As Atlanta artist/photographer Philip Bonneau prepared to unveil his “Heroes +Villains #2” exhibit last spring, he didn’t realize his life was about to change.
Shortly after the opening, he got profiled in the gay national media outlet “The Advocate” – twice. Actor George Takei trumpeted one of his pieces online. (“It was so interesting to see my work go viral,” he says).
Bonneau also launched a Kickstarter campaign that enabled him to do a wildly popular “Heroes +Villains #3” at the end of the year, combining drag with his usual vision of superheroes. And there’s more — through Kickstarter he was able to meet a funder and participate in “Dream Weaver,” a New York exhibit this spring honoring actress Sigourney Weaver, where the artist based a piece on Weaver’s character in “Aliens.” He was also asked to be a guest at next year’s Outlantacon.
Bonneau calls the last year and a half “overwhelming.”
Heroes. Villains. From comic books to Disney films, from He-Man and Skeletor to the Little Mermaid and Ursula, so many iconic childhood stories are divided into these two character types, one good, one evil, each needing the other to exist.
“Everyone has a choice to live life as a hero or a villain. I do think some people can lean either way, but predominantly remain in the gray area. All of that is relative really and that answer is something that only we can ask ourselves,” says Atlanta photographer Philip Bonneau, whose new exhibit, “Heroes + Villains 3” opens Nov. 16 at Inherent Design Lab, and includes each of those characters and many more.
“I think in the context of this series, especially this show, that there is no good or evil present in these characters,” he continues. “I think it is very successful at finding beauty in even the most villainous of characters.”