Passion drives underwater photo shoot
Three dead young women glide through the water, haunting eyes gazing nowhere in particular and torsos trailing a wispy, submerged cloud of ball gowns. Their top-lit chlorinated tomb sparkles and warps the world above, drawing attention to their temporarily lifeless bodies. Free-floating locks partially obscure faces that reflect an eerie peace only experienced by the dead.
A sudden scramble of limbs and taffeta breaks the death spell and the surface of the pool. The three resurrected actresses come up gasping for air and squinting their burning eyes. This is a photo shoot for promoting the upcoming theater production of Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.
But the star of the show won’t appear in these poster images of underwater glamour garb; Rachel Brady, cast as the title character, treads water just outside the photographic frame. She and the other handlers are ready to position and guide the actresses as they repeat their ghostly swimming routine for the photographer, who stands before the underwater observation window.
Brady is no drama diva, even as the main character. Although the Concordia sophomore studies both theater and sociology, theater is her passion—grunt work too, not just the spotlight.
“In elementary school, I was a drama queen,” Brady said.
In third grade, Brady’s music teacher, Mrs. Benjamin, suggested that she do theater, so she began taking classes and doing community theater in her hometown of Minneapolis. Brady stuck with theater and came to Concordia on a theater scholarship with plans for heavy involvement in the program.
“I liked the program because it’s small enough that you can get a wide breadth of experience,” Brady said. “It’s very time consuming. It’s like I live in the theater.”
It’s also large enough to necessitate hours of hard work to beat the competition. Brady spends most of her time in the Frances Frazier Comstock Theatre for class, work, and night rehearsals.
Besides starring in “Eurydice,” Brady is busy behind the scenes as a member of the Audience Development Group, creating promotional materials for Concordia’s theatre department.
“I decided to take over the photo shoot because I like to plan things. The thought of taking pictures in a pool just sounded interesting,” Brady said.
The shoot involved the makeup artist, costumer, pool staff, and theater staff because the photos had to involve Ruhl’s water imagery, which adds a new flow to the old story.
Even though the photos won’t feature Brady, she poured out her time for preparation and practice.
“I like how I can do the grunt work and be in a show,” said Brady, who began planning the shoot in November 2009.
At the practice shoot in early January, Brady, clad in a green bikini with white polka dots, slid tentatively into the Concordia pool for the first time. She and two other practice models spent an hour and a half treading water and trying to pose just below the water’s surface. Once Brady got the hang of floating barely submerged, she tried opening her eyes and donned a passively contorted expression warped by the water.
“While the practice shoot wasn’t the most comfortable situation, it was a lot of fun,” said Brady, remembering the odd angles that repeatedly filled her nose with pool water. “It reminded me of when I was little and learning to swim,” she says with a laugh. “The water just rushed right into your nostrils.”
Despite the exhaustion and discomfort of the practice shoot, Brady’s positivity persevered.
“It was a great workout actually,” she said. “In the end though, it was worth it because we didn’t have to experiment with our actual actors.”
Her last-minute e-mail reminder prepared the models and staff for the actual photo shoot.
“Don’t forget a towel and hat if you are partaking in underwater fun,” Brady wrote. “Be fast like bunnies, and wear your suit to class so you don’t have to change when you arrive.”
Brady arrived at the shoot, her green bikini already under her jeans and winter coat. She pulled a sleeveless green dress over her swimming suit, shoved her feet into flippers, and hopped in for round two of water aerobics. She began floating face-down in the center of the pool and swam slowly toward the sub-surface observation window. Swimming in a dress is no small task, but Brady laid out the path for the actresses.
“Passion is important and when you find something that you’re passionate about, I think it’s important to explore it in any way possible, even if it means diving underwater and getting water in your nose and eyes,” Brady said.
The models. arrived fashionably late from class, put on the already-soaked dresses, and the makeup artist applied dark waterproof lines to their eyes. Brady explained how to execute the underwater pose, reminding the actresses to convey a deathly creepiness as they floated just above the camera. Brady and other handlers positioned the actresses and offered floating dumbbells between shot sequences for the stones to rest.
Just 29 minutes later, the shots were done. Brady’s preparation and three hours of practice enabled the crew and actresses to complete the shoot quickly. Now Brady uses images with no visible trace of herself to create the program for “Eurydice,” which will run Feb. 11-14. Passion prevailed; the exhaustion and discomfort of the pool shoot proved worthwhile.
“You know, my nostrils didn’t hurt for that long. It’s a good memory,” Brady said. “Who gets to say they did an underwater photo shoot? It’s like America’s Next Top Model.”
