Free Drinks In Hell

Comments?

The Hellish version of A Matter of Life and Death? Who are the drinkers? Demons or sinners. Discussing their sins, or the sins of the people in that wonderful neon city below. Mushroom clouds of forging glass are spreading over the streets, foci of evil and their spreading influences.

 

And then we have that stretched, distorted wisp in the background. The Reaper? The Devil? Spooky child with hatchet?

 

Can't be the Devil. That's obviously the bartender, if my memory of Tom Cruise films is right.

Reminds me of the bar scene in Sonderbergh's Out of Sight, and the bar scene in Lost in Translation for that matter. This is a strong rendering of the impersonality of the downtown corporate bars and the big lit cities. I love the two figures on the right - the anonymous one so apparently impassioned, and the one on the far right so deep in the stereotype.

Stephen, This image would be the result of Jerry Bruckheimer making a movie out of Calvino's Invisible Cities, eh?

 

Jeremy, I love those guys too. And the impassionate and measuring eye of the bartender.

 

This half of the portfolio was shot in Las Vegas at the beginning of this month. I was attending a trade show and going mildly psychotic with the desire to be elsewhere. This image was shot at a bar on the 64th floor of The Hotel. I shot the reflection in the huge windows. It was a free bar hosted by some big company that was about to devour some other not-so-big company and a continuous parade of endlessly inventive appetisers marched past me all the while (curried Quail and carmelized Portobello nailed to a slab of coconut zested with kumquat, for example). The voices in my head said don't drink anything or you will never be able to leave. The elevator down was a glowing bubble on the outside of the building. I'm probably radioactive now.

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit. Now I know I'm not hallucinating.