We got a chance to sit and chat with the photographer and director, Neil Krug. The GoldTwinz releases today a novella from NeoText, in which Neil is working with the writer Jardine Libaire.
Hi Neil, we are so happy to have you here with us.
You are working with Jardine on her new novella, The Gold Twinz; can you tell us about the artwork you have created for it?
I look at this collection of artworks for The Gold Twinz as a kind of film-in-stills meets photo-surrealist nightmare. Throughout the series there are moments in the imagery that read like a frame grab from a film, and other images that suggest a more illustrative rendering of the scenes depicted in the text. I chose this approach as I hoped it would be more enjoyable for the reader and to satisfy my own aesthetic desires in making the work.
What were your thoughts when you read The GoldTwinz?
My initial thought was, at last, a chance to let my freak flag fly. I enjoy genre bent crime stories and immediately responded to the world Jardine had in mind for this story.
What has it been like collaborating with Jardine on The GoldTwinz?
The collaboration has been enjoyable as the two of us [Jardine and I] share a similar vision of how the work should look and feel. I find any great collaboration amongst creatives needs a shared vision so the work can go in the direction it needs to. I was able to chase the spirit of the project knowing that the atmosphere of the imagery would align to the text.
Can you tell us about what your creative process is like when you are creating your artwork?
The first thing I arranged for The Gold Twinz was picking my cast and making sure the performances would have the space to be as raw as the text suggested. The rest was choosing locations and deciding how best to photograph the world via my arsenal of cameras and film stock. I treated the various shoots similarly to how a producer would arrange shoot days on film, which helped focus the setups and keep the energy for the cast concentrated on whatever we needed to accomplish on the day.
Do you have a favourite piece of artwork that you created for The GoldTwinz?
I’m particularly fond of the sequences of Yvette played by Kaiman Kazazian in which you can see the character moving about the room, and the entire performance is caught in a single frame of film. The surreality of those specific frames translated perfectly to what I imagined when daydreaming about the project.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
Todd McFarlane and Katsuhiro Otomo are two artists that I will forever be inspired by. I grew up during the heyday of Spawn and Akira and am aware that those specific works have had a great influence in how I approach color and building atmospheres. Those artists [Mcfarlane and Otomo] are a gift to the world.
We would like to say thank you to Neil for taking the time to chat with us and wish him and Jardine the best of luck with The GoldTwinz.
