could have a practice run now...
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Postby sirhc55 on Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:52 pm

I think that if we choose a subject, for example a shop window, and all shot on the same day as per John’s suggestion, we would have an event.

A few years back I started a project (not finished) of shooting shop windows at night. The interesting point about shop windows is that during the day they can be very uninteresting, but at night they leap to life 8)
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Postby stormygirl on Sat Jul 02, 2005 2:53 pm

Fabulous execution of a brilliant concept! As others have already said, I too love the idea of a project......I'm still working on mine :wink:

Brilliant!! Excellent captures and thankyou for sharing them with us!
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Postby marcotrov on Sat Jul 02, 2005 3:45 pm

Excellent, creative idea bound to spawn more! I can just imagine the production of a red chair coffee table photo book.
cheers
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Postby Matt. K on Sat Jul 02, 2005 6:14 pm

Maybe a Jason recliner? :lol: :lol:
Regards

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Postby Alpha_7 on Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:36 pm

Thanks Leek for linking to this, it was before my time (I think) and an awesome collection of shots.
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Postby optogamut on Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:05 pm

Make the red chair project international, send it to cities around the world!?
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Postby blacknstormy on Sun Jun 11, 2006 7:41 pm

What a brilliant idea - and could be very very fun - thanks for the link :)
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Postby Steffen on Mon Jun 12, 2006 12:46 am

Rob, that's way cool! What a great way of showing off one's city and its inhabitants...

Cheers
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