When you develop a mental picture of a modern photographer’s studio, the first thing that comes to mind is likely a cyclorama—the large, concave and usually white-painted wall that makes the subject look like they’re floating in a blank void. If that’s what you want, then sure, Photo Bang Bang studio, owned and operated by inventive portrait photographer Curtis Joe Walker, can set you up with one. But in order to access it, you’ll need to walk through a Victorian era-inspired parlor, a dungeon, a boiler room that can double as a mad scientist’s lab and a steampunk-like clock tower, all stacked with nearly every prop imaginable. The studio’s website describes it, altogether fittingly, as a “photographic theme park.”
“Some stuff in here I’ve had for 30 years or more,” Walker says, gesturing around the space at various items—furnishings he inherited from his grandmother, a recently acquired phone booth, a medical chair dating back to 1906 and, oh yeah, a spinning torture wheel. “It’s one of our signature products. Everybody wants to ride on this thing.”
Photo Bang Bang is regularly rented for commercial shoots, music videos and—perhaps unsurprisingly for a place with a dungeon—by the adult film industry, whose business Walker values highly. (“They usually give me whole-day rentals. Music videos are just two to three hours.”) But it’s also open to hobbyists, who show up in numbers for Photo Jam, a five-hour, $25 event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every month. “They don’t have to have a specific reason to come to the studio; they can just come hang out, and that’s been pretty fun,” he says. “People sometimes come up with pretty cool stuff [using the sets]. It’s a good time for me to work with people I wouldn’t work with otherwise.”
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Every inch of Photo Bang Bang is maximized for use. When Walker took over this New Orleans Square space, he plotted it meticulously using an iPhone app. Take a step back from this clock tower set, and you’re standing in the dungeon. When a set isn’t being used, Walker stacks it with props, and entire walls can be moved to further transform spaces. “It’s like stagecraft. ... Photography is 90% moving furniture,” Walker says. By the way: The spiral stairs to the right don’t lead anywhere. They just add to the vibe.
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Walker builds some of his props, but acquires most of the others from private sales. This taxidermy bobcat belonged to a man who lost interest in it after “his dog chewed the ear off,” Walker says. “The guy was so disgusted by it. It sat in his garage for a time.”
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These 1980s-era television and camcorders represent Walker’s love of old tech. He speaks affectionately and knowledgeably about old cameras, classic video game systems and vintage cars.
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These are some of Walker’s cameras, minus the mirrorless Nikon that’s his workhorse. The Lomography Instant Wide on the bottom is a favorite; he takes it to the Telluride Film Festival to shoot celebrities. “It gives me carte blanche, because it looks old, and anybody who is into cameras feels like they should know what it is,” adding that director Werner Herzog loves the camera:.“I harass him every single year. He knows me as a Polaroid guy; it’s like he’d be sad if I wasn’t there. [The Lomo Wide] is a good conversation piece.”
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