“I’ve had the battle between stillness and chaos be primary subjects in my head – artistically speaking – even before I learned to distinguish them both apart in my photographs. Growing up, I was always drawn to images that depicted still backgrounds combined with a subject “on the move”. Stills with people running, looking back, jumping, or even walking were always more thrilling to me than a simple picture of someone standing still.
After attending music school, I realized I might have found a link between “action” in an image and why I was so interested in them.
In music, a “cadence” is the end of a musical phrase. It is the end of a sentence. Where the notes finally return home. Where everything is finally at peace. But before that cadence, music is always at unease. That’s what makes music so appealing. Your ear is waiting for music to return back “home”.
An image with movement causes the same effect. There is an untold story told in one frame. What happened before? What will happen after? This piece of the story with a lack of beginning and end is what thrills me the most.
The beautiful thing about traveling is that I get to recreate this vision of “movement” in places that otherwise wouldn’t be part of the story I’m trying to tell with my images. It’s humbling to experience the thrill of telling a story with one frame. A story that has no beginning and no end…”
About Erick Hercules
Raised in an artistic family, Erick spent his first 20 years being an opera singer performing with numerous world class choirs on world class stages and with many A-list celebrities. However, after co-founding Hercules NYC in the summer of 2012, he picked up a camera to do the photo shoot for what was then going to be Season 1 for the brand and immediately fell in love with the art of photography. Since then, Erick has been captivating people with his portraits which encapsulate a new, fresh perspective. Known mainly for his “puddlegrams” and levitation shots, Erick has worked with numerous brands, artists, and models, making him quite a versatile photographer known for combining both subjects and backdrops in a surreal manner.
Follow Erick’s continuous battle with movement and stillness via Instagram @erickhercules, @welevitate and @puddlegrams.