The last time I shot Logan Mock Bunting was ON the water in Maine at Lake Sebago
So when awesome photographer Logan told me he was on his way west from North Carolina for the wedding of an LA Times photojournalist friend up in nearby San Luis Obispo I offered the inflate-a-bed accommodations and the SB tour guide favors in return for some IN-water shots in the studio :-)
Thanks buddy! This could be the beginning of an interesting project :-)
“Vulnerability and awkwardness are access points for the viewer, and a suggestion of real humanity.” – Chris Buck as told to Joerg Colberg (Conscientious) a few years back. Chris is well known for his (mostly) celebrity portraits that push the edge – I think of Annie Leibovitz’s images in the early ’80s of naked John with Yoko, of Whoopi in the tub of milk, of John Cleese hanging like a bat. But what Chris does really well is more than team with his subject to create a memorable image. He finds that point of expression that comes back to vulnerability and awkwardness and then frames the image with something odd, something different, something surreal.
The first image below is form his “Isn’t” series. That isn’t Angelina. Then the three following are all from my favorite series “(Un)common”. Click through the image to see his site. Don’t miss the “Famous” series – Steve Martin, Jay Leno.. a crazy image of Billy-Bob Thornton relieving himself on the seamless.
What I learn from Chris is to keep thinking outside the box. Bend the rules and push the envelope. But most importantly to find that revealing nugget of awkward humanity in a portrait.
We just finished a great shoot yesterday that needed three iconic locations to literally set the stage for some classic characters. I’ll fill in the details when the campaign is revealed late next month. Meg, a Tulane graduate and soon finishing her photography degree at Brooks Institute has been helping me as intern / assistant and totally rocks the Sekonic meter on the pre-shoot light tests (click the image to see larger).
Here is most of the crew, kicking back waiting for the light in the courthouse tower which we have all to ourselves after hours. Models Steven and Kaita (David not shown here), Meg the intern, Daniel (behind-the-scenes & video), Miller (costume/wardrobe) and Heather (hair/makeup). It all came together really well :-)
The third of a series of posts about those who visually inspire me. (All images are posted here with permission from the photographer.)
It’s all about how it feels. The first few love,love,love posts on Carlos Serrao, Haley Jane Samuelson, and Nadav Kander all share common ground: a powerful visual that pulls emotion – for me that’s either a gut reaction or a pause-think reaction. Sharpness in an image is not a necessity and has no place unless the tone and composition – the feeling- are there to begin with. So here is Susan Burnstine:
Dreams are often where I find inspirations, whether I’m sleeping or not (daydreaming can be damn productive) and Susan’s images are truly dreamscapes. A few of the images above are from her series “On Waking Dreams”. For Susan vivid dreams are a path to her art – a response to the gap between dreaming and waking and I imagine a response to how she has seen the world.
These are not Holga images, or Diana – six years ago Susan began building her own plastic lenses and mounting them on vintage cameras. That soon led to completely building her own camera bodies and lenses: out of plastic parts, toys and household objects. Each camera might have its own signature – different focal lengths, a few different shutter speeds…
The results, unprocessed, straight out of camera, speak to her intuition in revealing a moment that is all about pulling emotion. Kind of like Keith Carter (also love) in style but also just as different. The images presented here are to me solitary, maybe a bit dark with a twist of light: the ice skater twirling with joy surrounded by more serious and non-twirling skaters. Lines and curves that draw you in. A figure looking up, not down, in the rain…all open to your own interpretation but all very powerful to me.
The second of a series of posts about those who visually inspire me. (All images are posted here with permission from the photographer.)
Minimalist. Generalist. Very likely one of the world’s most widely respected and successful photographers. Born in Israel, raised in South Africa then to London. What strikes me about his work is the simplicity of his color palette and purity of composition. Here are some of my favorites: the first pair is from a series in the mid-90s (God’s Country) that see the western US from a unique perspective. Small figures, big landscapes, lots and lots of space. You don’t need to know where they are, the images tell their own story (edit: well perhaps even better the images allow you to fill in your own interpretation). The second pair is fairly recent and from his project on the Yangtze River, using the river as metaphor for the changing China. He photographed the river from beginning to end in 2005-2008. I can only imagine how patient he had to be to create these images. Beautiful. Although not intended to be a social documentary it could not be anything but and won the Prix Pictet award in 2009. (edit: last week Joerg Colberg had a conversation with Nadav about this project - read it here)
The portraits? evocative. Click through the image to see his site and you begin to appreciate the range of his work – from fine art (of course) to ad campaigns for Nike, Levis, Mercedes, Air France and on to his editorial work in Esquire, Rolling Stone and the epic 58 full page Obama People portraits – a special section in the NY Times magazine a few years ago of Obama’s staff just before taking office.
It’s all just brilliant.
The first of a series of posts about those who visually inspire me. I’ll try to line these up for every Monday. Sunday evenings are a great time to reflect and write. Just thinking about this series and reaching out last week to those I want to show is an inspiration in itself. (All images are posted here with permission from the photographers.) Here are the first two:
Wow. What I strive for. Beauty, emotion, subdued cinematic tones and a moment created that just pulls you into the image. It is all about the feeling. I love how he uses shadow, backlighting and often shades faces. He makes it look effortless – the DP at Esquire told me Carlos is a master of craft and and a consummate technician. I first saw his images in a series of dozens of athletes he did with Nike for the 2004 Olympics – his commercial work for Nike, Puma, and Adidas are at a level of production you would expert for high-end advertising with all the requisite compositing and planning. But the thing is they look so fluid and authentic. And his editorial work: fashion and portraiture – less produced, more of Carlos showing through and what comes through is in the realm of fine art. Just a beautiful aesthetic.
I first saw her images hanging at Photo LA in Santa Monica last year and they stopped me in my tracks. As large gallery prints they are beautiful and like Carlos’ images they just pull me in. This 2009 series, titled “Another Room” is so moving for me (the last portrait below is from an earlier project “head with fish”). The first five are carefully constructed self-portraits: moody, intimate and revealing. Very personal images she has created of her self. The use of color, subdued tones and natural light is gorgeous. For my taste this series is a step ahead and darker from her previous work – these images force you to reflect. Her current work in progress takes a new step outdoors…
Brilliant automotive shooter John Early has put together great moments from a dozen photographers he reached out to last week. He had two questions: what was the best moment, what was the worst? And what was learned from those experiences. John contacted me at the suggestion of his SF based rep Lenlee Jenckes who has a great group of photographers she works with. She really caught my attention with an Airstream promotional project where she asked each of her diverse photographers to shoot a story around the vintage airstream in each of their own styles and interpretations. The work then became a beautiful promotional piece.
But back to John’s best and worst: compiling the comments in a blog he thought it would be helpful to other photographers as well as agency creatives who would probably enjoy reading it. On board were Rhea Anna, Darryl Bernstein, Eric Hameister, Hunter Freeman, James Quantz Jr., Lou Lesko, Wendi Nordeck, Blake Woken, Luke Copping, Bob Stevens, myself and John Early.
Here’s the link to part one of his three part post. And Part 2. And Part 3.
Stupid mistakes and gear: The first was when I tied rolls of priceless film with bungee to the back of the motorcycle on the way to the lab – gone forever on the side of the highway. But more often it is the gear that I neglected to back up that created exciting moments. Aside from my normal work I shoot a lot of prominent Republicans that come to visit the Reagan Ranch. Early on I used speedlights and a wireless commander that went south in the middle of working with Karl Rove under a pretty tight schedule. Without a backup and without cords I resorted to on-camera flash and the results showed. Since then I spare no expense when the images need to be nailed under pressure. Shooting Sarah Palin this past weekend I brought in a Profoto kit with backups and always pay attention to the details when it needs to be fast, flexible and perfect.
Losing bids: It will always happen but one particular moment stung and I learned a lot from it. It was client-direct and they were not familiar with usage and the production levels needed for what they really wanted. My bid was far higher than others but fair. When they told me the levels of other bids I cut my estimate too deeply and this backfired: although I cut line items that others likely did not include they saw a response that they read as either initial price gouging or worse – desperation. Lesson learned: know who you are talking to, gather as much information as possible and stay at your level while aiming higher – sometimes you are just not the right guy and if it is for reasons of price you just found the reason to court better clients.“
