Sheer creates 13 spirits in the graveyard, eleven of which are visible in the detail above.
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THE STORY AND MAKING OF
GRAVEYARD SPIRITS
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA

         Graveyard Spirits is an 80-minute single exposure photograph taken between midnight and 1:20am at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica.  Sheer uses a view camera and a 4x5 sheet of color negative.  There's no Photoshop and no multiple exposures.  The performance of this photograph is a completely solo endeavor.  During this night exposure, Sheer walks into the frame of his shot to create all the figures using a portable lighting device held in his hand.  For each figure, he changes into a costume, travels into the frame, strikes a pose, and quickly creates a circle of light on the wall of a tombstone behind him.  When he's moving around, Sheer doesn't appear on the negative because he's working in the blackness of the night.  It takes about 40 minutes to create all the characters in front of the tombstones.  Then another 40 minutes is spent sitting next to the camera allowing the moonlight to continue brightening the scene to make the graveyard visible. 

         Graveyard Spirits almost got Robert Kawika Sheer arrested.  A police cruiser entered the cemetery around midnight, -- its headlights striking Sheer dressed up as a gravedigger.  A deep voice shouted, "Sir, drop the shovel and place your hands on your head!"   Sheer unclenched the shovel and slowly placed his palms on top of his top hat   The Law cautiously approached with their flash light beaming and gun holsters unlatched.  "I remember thinking that I didn't want to go to jail; then I thought:  Whoa, I don't want to get shot."  Sheer survived the moment and was able to continue shooting by explaining to the officers his strange artistic purpose and persuading them to follow him through the darkness to the location of his camera.  "Before that," adds Sheer, "the cops were talking about either taking me to the jail or the insane asylum."

        The performance of this photograph is one of nine separate attempts at creating this shot over a three night period.  On the first night, Sheer had only one character to experiment with -- the Dickensian gravedigger.   It was on this first night that the Santa Monica police surprised the artist.  The police also made an appearance on the third night and inadvertently pointed their car's headlights into the lens of the camera ruining the seventh overall attempt.  Despite this setback, the third night was to be the magical night.  The very next exposure produced the above image.  Not being able to immediately view his success (since he shoots negative), Sheer performed a ninth exposure from 1:40 till 3am. 

       Perhaps Sheer's highest compliment comes from his cinematography peers who refer to his photography as "motion pictures" captured on a single frame of film; the negative stays still while Sheer motions throughout the scene.  Collectors of Graveyard Spirits include Nicolas Cage, Anne Rice, and Steve-o.  To see a video about Sheer's technique, click here.
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Revised: December 16, 2011