Jennifer Pattison talks us through her haunting collaborative photographic project
A figure sits in the gloaming. Simon Costin as Pan is motionless, wearing his weighty tapestry coat adorned with shiny horn buttons. His shoe gapes across his shrunken left hoof, his horns have withered away. The air is warm and full of dust. Pan contemplates his youthful former self, remembering roaming barefoot in the hot wilderness, frightening sheep and spreading panic across the mountains. Thousands of years have passed as he waits patiently for his portrait to be taken.
This series of images is the result of a collaboration between myself, Simon Costin , Christopher Kelly and make-up artist Natalie Sharp. Simon Costin commissioned Christopher Kelly to design a costume, inspired by the god Pan from Greek Mythology, for him to wear whilst taking part in the annual spring festival Jack in the Green, Hastings.
Pan was re-imagined as an eternal recluse about to turn to stone. Photographed against the museum-like interior of his home, this was a rare occasion for Simon Costin to feature as part of the creation, rather than a force behind it. One of the portraits from this series has been shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society International Print Competition 157.
Jennifer Pattison
