Photos of Cutups Can Be Cutouts
There’s a new store in town offering the perfect item for egomaniacs. For a mere $125, you can have yourself photographed in a variety of poses, with the pictures mounted on acrylic cutouts to form a 4-by-6-inch sculpture. For a much heftier sum (beginning at $750), you can accommodate a heftier ego and show off your attributes with a life-sized sculpture made from a single portrait. The result is a little like a high-tech paper doll.
Trumpeted in publicity material as a “patented concept developed as a replacement to traditional one-dimensional photography,” photographers at the Seegerpeople studio photograph customers in a variety of poses and then create sculptures from the pictures. Prices start at $55 for a single-image, 8-by-10-inch sculpture.
The store, which opened Labor Day weekend at Newport Center Fashion Island, has been an instant success, says Stephen Krupnick, who owns the Seegerpeople franchise in California. With the company’s two new California stores (in Glendale in addition to Newport Beach), the Seegerpeople chain now includes nine. Two new California shops, in the Los Angeles area, are scheduled to open in 1989.
“Business has been excellent,” says Krupnick, a former accountant. “We create sculptures that have some artistic integrity.”
Krupnick, who says he has photographed about 300 people since the Newport Beach store opened, believes that Seegerpeople images convey more personality than flat photographs.
“We take photography several steps beyond, into who you are. . . . It expresses more of the variety of the dimensions of a person.”
Those added dimensions are provided by a variety of props kept at the store (tennis rackets, shopping bags, golf clubs, baby toys) and the customer’s choice of clothes and poses. The two California stores have a total of seven photographers who help customers with the props and poses.
A glance at the figures displayed at the Fashion Island store provides a sociological glimpse into 1988 attitudes and preoccupations. Many of the subjects of these two-dimensional sculptures are photographed in their exercise togs, while some
are in tuxedos. Men are often pictured in front of Ferraris. Women are shot gripping Gucci shopping bags. And those of hard body and taut tummy are snapped in “spontaneous” stretching positions while dressed in skimpy leotards. Others are photographed in business suits, and one fellow simply chose six balloons placed strategically in front of his nude body.
Which brings us to decorum. Seegerpeople insists upon it, saying its franchise agreement prevents the company from photographing frontal nudity or pornographic poses. Balloons are OK, though.
Other sculptures convey ideas or commemorate events, like anniversaries, graduations or weddings. One woman gave her husband a figure showing her in a variety of poses--cooking, holding a suitcase, playing tennis, playing the piano and, of course, exercising. The sculpture was an anniversary present. Another figure displayed a blonde in a French maid’s uniform, a nightie (she was holding a teddy bear), a jogging suit and a formal gown. This could be called a fantasy sculpture.
Krupnick says the sculptures, which were invented in 1982 by Arizona photographer Dick Seeger, are especially popular with parents and grandparents who want to capture the essence of their little darlings in a variety of poses and clothes. For $125, parents can have five pictures of Jason or Jessica mounted to form a sculpture. One of the store’s specialties is a montage called “I’m growing up” that is a series of life-size replicas of your child each year, mounted on an acrylic base.
Seegerpeople can also photograph at locations other than the Newport Beach studio, such as parks, beaches, restaurants, homes or offices. Krupnick is especially proud of one shoot in particular. A family was photographed as a checkers set with members wearing black, mounted on a black and red checkerboard. The store also offers automobile backdrops (a red Ferrari or black Porsche) and a tennis court backdrop complete with boundary lines.
Photo sessions last about an hour and proofs are available about 1 1/2 hours after that. Four weeks later, the sculptures are completed.
The store’s pricing system is complicated because of the number of poses, people and sizes available. A 4-by-6-inch sculpture begins at $125 for five images of one person and goes up to $375 for five people and 15 images. An 8-by-10-inch, single-image sculpture begins at $55 for one person and goes up to $215 for five people. And a 16-by-20-inch sculpture begins at $175 for one person and tops out at $675 for five people. Small, additional single figures (4 by 6 inches) can be ordered for $25 each, but cannot be ordered unless a larger sculpture or multiple-image sculpture is ordered as well. Krupnick says his largest order so far was 156 images of a family of 12 that cost $3,900. The sculpture measured 10 1/2 feet long. That family’s total bill for an assortment of sculptures was $12,000.
That much togetherness may be beyond some people’s means or imagination. For them, the smaller sculptures make charming gifts.
