Common Thread Project

The goal of the Common Thread project was to connect 60 people in a single shot, all united through a single red rope. I don’t want to say too much more about the intent of the project, because I’ve found that different people have their own interpretations and I’d rather not introduce any bias into how someone might view it.

History

Photography for the project got underway in December 2010 and went through January 2011. As I mentioned above, I originally planned to have 60 people in it, but ended up with 70 due to the strong response I got from volunteers. Toward the end I actually had to turn people away because I had to wrap things up and move on to the actual construction.

The Common Thread was accepted into the 2011 Seattle Erotic Art Festival, where it received a very positive response. That wasn’t too surprising, since most everyone who attended the festival was either in the project or knew several people who were!

The Mechanics

• The finished printed piece is about 5 inches tall and nearly 15 feet long. If it were printed at full-size, it would be approximately 180 feet long.
• Yes, this caused some challenges when it came time to print it. Fortunately, Thomas Park saved the day for me.
• More challenges popped up in the framing and transportation parts of the project. Lee Burkhart built a killer frame that was rock-solid and made it much easier to move and mount.
• All photography was done one person at-at-time, even in the instances where two or more people appear to be interacting with each other. And yes, even with the four people who are jumping rope together.
• No one should be surprised that there was massive amounts of Photoshopping involved to tie all the shots together.
• The rope is a 75-foot, 1-inch diameter regulation tug-of-war rope. Thank you, Amazon.
• No, I’m not going to put a larger version of it online.