It isn’t easy to create funny looking portraits. Photographer Alex Waber took on the task of capturing the style and the seemingly effortless lack of grace of the comedians of Vancouver for Sad Mag’s Glamour issue. Waber is well versed in the glamorous and absurd: he has photographed for some of Canada’s best fashion magazines as well as created some unsettling satire of the industry; he elegantly portrayed a baker covered in flour, and he has even made a one man comedy show about a tinfoil sculpture seem dignified. To provide a glimpse of the method behind his madness, Waber sat down for a coffee at Revolver Cafe in Gastown to shoot the shit with Sad Mag on a rare not-rainy afternoon.
Sad Mag: What was the initial idea the magazine brought to you and how did it evolve?
Alex Waber: The concept was to do a series of portraits about the comedians of Vancouver in the style of 1940s glamour. They had a few ideas of character types they wanted to portray – because each comedian has their own personal style, whether it be improv, sketch performance or political comedy. [The magazine] had a skeleton and then we worked together to flesh it out.
SM: The sets are very elaborate. You even built a cityscape for the action man photos – what made you what to take on that task?
AW: The original name for that shoot was ‘heroes’ and when I was thinking back to 1940s heroes I immediately thought of the stereotypical scene with heroes standing on a rooftop with the wind blowing. I was initially thinking it would be awesome to put them in brightly coloured leotards and capes, but then I wanted to ground it more in spy thrillers from that era. I figured it would be more fitting with them wearing bomber jackets and dressed in that style. I love early Hollywood movies where there are blatantly painted backgrounds, and I wanted to portray that sense of artificiality in this glamorous situation; so we shot [the scene] in a studio rather than on an actual rooftop…which we actually ended up doing for another shoot.
SM: That’s right, the “heavy hitters” were drinking martinis on a roof – how did that come together?
AW: The rooftop one was a weird situation because originally we were going to shoot it in someone’s apartment that we decorated to make look like an office, but due to unforeseen allergies we had to rethink that plan half an hour before the [comedians] arrived on set. Rather than having one sneezy character in the background, it made more sense to move. The solution we came up with – aside from photoshopping in the background, which would have been a bit of a nightmare – was moving up to the roof of the building and setting it up like a fancy cocktail party, with a table cloth, drinks and all that. It was a fun scramble to set it all up.
SM: Is it difficult to come up with a photo shoot that will work as a visual-joke. Or at least seem jokey?
AW: Sometimes. I often will come up with a really big complicated ideas and then have to scale it back to something that is manageable for us. We can’t do the billion dollar sets quite yet, but one day. It’s a fine balance.
SM: What do you think brings the comedian photos all together? Do they speak to each other or do you think of them as separate concepts?
AW: I think they work together because they all have a nostalgic vibe to them, primarily because of the stylists. I had two awesome stylists, Burcu Ozdemir (from Burcu’s Angels) and Tyra Weitman. The clothing, hairstyling and the makeup – there was a whole team of makeup artists – really helped to tie it to a time period. The shoots themselves can be similar, but there a few of them that get pretty crazy – the action man photos were like nothing else in the series – so I think it was mainly the styling that helped keep it together.
SM: How did the comedians react to the intricacy of your set ups?
AW: I think they really enjoyed it. A lot of them said they had never done anything like this. They’re natural performers, so once we decided to do something, they were great. The only challenge was that they’d make me laugh and then I’d jiggle the camera, so not the worst problem in the world, really.
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