Smoke & Mirrors: The Ransom & Mitchell Interview

Ransom & Mitchell is the fine art nom de plume for the artistic collaborations of Jason Mitchell & Stacey Ransom. Director-photographer Jason Mitchell and set designer-photo illustrator Stacey Ransom create highly-detailed and visually-lush photographic portraits & scenarios. Their work is narrative in nature and draws upon the darker undercurrent that exists within all aspects of society. They aim to create worlds that cannot exist, through a unique combination of cinematic lighting, theatrically designed sets and an illustrative approach that is inspired by the Italian and Dutch Master painters. Their meticulous mind-set and skills were honed in their years of working on motion picture films and they still often create short films to accompany their photo works. 

They took some time out of their crazy schedule to answer our questions about their backgrounds, their individual and collaborative processes and shifting between the worlds of commercial and fine art. Their debut solo exhibition of photo illustrations will be on view at Varnish September 8 - October 27, 2012. Opening Reception: Saturday September 8, 6-9pm.

Ophelia, 2012

Archival Print on Paper

The two of you have created a very successful motion and photographic studio (Purebred Studio) that produces commercial work. What inspired you to begin doing portraits of musicians, artists and writers?

We both have histories rooted in photography, Jason as a photo & film journalist and myself (Stacey) as a Creative Director for a variety of