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This is F*cking Awesome

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Apr 232013

To borrow a line from their hit single “Thrift Shop,” the above headline is what was going through my head while shooting the world tour poster for the hip-hop collaboration Macklemore & Ryan Lewis two weeks ago on a dry lakebed 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Shooting a world-famous hip-hop group in the middle of nowhere with live animals, including a very large, and fortunately very well behaved, tiger. Just another Tuesday, right?

The image references their song lyrics as well as their recent music video for their song “Can’t Hold Us,” which includes shots of their trumpeter Owuor (sounds like “No War”), riding a camel. It was conceived by Macklemore and Ryan and I was stoked when they called on me to execute it. The image is currently being used to promote their upcoming world tour on the heels of the release of their new album, The Heist.

Making the shoot happen was no easy task, and owes a lot to the group’s producers, Nic and Honna, who managed to arrange for the musicians, a live camel, tiger and flamingos, a variety of props including a rare 1980′s Cadillac they found in San Diego, me, my assistant and all of the lighting and grip gear I requested, to be assembled out in the middle of nowhere. Once together, my role was as much photographer as it was director, not only composing and lighting the shot, but communicating with the talent and the numerous animal wranglers (from Hollywood Animals and Gentle Jungle), who were fantastic when it came to getting the animals in the right place at the right time. And if things weren’t already interesting, we had to contend with 30 mph winds that knocked over props, knocked hair out of place and turned the 8-foot octabox on my key light into a giant power kite that at times required the strength of my assistant, two producers and four sandbags to keep it from flying away. Also, as you can imagine, the tiger could not be in the same shot as the camel or flamingos, lest she become a little…hungry. She was, as I said, well behaved, but not so much that she wouldn’t be interested in some tasty pink snacks. So we had to shoot plates of the tiger and flamingoes separately, that were later combined in post.

The group was fun, but was all about business, which made working with them a great experience. What I like best about them is their insistence on going it alone despite offers to join the ranks of numerous labels. (Hard to blame the labels for wanting them considering the “Thrift Shop” video now tops 250 million You Tube views, as well as their recent appearances on SNL, Conan and the MTV Movie Awards.) This means they have creative control over everything they do, which I’m sure is a dream for many creatives with their level of success.

Word is they’ll be in Europe most of the spring and summer and will be returning to tour the U.S. in the fall. You can find out more at www.macklemore.com

And in case you doubt that the tiger was real…

Aaron Axelrod

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Dec 052012

These are some a couple of my favorite portraits from recent sessions with Los Angeles artist Aaron Axelrod. I first met Aaron through my girlfriend, who works with his cousin. I came across him again several months later while he was doing an live painting at Google, who were hosting the Venice Art Walk at their new offices in Venice. When I came across him he was covered in colorful paint splatter and standing in front of a wall he was painting in his signature dripping style, (seen in his Pot, Sex & Acid series on his website), as well as on buildings around the city and in a recent commission for Apple. If I had my camera on me at the time I would have shot him right then, but – oops – I didn’t. It was cool though, because what I was really envisioning was a lit shoot that would really make the color pop. I later contacted him through Erinn to express my interest in doing this and, fortunately, he was down. We met in person a few days before shooting and came up with the idea to sandwich him between a mural in his studio and a piece of plexiglass that he could paint on as we shot. The effect I was hoping for was that he would appear to be a part of his own painting. The bunny ears were entirely his idea, and I did not object! He had recently worn them during a successful live painting show at the Vortex Dome called Melting Rainbows, in which he dripped paint on a spherical projector, making it appear as though colors were melting down the wall. The shoot was fantastic and yielded tons of great images, none of which are repeatable. Since the paints are water-based, he was able to simply wipe the surface clean and start again.

At that time he was also working on a commissioned piece comprised of two life-sized reindeer, which he heavily spray-painted and adorned with giant neon antlers. The pieces were just installed in front of the Westfield headquarters on Avenue of the Stars in Century City. I hung out for an afternoon shooting him as he painted them in his garage and then came back a week later to shoot the portrait above. The deer are surreal and I can’t wait to see them in their intended space. You should go check them out too!

Sitting down with an Olympic legend - Adolf Kiefer

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Aug 072012

Adolf Kiefer Olympic backstroke gold medalist

Adolf Kiefer at home in Illinois.

In light of the recent accomplishments by Missy Franklin at the London Olympics (5 medals! 4 of them gold!) I thought I’d post some photos I shot and set aside a few months ago of Olympic backstroking legend Adolf Kiefer. The oldest living Olympian gold medalist, in his prime he competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and was famous for being the first man to break the 1-minute mark in the 100m backstroke and winning all but one of his 2,000 + career races (Wikipedia says 2, he says 1). I had the opportunity to meet him and his wife this April at their home in northern Illinois after helping the directors of the upcoming documentary film Touch the Wall – which profiles Franklin and her former teammate Kara Lynn Joyce – shoot some footage at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. They wanted to interview Kiefer to learn about his storied career (there was even a comic book starring him) and also gain his insights into swimming’s then up-and-coming, now fully arrived, swimming star, who shares his specialization in the backstroke. So, following the races we drove north and spent an amazing two days interviewing him and rummaging through years of memorabilia, some of which deserves to be in a museum. At 94 years old, Kiefer has lead a life that many of us couldn’t fit into 10 lifetimes. In brief, after competing in the ’36 Olympics, where he met Hitler and befriended Jesse Owens, he had a short-lived flirtation with Hollywood before moving to serve in the Navy where he taught 13,000 navy swim instructors, saving countless military lives to drowning. He eventually went into business for himself, building Kiefer & Associates, a company that invented the first nylon swimsuit, modern lane dividers that keep swimmers’ wakes from entering adjacent lanes and that still to this day supplies much of the equipment you see at elite swim meets, from starting blocks to swim caps. Later in his life he moved into philanthropy and continued his mission, born in his Navy years, of teaching swimming safety to thousands of youth in the Chicago area. Despite being on in years and confined to a wheelchair, he and his wife both take daily swims in their indoor lap pool, put in time with the business, which they have sold to another owner, and get out to the major swimming competitions, including the Olympic Trials that were held last month in Omaha. Most of our time spent with them was in wide-eyed amazement as he recounted tale after tale of his life and as we perused his countless medals, photographs and pieces of memorabilia. A personal favorite was a copy of the official Berlin Olympics book, which contains hundreds of photos, many of them glued in prints, of Berlin during the ’36 games. Right there in the middle of it, along with chilling photos of streets lined with swastika-adorned flags and iconic images of the late, great Owens, is Adolf, arms raised, clutching a bouquet of flowers. And now he’s here seated next to me. After taking it all in and processing, I left feeling inspired to do more. I think if we could all accomplish a fraction of what he’s accomplished with our time here we’d all lead very fulfilling lives.

Maya

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Jul 092012

Here’s an image I made last week with Maya. I met her at a party and couldn’t resist asking to take her portrait. So glad she obliged!

Nana in color

Fashion, Fine Art, portrait, venice 1 Response »

Mar 052012

Nana in Yellow 1

Red, White & Blue 1

Last week I had another amazing shoot with my friend Nana Agyapong, a Venice-based artist, model and actress. My first shoot with her was strictly portrait and confined to the studio, so this time we headed off in another direction. Nana has proven to be one of my favorite people to work with, because in addition to being stunning in front of the camera, she brings an amazing level of energy and creativity to the process. Shooting with her is truly a collaborative effort! In addition, she’s an amazing trooper, as it was quite chilly out there! Check out several more shots after the jump!

Immigration issue divides campus

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Feb 162012

Christian Torres at home in Fontana, Calif.

A couple weeks ago I worked on a story for the Chronicle of Higher Education that brought national attention for the small Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. In late December, due to a complaint from an employee to the Board of Trustees that the school wasn’t properly vetting its employees’ immigration statuses, 17 workers who could not prove their citizenship were fired. One was Christian Torres, a 25-year-old kitchen worker who had been employed by the college for several years. Torres – who is pictured in the room he rents in a house occupied by two other families – and 15 fellow kitchen workers were among the 17 fired. The sudden termination of the employees resulted in immediate protests by both students and employees of the liberal college that prides itself on promoting Latino culture and continues to be a topic of debate. Meanwhile, those affected, like Christian, are moving on and trying to find new work, which he was hoping to land soon so he didn’t have to sell his car. Without getting into the debate of who’s wrong and who’s right, the situation is understandably a difficult one in areas such as this, which are primarily Latino.

You can read more about it in the Chronicle and in the New York Times. The Chronicle also posted a slideshow of images that include photos from the protests.

Richard Jackson for The Chronicle of Higher Education

Published, uncategorized 1 Response »

Feb 032012

Richard Jackson at LAX for The Chronicle of Higher Education

Richard Jackson for The Chronicle of Higher Education

A few weeks ago I photographed Richard Jackson for the Chronicle of Higher Education. A professor at UCLA and former head of the National Center for Environmental Health at the CDC, Dr. Jackson is the host of Designing Healthy Communities, a documentary miniseries airing on PBS this week and next. He is one of the leading advocates for better urban design, which in turn leads to better overall health for a community’s residents.

Jackson had the perfect place in mind for the shoot, a concrete island outside of baggage claim at LAX, where he says he often waits in a noxious cloud of cigarette smoke and car exhaust for up to an hour for a shuttle bus that will take him up to the UCLA campus. He spends his weekends in San Francisco, where his family currently resides. “This is my idea of hell,” he yelled over a cacophony of car horns and revving engine noises pinging back and forth between pavement and low cement ceilings as we exited the baggage claim area. He had a point. The place doesn’t exactly scream ‘welcome to paradise.’

Photographing at LAX is fairly easy as long as you don’t pull out any lights and are out in the public area. Swarms of paparazzi and camera-toting tourists are a daily occurrence, so there’s a certain level of tolerance built in for casual shooting. So, I kept it simple, shooting only natural light and using the bounce from the adjacent parking deck to light the subject. We were able to shoot for several minutes without being hassled, which is more than you can say for many public spots in the city.

The following day I went to shoot him as he was giving a guest lecture to a class at the university. The material he presented is pretty interesting, and I found myself sticking around after I’d packed up my gear to listen to what he had to say. Many of us, particularly in LA, are already aware of what poor urban planning can do to impede pedestrians, but seeing it presented in photographs of labyrinthian neighborhoods and charts tracking our nations health decline with the rise of urban sprawl and suburbia was still fascinating and frustrating. It’s amazing to see how an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and asthma can in part be traced back to civic planners from the 1950′s. It also makes you realize the hurdles advocates of cities designed around pedestrians, such as Jackson, have to overcome.

This also made me appreciate living in Venice, which is an unusually walkable and bike friendly neighborhood. In fact, LA has numerous walkable neighborhoods. It’s just when you try to get from one to another that the nightmare begins. Speaking of which, it’s time to get away from this computer and go stretch my legs.

Dr. Lucy Jones for Smithsonian Magazine

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Jan 242012

Dr. Lucy Jones for Smithsonian Magazine

I recently had the opportunity to photograph Lucy Jones for Smithsonian Magazine. We lucked out with our location, finding a spot at a private residence just north of the city that gave us a gorgeous view of the city, combined with a little touch of nature in the foreground, tying together her job as one of the nation’s preeminent seismologists with her role as a protector and voice of reason for the city’s earthquake apprehensive citizens. Jones, a science adviser for the USGS in Pasadena, has become somewhat of a local celebrity in Los Angeles for her regular tv news appearances where she explains the causes, risks and likelihood of tremblers before and after earthquakes have occurred. The story is an interesting read if you want to check it out. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Meet-Lucy-Jones-the-Earthquake-Lady.html#

Chiara Daraio for STYLE magazine

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Jan 032012

Chiara Daraio for STYLE magazine

In November I photographed Chiara Daraio for the Italian magazine STYLE. Daraio, a professor of aeronautics and applied physics at California Institute of Technology, was being profiled for being a leader in her field, which in layman’s terms is the study of how stress waves travel through solid materials, which they will then use to develop new technologies. The shoot was fun and relaxed, using a combination of natural and strobe lighting in a variety of settings in her building at Caltech. Whenever possible, particularly with portraits, I try to research the subject I’m photographing to see what’s been shot of them before and also what’s other photographers have done with similar subjects. In doing so, I found that she had been photographed in the lab before for Popular Science, so I made that shot my lowest priority, not wanting to copy what had been done before. The editors had only asked that it be a photo that shows her as an intellect and a leader in her field, but I was pretty free to take it from there. While I did shoot her in the lab, in a fashion different than what had been done before, I was happy they chose to run this shot which just shows her relaxing in her office, where notes indecipherable by me, but pertaining to her research, were already on the chalkboard. On a technical level, the shot was pretty simple, using only a reflector to bounce a little window light back into the scene, but the results were good.

Nana

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Oct 052011

Nana @ Sunny Bak Studio, Venice, Calif.

I recently had a fantastic shoot with my new friend Nana at Sunny Bak Studio in Venice. An artist, actor and model with an amazing fashion sense, Nana’s an incredible subject whom I had been wanting to photograph since I first approached her two years ago outside a local coffee shop. She’s one of the few people I’ve ever encountered whose presence can literally stop you in your tracks. The opportunity never materialized and I moved on to other things until deciding to try again a few weeks ago. Although I had never run into her in person again over that time, by then I had connected with several mutual friends and one of them, Sunny, was nice enough to reach out and vouch for me, which led to the shoot at her studio a few weeks later.

When Nana showed up to the shoot I knew she was a committed subject by the fact that, after getting stranded near the airport, she had hitchhiked to make it to the shoot. I was doubly relieved as I was not only looking forward to a much-anticipated shoot, but had also rented some extra gear and purchased film in order to make some exposures on an antique 4×5 camera I own but have never actually used. These photos are all shot on a Nikon D3, but I hope to be able to share the 4×5′s soon, pending positive results.

But even if they don’t turn out, the results of the D3 are enough to have made the shoot worthwhile. As you’ll see after clicking to the jump, I can hardly edit it down below 10 images made during a fun and fortuitous 90 minutes of shooting. The session was laid back and fun from the get go and only got better over time. Nana knows how to work the camera and we had a great time going through a variety of expressions, both posed an natural. Before shooting we came across a book by Robert Mapplethorpe entitled “Some Women.” I was mostly familiar with his more provocative work focusing on erotic male nudes, which is what most people probably associate him with. I was surprised when thumbing through the book to see this collection of beautifully lit portraits featuring young depictions the likes of Isabella Rossellini, Susan Sarandon and Grace Jones, the latter of which is a personal hero of Nana’s. Although it didn’t affect the way I set up for the shoot, I think the book provided a source of inspiration nonetheless, particularly evident in some of the more stoic images we produced.

A bit of luck came our way too when, not long into the shoot, a shaft of sunlight appeared on the backdrop. At first I saw it as a problem, an unsightly blotch of white light smeared across an otherwise even background. Then Nana – also a photographer I might add – pushed her face forward and into the light. I had been stuck on keeping my lighting the way I’d set it up, but when I saw that I immediately changed my tune. Knowing the rays, which were coming from the setting sun poking through the studio’s front door, were fleeting, I quickly started scrambling to take advantage. I wanted to try two things and managed to get a crack at both of them before the light faded away. First, I started working on balancing out the natural light with the overhead studio light so the effect of the sunlight could be seen without being bleached out by the strobes. I managed to find the right balance, so the strobe maintained the shadow detail while the sun lit her face. Then, I took the opposite approach, cutting the strobes altogether and exposing only for the highlight on her face. The effect was to surround just a portion of her face in total darkness. Right after that the sun disappeared and we resumed shooting with my original setup, which was nothing more than a single, super-diffused beauty dish placed over head, and the occasional use of a reflector below. (I’ve actually posted a couple “behind-the-scenes” shots taken by my wonderful intern Shari at the end of this post.) But it was a good reminder to roll with the unexpected rather than fight it.

My original intent when shooting Nana was to produce a couple good portraits that spoke more to her personality. The first shot posted here is probably the closest to my original vision. It’s a moment that’s loose and natural and powerful, and shows her being herself. I’ve seen a lot of amazing modeling work she’s done recently but wanted to go a different direction with her that I hadn’t yet seen, which is more my style anyway. But posed or natural, she was able to help me produce several great images that I’m happy to be sharing here. Hopefully I’ll have more to share after processing the 4×5′s.

Overall it was a great shoot and I look forward to working with her again someday!

Older Entries

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN-tz

This is F*cking Awesome

Aaron Axelrod

Sitting down with an Olympic legend - Adolf Kiefer

Maya

Nana in color

Immigration issue divides campus

Richard Jackson for The Chronicle of Higher Education

Dr. Lucy Jones for Smithsonian Magazine

Chiara Daraio for STYLE magazine

Nana

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