In a Word... Dahlia Katz, photographer

Ms Katz by Scarlet O'Neil

I want it to arouse my curiosity, get me up off my couch and into an audience.

It's an odd thing - we saw Dahlia Katz's work for Antony and Cleopatra and were awe-striken (and - forgive the TMI - aroused). It was easy to choose one of the photog's shots as The Still but it was only after we contacted her for this interview that she mentioned one of her photos had also been chosen as picture of the week at our sister site, CharPo-Canada - the brilliant poster art for Dying Hard (see below). So, yes, Dahlia Katz is good and we simply wanted to know more.

CHARPO: How long have you been in the business of photography and, more specifically, theatre photography?

KATZ: The business, 12 years. Theatre, about half that.

CHARPO: Correct us if we're wrong but theatre photography has gone far beyond snapshots of a show in dress rehearsal, hasn't it?

KATZ: It has. The term 'theatre photography' can casually refer to several types of shooting, all serving the promotional needs of the production: 1) The early-on overall branding image(s), 2) candid and action shots in the rehearsal hall, 3) fully staged production shots, 4) archiving of design elements, and everything else in between.  It depends on the publicity strategy, how you want to build your audience, who they are, and where you expect to find them.


CHARPO: What are some of the shows you've shot, and which were your favourites?

Dying Hard promo art

KATZ: My absolute favourite was the branding image for A Vagrant Theatre's Dying Hard, which I also directed.  We wanted to show the imperative risk, the dust and smoke, the difficulty breathing... the terrible working conditions that caused the widespread industrial diseases, even though we don't see any of that onstage in the show. We only hear about it.  The performance itself being a verbatim play comprised of interviews of dying Newfoundland miners and their wives, and the actor being relatively plainclothed and the set minimal, we chose for the image to address one's imagination and empathy for the reality of the story instead of the spectacle of Mikaela Dyke's prodigious acting, which is less important.  It is difficult to even recognize Mikaela - so caked in "dust" as she is - as the model in the photo.  During her performance as well, you quickly forget she's just a young woman playing four men and two women more than twice her age, and in another period in history.  So as I see it, it's a translation of the dynamic live performance into the language of the still.

CHARPO: Names like von Tiedemann and Cooper are slowly becoming familiar to people, do you have a favourite theatre photographer?

KATZ: David Hou is an inspiration.  I also like the work Raph Nogal has been doing lately.  I look for theatre photography to get me excited about liveness, and how theatre is different from film or television.  I want it to arouse my curiosity, get me up off my couch and into an audience.

CHARPO: What sets the art of theatre photography apart from - say - wedding photos?

Dying Hard

KATZ: While a wedding is not altogether different from a theatrical production, shooting a wedding is about memorializing, shooting theatre is about marketing.  The magic of a wedding is in the consensus of the celebration ("We all feel the same!"); the magic of theatre is in the variety of individual human responses, the subjectivity ("This is what I felt when this happened... what did you feel?"). The unique challenge with theatre photography is in showing the public some of the best the performance has to offer, without spoiling the magic.

CHARPO: You need not answer this but…do you earn a good living or, like a lot of actors, do you have to "wait tables"?

KATZ: As a photographer I specialize in headshots, weddings, portraiture, and promotional photography, so, yes, that all keeps me busy enough, and has for years. But I do keep a part-time desk job for the security in a changing economy, and I direct theatre from time to time, so having my own business allows me the flexibility to manage that as well.