Kate Russell: The States Project: New Mexico

Kate Russell: The States Project: New Mexico by Jennifer SchlesingerMarch 31, 2016

The Ricochet Project, Cohdi Harrell and Laura Stokes, info@thericochetproject.com

©Kate Russell

Kate Russell is a household photographic name in Santa Fe for her commercial photographic skills– architecture, travel, food, portraits, advertising and on and on. Her studio and portrait skills far exceed those of a typical fine art photographer, say for example, me! She knows how to make anything look good, and does it with a unique imagination. For the project we are debuting today, it’s not immediately clear which is the art we are looking at – the portraits of the two-person circus show Smoke and Mirrors or the circus show itself – both are equitably strong in visuals, tension, story, composition, and presentation. This is The Ricochet Project – a collaborative photographic project between the two-person circus and the photographer, and what results is the beauty and narrative of images that becomes it’s own performance.

Kate Russell is a commercial, editorial, and exploratory photographer. The subjects she has covered for clients, magazines and friends are as varied as her background. Action, art, architecture, circus, food, friends, and life; the lines frequently blur.

The Ricochet Project

Russell chose to focus on The Ricochet Project’s Smoke and Mirrors for this project. Cohdi Harrell and Laura Stokes are the performance duo known as The Ricochet project, a Santa Fe, NM based performance duo. The Ricochet Project’s show; Smoke and Mirrors, recently presented at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, took home the ‘Best of ‘ award for Circus, one of the highest honors possible in the performance field.

This project has the opportunity to both bring international attention to what happens here in Santa Fe and at the same time, bringing Santa Fe’s attention to what is happening out there on an international scale.

The Ricochet Project (Cohdi Harrell and Laura Stokes) and photographer, Kate Russell embarked on de-constructing the show; Smoke and Mirrors for this series of photos.

The Ricochet Project is …

a circus of two…..

Tiptoeing the line from the heart to the head, RICOCHET creates intimate acrobatic performance. Their unique style of contemporary circus bridges jaw-dropping virtuosity with the un-namable experience of what it means to be human.