The Glint of Armor Caught Her Eye, by Scott Timberg
Photographer E.F. Kitchen found herself drawn to the medieval re-enactors known as the Society for Creative Anachronism. Her pictures of them fill the book ‘Suburban Knights.’
E.F. Kitchen, a Venice-based fine arts photographer who works with platinum prints, spent years fascinated by the glint of light off of handmade armor. “It was a purely visual concept,” says Kitchen, whose first name is Elizabeth and who loved “the materials, the craftsmanship, the creativity of the designs.”
[Read the complete article on the Los Angeles Time’s website]
July 28, 2010
ON AND OFF THE WALLS: SUBURBAN KNIGHTS
Posted by Kristina Budelis
At Powerhouse Arena the other night, a lanky hipster girl in a madras-print dress held hands with a man sporting a medieval-style robe and cap. And as photographer E. F. Kitchen spoke about her new book, “Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages,” a man clad in full armor wandered around behind her, his suit clanking noisily. When an audience member asked, “What sort of weapons do your subjects use? Does it ever get violent?
The New Yorker: “The Book Bench: The Middle Ages Meet Suburbia” by Caroline Dworin
“Sometimes, in the wooded distance near my pretty little college on the Hudson, one would see near-grown males, battle-clad in capes and helmets, beating each other with swords. It is likely that such boys had chosen to attend my college because it held a reputation institutionally as a champion of the artistic, intellectual, and social long shot. For instance, the two students who dressed, for what seemed like weeks, in matching silver spacesuits, were not treated as pariahs; nor was the boy who was habitually clad in a chainmail tunic he’d crafted himself.
I thought little of these characters until I encountered “Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages,” a folio (with an all-important accompanying online video) of fifty-nine portraits of “reenactors,” by the photographer E. F. Kitchen, forthcoming from powerHouse Books.” [ Read the complete article on The New Yorker’s web site ]
The Front Row: Dinner-Role Models: The New Yorker
Posted by Richard Brody
Over at Photo Booth, Kristina Budelis presents a selection of photos, by E. F. Kitchen, of members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, “a group devoted to recreating the arts and activities of the Middle Ages.” The story and the pictures remind me of a movie that came out in 2008, …
powerHouse Books is pleased to announce the release party and photo exhibition for:
Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages
photographs by E.F. Kitchen
To see a video preview of Suburban Knights, click here!
Exhibition: July 14–September 6
Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 22, 7–9PM
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
For more information, please call 718.666.3049
Please RSVP: suburbanknights@powerHouseBooks.com
Whether they’re bored office stiffs, housewives, or disgruntled war vets, the armor-clad members of the Society for Creative Anachronism like to get beat up the old-fashioned way. Boasting more than 30,000 members worldwide, and over 16 “Kingdoms” in the United States alone, the eclectic eccentrics of the SCA participate in a variety of rigorous medieval battle simulations.Suburban Knights is a series of portraits of these 21st-century warriors, in costume and in character as their knightly alter egos.
From 2003 to 2005, internationally renowned photographer E.F. Kitchen photographed and interviewed the fighters of the SCA on location at their battles. Kitchen’s unique approach dispensed with technologically sophisticated cameras, and she instead used a tripod-mounted, 8x10 bellows camera with exclusively handmade and antique lenses. The results are appropriately hoary, sepia-tone images of these fierce warriors lost in time.
About Suburban Knights:
“I’ll be honest, I see a lot of people join because their real life sucks. You can come here and be anybody.”
–Lord Duncan the Monster
Suburban knights willfully escape from the 21st-century and into the realm of the SCA, where one can come face to face with the formidable armor and lance of a knight calling himself “Nissan Maxima.” Warriors are icons for an idealistic code of behavior extolling power and virtue. The men and women of the SCA capture a bit of this past glory for themselves, and while a majority of the portraits obscure the faces of these knights, under their thick armor, their features couldn’t be made clearer.
Images from Suburban Knights
For more information, please contact Joel Cáceres, Publicity Associate
powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
tel: 718.666.3049 fax: 212.366.5247 email: Joel@powerHouseBooks.com
Copyright 2010 powerHouse Books
Monday Aug. 30th from 5 to 7pm at LACMA — Book signing & Conversation with E.F. Kitchen and author Leo Braudy
NPR: The Picture Show: “Gather Ye Olde Suburban Knights,” by Claire O’Neil
Prithee ye willful spectators, verily caste thy gaze hither and looketh uponeth thither … thou … art … Um, hey, look at this! Large-format platinum portraits of re-enactors!
Knight fever: A battle for the ages
Anachronism: one definition is ‘a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time. Photographer E.F. Kitchen, in ‘Suburban Knights: a Return to the Middle Ages’ explores the world of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group dedicated to dressing as knights and ladies of the Middle ages, who meet on vast battlefields to do mock battle.
[Read the whole article on the New York Daily News website]
SUBURBAN KNIGHTS: A Return to the Middle Ages, E.F. Kitchen, Power House Books, $35, ISBN: 9781576875360, reviewed by Barry Hunter.
This is one of the more unusual coffee table books I’ve seen in years. Several years ago the Society for Creative Anachronism was at the forefront of the Renaissance Faire’s that would pop up once or twice a year. Now they are more common and a tourist attraction during the summer months.
From 2003 to 2005, Kitchen took photographs of the personages in their armor. He also collected memoirs from them so they could use their own words to tell how and why they have adopted new persona’s to go along with their armor.
There are many pictures showing the chain-mail, helmets, shields, and swords that go with the other parts of their costumes to make them unique.
Some of the characters shown are Sir Marcus the Merciless, Duke Dick, Sir Gaston Bonneville de la Croix, Lord Dietric von Hessen, the Honorable Lady Bridget Lucia Mackenzie and Sgt Duncan the Monster. The book also has an appendix that shows everyone as they normally appear.
Although this may not be a book for the casual reader, it is a fascinating and once in a lifetime look at a unique group of people who believe that the metal of a man can be worn outside the body for all to see.
Art, the anti-desk,
Photographer E. F. Kitchen spent 2 years following warriors of the middle ages. Called the Society for Creative Anachronism-SCA for short-the group is made up of modern knights. Kitchen’s portraits show them standing tall against a timeless backdrop of dirt and brush, brandishing swords, hoisting flags, and lifting their shields to show their royal insignia.
Clickers & Flickers
Dear C&F Members:
(and invited guests)
Join us for our October event… Participation is what makes Clickers & Flickers a dynamic group.
You’re encouraged to come in a Halloween Costume (if your dare). Optional, of course.
Clickers & Flickers’ photography-networking dinner lecture,
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 in the Verdugo Ballroom at the Castaways.
E.F. Kitchen, Fine Art Photographer & Printer, presents: “Platinum Prints including Portraits, Nudes and Suburban Knights from the mid 1980’s to the Present” this evening.Ms. Kitchen will also show original platinum prints and a short film. All levels of photography enthusiasts, non-photographers, collectors and the curious are welcome. The Castaway, Burbank. (6:30 pm - 10 pm)1250 Harvard Road, Burbank, CA 91501.RSVP: 626-794-7447 or reply to this email.
Check out C&F website www.ClickersAndFlickers.com, for photographsand information under “Upcoming Events”
