In October of 2011, Josh Jordan e-mailed me to ask if I would be the photographer for his RPG book, Heroine.
I said yes.
Then I didn’t hear from him for a year.
I figured that the project had hit a block, or maybe he decided to do something else or pick another artist. This happens quite a bit, actually. But no, Josh had just been hard at work on his game. He put the game up on Kickstarter and raised enough money to put a decent budget towards art.
It is impossible for me to emphasize enough what a difference having an art budget made to this shoot. It meant that I could rent out a national landmark to shoot in. It meant I could spend money on costumes, and design things specifically for the shoot. It meant I could take care of my models and pay my makeup artist a decent wage.
It made a huge difference in the end product. I means that the things we produced were tailored to this project, and I got to dream bigger, and allocate more time to production.
One of the neat things about the Heroine photoshoot was all the collaboration I got to do, from working with Nikki from Mayfaire Moon to working with my husband Jared on creating the characters of The Rook and The Troll King.
This shoot allowed me to do what I really like to do with photos; creating an ongoing narrative. When I look at these photos, I see a story here, a story that might be told a hundred different ways. These are clear characters, but you, the viewer, have the ability to invent the story in your own mind, to fill in the blanks I’ve left you. In some ways, you decide what happens here. Does the Troll King die? What is in the crystal ball? Is the Rook evil, or just misunderstood? Does our Heroine win the day, and what does winning mean?
Photos taken at Eastern State Penitentiary
Makeup by Bunny Greene and Avalon Bathory Waegel
Models: Jared, Jenn, Avalon, Russell
Costumes by MayFaire Moon, Jared Axelrod and Russell Collins
Want to read some fiction based on these stories? Check out Jared Axelrod’s Website for some excellent fiction.
Click Here To Purchase Heroine
Like what you see? Want to hire me for your project? Contact me at jrblackwell at gmail dot com.
J.R. Blackwell 
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