The team at Unsplash reached out to me to commission a body of work around the theme of identity. Identity is such a broad, subjective concept that I ultimately used several different technical approaches to create the portraits…
Read MoreMicro and Macro with Katy
I had a wildly varied session with @cortadh0e last week…
Read MoreShelby X Creative Portrait Workshop
I had a blast hosting a sold out workshop at my studio this past weekend. Thank you to my students for coming from places as far away as Boston, Seattle, and the Cayman Islands. Shout out to my incredible models (@yesandso seen here) for making it easy to turn these techniques into moving art.
Read MoreEyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose (Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes)
It’s been nearly five years since I’ve photographed @kate_sweeney and it was interesting to see the parallel in tone with our last shoot (third eye vibes)…
Read MoreWe Are More Than the Sum of Our Parts: A Photographic Pushback Against Artificial Intelligence
Many AI images look are impressive at first, in a too-good-to-be-true kind of way. Interiors brag gravity-defying architecture, or scenic terrains depict features that have never before been seen on this planet. However, there is inevitably an element that seems off when viewing these images. They are too perfect, and lack the tactility and weight that feels believable, a phenomenon referred to as the uncanny valley. This begs the question, are AI images a success or a failure? Are they successfully creating visions of an ideal human or world according to some programming and an amalgamation of stock imagery, or are they a failure in coding, with the author lacking the awareness to include nuance and imperfection in their vision? Its these details that, I’d argue, that inform us that a person or a place is real…
Read MoreKinstugi and the Art of Self-Care: Adult Survivor of Childhood Abuse
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing a broken vessel with a precious metal, such as gold or platinum. A repaired vessel isn’t the same as it was before the trauma, nor is it diminished. The essence of the original vessel is still there, but golden scars now trace the lines where the fracture occurred…
Read MoreFluid Portraits Commission by Unsplash+
These images were all created using in-camera effects. No Photoshop was used— only color grading in Lightroom.
I was recently commissioned by Unsplash+ to create a library of fluid portraits. Last year I began working on a new body of images where I explore fluids and in-camera multiple exposures. My Canon 5DIV allows me to select an image from my memory card and overlay it on my viewfinder, when in “live view”, which allows me to intentionally compose multiple exposures. Even though I know more or less how the fluid and the portrait will merge, there is always a moment of surprise when the final image pops up on my screen. As you can see in the gallery below, the same fluid shot will produce wildly different results depending on how the subject is light, the clothes they’re wearing, their hair, the complexion of their skin, etc. This makes each image a one-of-one.
Read MoreAvatar: The Last Airbender Photo Shoot for Entertainment Weekly
This is one of those achievement-unlocked moments for me. Since I first picked up a camera as a teenager (27 years ago 😱), one of my dreams was to shoot for @entertainmentweekly. A few weeks ago that dream came true, when I was given the opportunity to shoot the cast of the new, live-action adaptation of @avatarnetflix, which premieres next month on @netflix.
Read MoreAstral Projection: Psychedelic Fashion Shoot with Foxx Smoulder
In an effort to keep things interesting as well as continue to evolve as an image maker, I’ve learned to embrace an element of chaos in my portrait sessions. In the case of this shoot I set up a series of controls, such as a strobe and a projector, and then I added the unpredictable element of video…
Read MoreNew Flower Portraits and a Fine Art Print Sale
Historically, whenever I create something that I’m really excited about, I immediately get overwhelmed (this latest shoot is case in point). I’ve thought about reasons why it may affect me in this way, and here are just a few…
Read MoreMore Images From Glow Workshop
Here are some of my favorites from my latest workshop. Thank you @ademolarizzy for bringing so much energy to the images and thank you to my students for coming out to make art with me.
Read MoreLifestyle Photo Shoot for Luxury Apartments at Kings Cross in London, England
Back in January I flew out to London to create a library of images for Author, a new luxury apartment complex in Kings Cross…
Read MoreImages From the Glow Photography Workshop
Here are a few selects from my “Glow” workshop this past weekend. One of my favorite things about teaching is that I often end up discovering new things, such as this concentric circle halo effect that I stumbled upon…
Read MoreLess Is More: Slowing Down with Sondos
Lately I’ve been intentionally slowing down the pace in which I engage life. Though I’ve never been good at being still or meditating, I have found lately that stillness is what I’ve been craving the most. My favorite pastime these days is to sit in what others might call silence and listen to the sounds of the world around me. Crickets chirping; the wind moving through the trees; jets passing overhead; neighbors listening to a ball game on their porch radio. If I can manage to stop thinking about each individual sound, I can start to hear them all as one, and accept my place within it.
Read MoreIn-Camera Multiple Exposures with Liquid and a Model
Here’s my latest exploration with combining images of fluids with in-camera multiple exposure portraits…
Read MoreThe Negative Side of Social Media : Commissioned by Unsplash
As some of my longtime followers know, I’ve had a complicated relationship with social media. In 2019 I was experiencing so much anxiety that I permanently deleted all of my accounts (60,000 followers over 3 platforms) with no plans to return. I spent the next year off the grid. Though I’d already been in therapy for years I also began going to a support group for adult survivors of childhood abuse (ASCA). I started climbing and began regularly cycling again. The combination of processing trauma, moving my body, and removing myself from situations and relationships that exacerbated my anxieties, I began to heal…
Read MoreFlea of Red Hot Chili Peppers for Los Angeles Times
Flea has a new podcast called “This Little Light”, on which he interviews a broad range of people from the music industry such as Patti Smith, Earl Sweatshirt, and Rick Rubin, thus mirroring his own diverse taste in music. When Calvin Alagot asked me to make portraits of Flea for the Los Angeles Times, I began thinking of different techniques that I could employ in an effort to reference the breadth and length of Flea’s career as well as his influence in the music world.
Read MoreJason Segel for the Los Angeles Times' Envelope
The @latimes_entertainment was doing a story on Jason Segel and his new show, Shrinking, and @himguydude asked me to shoot the portraits (thanks again for the trust and freedom, Brandon)…
Read MoreCyberpunk Photo Shoot for Unsplash+
I was recently commissioned by Unsplash to create a series of cyberpunk-inspired images. Though the cyberpunk aesthetic is especially trendy as of late, it has held a spot near to my heart ever since I was a teen in the nineties…
Read MoreProjector Photo Shoot : A Collaboration with Digital Artist Christopher Royal King
I recently collaborated with musician and digital artist @christopherroyalking. He created a bunch of images that I used to project onto @_soniaconstable. These images were created strictly with in-camera effects (no photoshop was used)— a fact that I especially pride myself in, in a time of AI-generated imagery.
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