Friday, March 3, 2017

Sylvia

I'm pretty happy with this series on suspensions. I think that it's ironic, though, that their appeal seems to be in their visual simplicity— suspended model/ white backdrop and nothing else, while the actual setup is pretty involved.  It takes about 12 feet high and 15 feet deep of white backdrop, with me being positioned about 20 feet back to get the shot. The lighting is more complex than anything else that I do— two heavy duty Mole-Richardson fresnel spots, supplemented with a pretty good array of Smith-Richardson photo flood lights. The nice thing is that once everything is ready to go, all I have to do is press the shutter. That's good, because the most time I have to get the shot is ten minutes tops, and sometimes as little as a minute or two...



Sunday, February 26, 2017

Meira & Mara

Unfortunately (especially for the artists concerned), only time will tell if an artists body of work will stand the test of time. An artist becoming famous while they are young is the exception rather than the rule. There is a good reason why young artists becoming famous fast are often touted as over-rated or a fad— because they often are. It's even harder for a photographer as an artist. Most of the great 20th century photographers were not seriously collected as fine art until late in their lives or after their death. Edward Weston, although appreciated by many, died relatively poor and unknown... as did many like him. Man Ray (and a few others) was somewhat of an exception to this— but he was a shameless self-promoter, and he also did a lot of commercial work.




















Monday, February 20, 2017

Caroline & Martin

The chemistry between them was rather intense. It was even rougher than it looks. All I had to do was stand back and keep pressing the shutter. Easy peasy. Well, not entirely easy— the hot lights and steam made it quite uncomfortable for me, and my lens kept fogging up...
















Sunday, February 12, 2017

Stephy

Most of my newer work tends to consist of movement and spontaneity— trying to get away from being posed and composed. This is one of my occasional returns to my roots of very formal compositions with careful lighting and a film noir essence. Of course, closer to the truth is that my newer work is a mash up of quick and sloppy— mixed with decent lighting and quick but careful thinking on the compositions. I don't think that I could ever fully embrace that lazy hipster snapshot aesthetic that is really popular these days.





Monday, January 23, 2017

Miss Chloe & Meira

"Become like a sheet of blotting paper and soak it all in. Later on, you can figure out what to keep and what to unload."   ~Haruki Murakami











Monday, January 9, 2017