JOSHUA HOFFINE MAKES CHILDREN CRY

Joshua Hoffine

knows what scares the fuck out of children. For the past few years, he's been staging a series of meticulous photographs that capture the horror lurking inside a child's imagination. Monsters under the bed. Serial killers on the loose. Being eaten by an enormous snake. Evil clowns doing, well, anything.

The photographs are Hoffine's passion project. ("Everyone works for free," he says. "We do it for fun.") And it shows. Within the confines of a single frame, he's able to offer more plot and provide more suspense than most Hollywood productions. Instead of wasting time like the latest

Saw

or

Saw

-like knockoff, his photographs give us the opportunity to dwell on a single image, soon enough realizing that children aren't the only ones he's scaring. The fuck is also being scared out of us.

Vice: Why do you feel the need to traumatize so many children? Joshua Hoffine:

I've only traumatized two, maybe three children--tops.

Are you at all worried about having to pay for their therapy?

Hopefully the work will sell well enough to pay for their therapy.

How long have you been doing these horror photographs?

The first horror photograph I made was "Phobia" in October of 2003. I made "Wolf" two weeks later. By the time I finished that, I knew horror photography was all I wanted to do.

Why are you so drawn to scenes of horror?

I love the iconography of horror. There is a metaphoric capability to the genre that can accommodate complex themes in a comparatively straightforward and all-encompassing way. I wanted to create narrative-based images that would provoke an immediate emotional response. Horror photography was the answer.

What's the actual process from conception to delivering the actual print?

I start by writing a description of the photograph. Then I begin location scouting or building a set, gathering and making props, and preparing for the make-up effects. This is the most time consuming part. I recruit the friends and family members I'll need as actors or crew, and borrow the equipment I'll need to make the shot. I stage everything practically, but shoot digitally. The photo-shoot itself can last all day, much of it spent on lighting. I download my footage into my computer. I edit using Aperture, and make sure my final image is perfect in PhotoShop before printing. The whole process takes weeks.

Is there a specific director, cinematographer or painter that's influenced you? I guess, a simpler way of asking is, who are your influences?

I am influenced by Walt Disney, especially his early horror cartoons like

The Mad Doctor

,

The Dancing Skeletons

, and the final Bald Mountain segment of

Fantasia

. I'm also motivated by classic fairy tales, Jungian psychology, and the works of Joseph Campbell.

"Jungian psychology"?

In the Jungian psychological model, the Unconscious mind is comprised of two parts: the Personal Unconscious, and the Collective Unconscious. All contents of the Personal Unconscious are derived from personal experience; the Collective Unconscious does not. Rather, it contains impersonal components in the form of inherited categories that are manifested and recognized by all peoples in all cultures. I make photographs that illustrate childhood fears. If the Personal Unconscious is the rejected frightening aspect of our personal experience, then when a viewer is frightened by one of my images, it is because the image has allowed the viewer to experience a projection from their own Personal Unconscious. They are remembering something that they used to be frightened of, but had forgotten about. They are re-experiencing a fear that has been repressed since childhood. However, I believe that the fear they are re-experiencing originates from the biological Collective Unconscious. Our fears as children are primal in nature. Fear of the dark, fear of lurking danger, fear of being eaten. I regard my photographs as culturally inflected variations on primal fears that arise from our biological Collective Unconscious. I just use the mechanism of the Personal Unconscious to bring it all back to you.

What kind of work have you gotten from this? Has it been a boon to your career?

No commercial work, really. A lot of print sales, a lot of press. I do it out of love, not necessity. I'm just going to keep going. More photographs. I'm working on a short film. When my kids are a little older, I'm going to make a horror movie.

Do you have a specific movie in mind already?

I've been thinking about it for a few years now. Right now my movie only exists as a journal full of notes and drawings.

What's your favorite horror movie anyway?

I have a lot. These days, I'm most preoccupied with "Martyrs", an existential torture-porn film from France.

Which photographs do you think are your greatest?

"Basement" and "Candy" are probably my personal favorites.

Why those two?

Subtextually, "Basement" best represents the Jungian idea of the conscious Ego mind descending into the frightening Personal Unconscious. I like "Candy" because it's based on "Hansel & Gretel", and is one of my few outdoor scenes. All the little girl can see is the candy, not all of the danger and consequence surrounding it.

Which photo took the longest to stage?

"Lady Bathory" took over two months to make.

For that one, you actually filmed the spilling blood from the rest of the shot. Isn't that kind of cheating?

My working methodology is built around my preference for practical effects. The blood rig that me and my friends devised for "Lady Bathory" did not provide me with the "Kill Bill" blood spray that I wanted in my shot. Ultimately, it was more important to me to have the image presented the way I saw it in my mind, than to adhere to any self-imposed purism. So yeah, I cheat sometimes. But I'm up front about it when I do.

Can you give us a preview of any other scenes you have in mind to produce?

At some point, I will start work on a series of photographs called "The Culture of Fear," which will deal with real world adult fears, like terrorism, nuclear holocaust, plague, ecological collapse, and so forth.

What kind of plans do you personally have for Halloween? Something morbid or more laid back?

I take my kids trick or treating. This year my costume consists of a band-aid on the back of my neck to indicate where the aliens – a la "Invaders From Mars" – have inserted their mind-control device.