Back in June I joined forces with the creative team at @comedycentral to create the key art for @cthagod’s new show @cthashow. It’s been so cool to see images of the art out in the world and I’m really looking forward to watching the show premier this Friday…
Read MoreStrata VIII
I’ve shot with rubber cement half a dozen times now, each time slightly changing not only how I apply the material to the plexiglass but also how I light it and process the images in post. Though I’m getting closer to what I’m going for in this series, there are still so many variables to explore with this material. Over the past year I’ve experimented with shooting through a range of substances and materials to get more painterly or sculptural results, titling the series Strata. You can view my other texture explorations here.
Read MoreOld Man Gloom
It’s always great when I get a chance to reconnect with Jim. We worked through a range of creative scenarios in this shoot. I shot his reflection with a broken mirror. I shot through a distressed air filter. I played with mylar. It was my first time splattering water onto the mylar, and found that the warped nature of the material in addition to the water added a nice graphic novel-look to the images. These techniques are all part of a new video series I’m currently working on, titled The Creative Portrait. Keep an eye out for the first episode, dropping soon!
Read MoreIt's Always Sunny with Sonny
Last week I shot with Sonny and we did all the things. I started with a single, un-gelled “hard” light and then began ratcheting up the complexity. By using a range of different cucoloris (cookies) I created organic-shaped shadows on her face. By adding a cyan-gelled background light I was able to give the feeling of her being outside on a sunny day. We went on to play a range of different shadow-makers and color which worked perfectly with her long braids and flowing outfits.
Read MoreStrata VII
It’s been a while since I’ve explored the Strata series. The reason why I started this experimental series almost a year ago was in an effort to take my portraits into a more painterly realm. Digital can be so hyperreal and “accurate” and I often find it quite boring. I want tactility. Grit. I experimented with shooting through different substances, such as honey or coconut oil. I shot through different types of plastics, using everytinhg from saran wrap and bubble wrap to light panels from the hardware store. I explored different ways of capturing reflections by using broken mirrors and mylar. My goal was discovery. I want an element of chaos and surprise in how I create photographs, and so I set up a series of controlled photo experiments to see what came out of it.
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Zoom Drag
This was a fun, quick session. A simple setup— just one light and a projector— with a dramatic result. I was experimenting with zooming my lens from 35mm to 16mm as I simultaneously panned the camera during the long exposure. The strobe on the background kept her silhouette intact while the projector and camera movement created the wavy, fluid lines.
Read MoreRJD2: The Fun Ones Photo Shoot
In late 2018 my buddy RJ (aka RJD2) approached me about shooting the cover art for an upcoming album he was working on. He didn’t have a concrete idea about what he wanted to do but suggested possibly involving his Delorean. He was specific about the images not being about the car itself but rather capturing elements of the cars shape and incorporating them into creative portraits. I was intrigued but really couldn’t visualize what the hell he was talking about. Eight months later he hit me up and told me he was ready to shoot. He said that he had a garage that he’d just painted white that had a 14-foot ceiling with trusses. His plan was to suspend himself upside down above the open doors of his Delorean, and seemed confident that he could rig himself adequately with a climbing harness and some ropes. When I suggested that it may be easier to just shoot him and the car separately and composite them he was aghast. Ok, we’ll do it the hard way.
Read MoreWildfire
I am starting to work more with motion. While part of this decision is strategic (I see a massive shift to video in the commercial and editorial industry), a big part of it is passion. I’ve been obsessed with films since I was a kid. Back in my college days I worked third shift at a video store for just over a year and watched 3-4 movies a shift, catching up on decades of classics. Film is just so immersive for me. It takes storytelling to a whole new level. I love being able to pair image with sound and create a deeper experience for the viewer.
This is a quick piece I put together a couple of weeks ago with Rachel Luree. I concepted, shot, and edited it in less than an hour and am super excited to push more into this new chapter of my craft.
Read MoreCreative Portraiture Workshop: New York City
It was great to be back in New York, teaching my two-day Creative Portraiture workshop. Photo god Lindsay Adler graciously lent me her Manhattan studio while she was off killing it in Milan. We had a blast experimenting with light, color, and technique.
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Creative Portraiture Workshop: Columbus
My sold out, two-day Creative Portraiture photography workshop took place a week ago and we had students travel from three other states to make art at my Columbus studio. We began by covering different qualities of light (soft vs. hard) and how to intentionally create different types of shadows. Next we covered a bit of color theory and how to use cookies (cucoloris) with gelled lights to create colorful shadows. For the rest of the weekend we covered a vsat range of techniques, such as making multiple exposures; creating prismatic effects with a broken mirror; shooting through different materials; photographing warped and colorful reflections with mylar and prismatic window film; using shutter drag; making custom shapes and images by way of projector. It was a jam-packed whirlwind of a weekend but we all came away feeling inspired and ready to go back into the world and create.
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Seasonal Affective Disorder and Hunting For Light
Lately I’ve been hyper-focused on light and texture. I can get seasonal affective disorder (SAD) pretty bad in the winter when the days are shorter and days or even weeks can go by without the appearance of the sun. When the sun does decide to make an appearance it feels like I’m awaking from a coma. I notice qualities of the light that I would likely otherwise ignore the rest of the year when sunlight is plentiful: how the light looks like water through an old window; the shapes that it creates when it hits a living room armchair; how it moves across nearby buildings until it hits a window and bounces into an otherwise dark corner of my room. It’s magical. I’ve recently taken to carrying a mirrorless camera around with me to make sure I’m ready when the sun hits.
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Vibrant Vivian
This was my first time working with Vivian. I kept the session relatively simple, focusing on capturing the vibrance of her personality. I started off by using the prism film with just window light. Then I added red and blue-gelled LEDs that I used in combination with window light. I finished by giving the images a grainy, saturated film look to make them feel older.
Waiting, Watching
When I was teaching at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops last August I had the fortune of sitting in on a presentation given by Tony O’Brien. During the talk he discussed his photo series, Light in the Desert, wherein he spent a year living with and photographing monks in a monastery. He described how he had waited seven months before he even picked up his camera to take a picture. He wanted to earn the trust of his subjects before attempting to capture their image. It absolutely blew my mind. That level of patience and intentionality is unheard of. No one had directed him to wait that long. No one was watching him to make sure he captured his subjects with honesty and integrity. It was apparent to me that this is the way he lives his life and in turn also carries out his photography work. All that is to say is that I’ve been working a lot on modeling my life after a slower, more intentional way of living…
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Trash Talk
These images were created during sessions with three different models. I love the variation between each of them. The textures are just so stunning. I can’t decide whether I like this series better in black and white or color. I suppose it could also work to go back and forth. Thoughts?
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Gettin' Weird with Jade
Fantastic Plastic
Chyna popped by my studio last week to update her digitals. Of course I couldn’t let her get away that easily...
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One Man's Trash...
This marks my third shoot with Melissa this year. Though she now lives in NYC, she was in town for the holidays and asked if I’d be interested in doing a plastic-themed shoot. In preparing for the shoot sent me a few images from a recent Vogue Portugal fashion story that implemented single-use plastics into their shoot. I really enjoyed how they repurposed trash into the creation of something new and beautiful. I knew that I would want to take a different approach to the idea by capturing the texture of the materials and experimenting with creating more abstract portraits, and so I asked Melissa to “rescue” a range of plastic from her life over the next week and bring a range of options with her to the shoot…
Read MorePhoto District News: Equipment Guide 2019
This was a fun surprise. One of my portraits of Sydney Lafaire made the cover of the new Photo District News equipment guide. I’ve been reading this magazine since I started out as a professional photographer, so this is certainly an “achievement unlocked” kinda moment…
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