Aug 6

Aug 6 Photographic Alphabet: E is for Amy Eckert

Guest User

Photographic Alphabet

Soap

“Carly tells Jack she realizes they’re finally over.

Barbara is about to pay off Iris when Will and Glen catch them red-handed.

Chris tries to revive an unconscious Bob.

Brad offers to father Katie’s children, Dusty overhears.

Meg and Craig get trapped in an elevator and bond over delivering a baby.

Noah outs himself to a friend.

Emily comforts Mike, who blames himself.”

These photographs were made on the set of As The World Turns, a soap opera that was filmed in New York City and ran on CBS for nearly 54 years. 54 years! That is longer than some human life spans. I was interested in visiting the real-life “Oakdale, IL,” the fictional setting of As The World Turns, in order to feel what it was like to be in a real place that was also a very un-real place at the same time. How was the whole illusion constructed? I wanted to see the physical superstructure involved in creating this illusion. I wanted to see the camera and the image, the truth and fiction, at the same time.

How is our real world constructed? Do we not each have a framework — a set with props, a lighting grid, a cast of characters — in our mind that generates out own point of view, our own simultaneous truth and fiction?

In our immediate moment of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and deep fakes, what seems timeless is that we really like to escape where we are, and we really like living vicariously through other people’s drama. Fittingly, JC Studios, a.k.a Brooklyn Studio II, a.k.a Oakdale, IL, was recently converted to a self-storage facility.