Noah Kalina: Everyday/Celebrity
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Self Portrait With Paris Hilton
© Noah Kalina
You may know him from his on-going self portrait project Noah K. Everyday or maybe by the infamous video version of the project (January 11, 2000 - July 31, 2006, 2356 days of photographing himself), but Noah Kalina has recently shared with the world a new project which he talks about with Liz Kelly from the Washington Post:
NK: That project was done backstage at the VH1 Big in ‘06 awards.
(more after the jump…)
I got a call from one of the producers of the show and they invited me to come out to Los Angeles and do this project backstage. A little hesitant, I asked if any of the celebrities would even know who I was. They assured me that my video was so big and such a huge part of popular culture everyone would know who I was. Of course that was not the case.
The concept was pretty straightforward. I would basically take my photo in the same fashion that I have done my everyday project, just with the celebrities in the frame. All of the photos would run as a time-lapse during the credits. I even sent them photos of my bedroom which they put as the background. I had a lot of creative control as to how it was to go down, so I was satisfied.
If you watch the show you basically see me between every commercial break, and then they run about eight seconds of the project at the end.
The funny thing is that they never explain it or even make mention of it during the show. If you never saw my video you would probably be scratching your head wondering who the hell I am. I think that was the best part.
Liz: How did you convince them to pose with you or were they already familiar with the phenomenon that is Noah K.?
NK: I just sat there while the producers wrangled all of the celebrities once they got off stage. It was funny hearing the producers trying to explain the project to the different celebrities. They should have had a TV playing my video so they could see what it was all about, but instead they had a black and white printout the front page of my everyday Web site. It was impossible to get the idea of who I was just by looking at this piece of paper. I wouldn’t have even understood what they were talking about.
Just about everybody was a good sport since it was actually a legitimate part of the show. I only witnessed two stars decline the offer. They were Dominic Monaghan and Megan Mullally. The former was a disappointment because I am a big fan of “Lost,” the latter, well, no big deal…
The only celebs that were actually familiar with the phenomenon that is Noah K were Weird Al Yankovic and Paris Hilton. How perfect is that?
Liz: Who was your favorite subject?
NK: I would have to say the Hulk Hogan and family. I think it’s one of the best photos and they were all really nice people. It’s too bad mom got cut out of the shot. After we took our shots, The Hulkster asked me “What made you start to do this project” And I said, “I don’t know, I just thought it was a good idea.” (That is my short answer, when I don’t have a lot of time to get into it.) The Hulk shook his head and said, “It was a good idea… I think I am going to start doing that.”
You can see Noah’s new series on his Flickr stream.
