PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDAL FORD
Assisted by Lauren Smith Ford of Tribeza Magazine
INSPIRED BY THE WORK OF NORMAN ROCKWELL

Randal Ford picked a curious challenge: The Austin, Texas–based photographer decided to recreate classic paintings by Norman Rockwell. Now, why go to the trouble to cast, prop, and shoot another artist’s vision of a bygone era? Because Ford believes Rockwell never went out of style. “I’m drawn to the way Rockwell depicted classic American values,” he says. “Still, the stories he tells in his paintings—the love of a daughter for her mother and the unruliness of a spelling bee—speak to all places and ages.” In After the Prom (Rockwell’s version from The Saturday Evening Post ), both artists capture the timeless moment of first love. The scene works in any era. These images also work because of what they leave out. “Rockwell used to say that the life he communicated in his pictures excluded the sordid and the ugly,” Ford says. “He painted life the way he would’ve liked it.” That’s the way we like it too.

Back Again (above) “I shot this at a great parlor in Austin, Texas, called True Blue Tattoo. Look closely and you’ll notice the man getting the tattoo is the same guy sitting at the end of the bar in the prom-date shot. I love that the last name on his arm is Betty; he’s been all over the world, and now he’s back with an American girl. By the way, the guy doing the work is a real tattoo artist.”

Mirror, Mirror (above) “I like how awestruck the daughter seems. You can tell she idolizes her beautiful mother almost to a fault. The mom looks glamorous, almost haughty. It’s the Rockwellian theme of depicting ordinary people aspiring toward a certain kind of star quality. And the wardrobe makes the era intentionally difficult to place. Both of those dresses could work today, and they would have worked 75 years ago.”

Front and Center (above) “This spelling bee was easily the most difficult shot. We had makeup artists, wardrobe stylists, about 20 kids, and all their parents on stage. I wanted a mix of ethnicities, shapes, and sizes to give the photograph a more modern feel. About half of the kids came from casting agencies, the other half from word of mouth. Then I shot about 100 frames, broke the resulting images into sections, and spent a solid two or three days compositing the image—digitally splicing together the pieces I liked best.”

Ready For Her Closeup (above) “The original painting struck me as Norman Rockwell’s version of the paparazzi. Here we have this Marilyn Monroe–inspired starlet who appears as if she’s just won an Oscar. Her expression says it all. Unfortunately, we cast the photographers a bit too young. I had to go back into Photoshop and weather their skin, twist their hair a little bit, make their ears and noses bigger to give them a more mature look.”

Fashion Victim (above) “This image of an insecure girl comparing her looks with those of a fashion model was relevant in Rockwell’s time and even more so today. So many girls have distorted views of beauty. I wanted to show where those views lead, to the feeling Maybe I’m not good enough.”