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By Webmaster, July 19, 2011 11:31 am

A Steamy Weekend in New York

This past Saturday (which was very hot!), a friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her on a sojourn to Governors Island. One of the women of the group going (an artist), works at Maritime Pier in Chelsea, where she set us up on a Fire Department boat that was supposed to receive a ‘blessing’ from the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Unfortunately, the ‘blessing’ never occurred because of a snafu, but off we went to to Governors Island.

The Island wasn’t what I expected — it was so crowded, there were so many tourists, and all of the buildings have Federal Architecture. The place looked like a penal colony — everything was in brown and yellow! Even the grass was burnt yellow because of the heat — it wasn’t a pretty sight. A saving grace of the trip was seeing Mark di Suvero‘s sculptures on the Island grounds, even though I wasn’t impressed with the Island itself. While I think there is a lot of potential to turn it into an artist’s community — I think a lot of renewel has to go into it first!

On the Island, we did see a good exhibition by Finnish artists at Building 110. Called ‘Bodies, Borders, Crossings’, it conceptualizes human bodies in different ways and surrounds images with different ‘borders’ to show how these individuals are ‘controlled’ by their environment. Here are a few of my favorites:

After Governors Island, I was completely wiped out by the heat, and stayed in for most of Sunday! I did end up making it out to my multimedia class at ICP on Monday night, which I continue to love! The work is so interesting, and the people in the class are fantastic. I just have so much to do in the studio that it’s hard to concentrate on Final Cut Pro right now!

I also stopped in this weekend to the No.10 Gallery on Leonard Street in Tribeca — a cool spot that provides a platform for artists in the fashion and photography industry to show their work. The space is dedicated to ‘emerging’ artists — much like the contributors of my new magazine Museé. I’m excited to see more of their future exhibitions!

Last week’s shooting was conceived around these quirky hats I found at Worth & Worth, this fantastic hat store at 45 W. 57th Street. One model, Lauren from the Click Agency, has been working with me every summer for three years — and she’s one of the most beautiful girls I’ve worked with for many years. Another model, Molly (also from Click) is 15 years old and from Kentucky. Even though she’s 15, she responds to the camera like she’s been modeling for five years or more! I haven’t done a thorough edit of the shoot yet, but photos are coming very soon!

Also, now that August is around the corner, this is one of our last blog posts until September! So stay tuned for this summer’s final posting!

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By Webmaster, July 12, 2011 2:19 pm

Rah! Rah! Rah!

Last Thursday night, I started a watercoloring class at the New York Academy of Art in Tribeca — thinking that it would be useful to employ this technique on future projects I’m working on. However, I discovered that not only do I not need to take this course to use watercolor technique, but it’s extremely difficult and a pain in the ass! Therefore, I won’t be attending any more classes! The difficulty lays in placing the color on the page and not having it run all over the paper. While I took it in college, my strokes then were much broader, so it didn’t make a difference. But in this class it did. So much for patience!

So, giving school another go, I took the intrepid step to take another course — this one at ICP. It’s a multimedia course that uses video, photography and sound… and it’s much more to my liking. But, with an upside comes a downside. And that is learning Final Cut Pro. Since patience is not my best friend, I can see the process becoming a difficult one. But I am determined to follow through with it!

The course is taught by Nancy Donaldson from the New York Times, who produces the project ‘One In Eight Million’; an ongoing multimedia project on the Times’ website. The project highlights the lives of different New Yorkers in short video clips, and often tell poignant or funny stories about life in this city.

The pieces in the project are incredible — and for being such short videos, they’re incredibly moving and touching. They’re an inspiration to incorporate multimedia into my own work, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I’ve learned (especially in creating my book) it’s all about the art of the interview to create powerful stories. And since I’m a nosy person, I’m well suited for it!

The most exciting thing I did this weekend — and will probably be a new activity — was going to a Baptist Church on 115th Street in Harlem with a few of my friends. I felt like I was at a rock concert, only better! We watched a gospel choir perform, and the music was so moving, and the congregation was so raucous, that I was yelling “Hallelujah” for the whole hour they were singing. If my religion had services like this every week, I would be a regular church-goer! Music is very contagious.

I also made a new purchase! I bought this piece at an art auction. Loving the yellow!

Now I’m off to go work on my tons of projects… and getting a bit overwhelmed! Maybe I should have just gone on vacation this summer like everyone else!

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By Webmaster, May 18, 2011 11:56 am

School’s Out

Last night was my final class at ICP, and it was absolutely fantastic! I was lucky enough to bring in some amazing speakers, and everyone presented their final projects… which came out great! I was so proud.

The photographers from Guzman came to speak — one of the first collaborative teams in the business. I met Connie Guzman awhile ago at a photography salon, and it wasn’t until then that I realized ‘Guzman’ wasn’t one photographer but two — and the other ‘person’ of Guzman was Connie’s husband Russell. They gave some great insight about working with another person on photo concepts, and spoke about how they divvied up responsibilities. Connie does most of the shooting, and Russell does the post-production.

They also spoke about how the business has changed since they first started out. The digital era has made the demand for photo projects much faster and on a tighter budget. It’s just one of the many challenges facing our industry.

Beatrice Dupire also came to speak, which was a great treat given her amazing connections in the commercial and art world. She’s acting as an international consultant to artists, and is the publisher of ‘Th(e) Influencer‘, a platform for alternative forms of advertising. She’s currently working on some really cool projects, including a 3-D commercial for Donna Karan’s ‘Be Delicious’ fragrance. Beatrice showed us a rough cut of the piece that’ll be used in television and web campaigns. It makes every commercial I’ve ever seen look boring!

And of course, last night was when my students presented their final projects. They were assigned to do a series of six images, showing ‘their greatest fear’. The projects turned out incredible, and really ended the course on a high note. I’m so proud of them — congratulations! When I have the chance, I’ll post some of my favorites here on my blog.

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By Webmaster, May 11, 2011 12:34 pm

Getting Schooled

Last night was a rough one…

I was incredibly excited to come back to my class at ICP after a week of being away — that’s because I was looking forward to seeing the six-page fashion spreads I assigned them a couple of weeks ago. They’ve done fashion spreads before, but this time, I made it more challenging. I wanted them to work as a team with another photographer — and create an exciting vision that showed both of the photographer’s strengths and interests.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. While some of the spreads were visually exciting, most didn’t have any consistency from shot to shot. They didn’t tell a story, and didn’t show a theme. It was as if the teams split up, the photographers shot their own images, and then tried to stick their different photos into a series. It just didn’t work.

It’s unfortunate how photography can be so ego-driven. But people need to realize they can learn from one another — where through collaboration, it’s possible to create a better product at the end of the day.

But thankfully, there were some students that produced some really outstanding work. Here’s a shot by Diego Ferreira Mello for his assignment on creating a ‘controversial ad’ for the web. I love it!

The high point of the evening last night was having Carlos Souza come visit my class. Carlos gave a charismatic and enlightening talk (he’s amazing!) about his work at Valentino, and the qualities of a successful fashion photographer. He talked about everything from his work with celebrities (always say ‘yes’) to his perspective on retouching photos (we have the technology, why not use it?). Perhaps the best takeaway was a conversation about the importance of a photographer being personable — and how the fashion greats, from Mario Testino to Steven Meisel, easily communicate with models and make them feel comfortable. He also spoke of the power of collaboration — and the importance of being flexible and accommodating with your team — as a way to ultimately produce an amazing product.

Thank you, Carlos, for your time and enthusiasm! It was much appreciated!

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By Webmaster, April 28, 2010 9:57 pm

School’s in Session…

My ICP class started last night. It was sweet. Ray Brown, the super agent who also owns Hudson Studios, the best in NY, was generous enough to let me have the class there. Ray and Laura Beckwith spoke about the business side of photography, what a photographer needs to do to be competitive in todays market (which, my fellow shooters, is VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO!!!), how to get started, how to put a portfolio together, the different agency jobs and what they mean (art director, creative director, account executive, etc), the need to know your market and create a niche for yourself, and the agent-photographer relationship. Ray and Laura showed portfolios of their photographers’ source books (Le Book, Black Book, etc), and talked about fee and percentages. They provided the class with a wealth of knowledge. The students were so impressed and grateful and so was I. During the talk it was revealed that some photographers let their assistants take the picture, which, quite frankly, surprised me, since its something I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing. The reason being the photographers who practice this think of themselves as directors, and having done both film and still myself, in my opinion, still is about capturing a moment. Therefore its the person who’s clicking the shutter at the precise moment of the capture that determines that “shot”, that “single shot.” Film keeps rolling, so you can set up a shot, direct the actors, and let the film roll while being in front of the camera, to the side of the camera, or in the back of the camera, even on the floor. As long as you can see the action, it doesn’t matter where you’re viewing it from. No physical act is required. I’d like to know what your opinion is about this.

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By Webmaster, February 1, 2010 5:55 pm

Miroslav Tichy at the ICP

Last week I attended a preview at the ICP and found myself deeply drawn to the work of Miroslav Tichy. Through the dizzying blur of the digital era, Tichy’s work stands refreshingly authentic. His distorted studies of women and landscapes capture a quiet repose and humanity that is often lost amongst our digital swirl. His attention to form, to light, to subtly have an evocative rhythm of their own.

Adding to the mystic of his art is the fact that his images are born out of self-made cameras inventively cobbled-together from found materials. Tichy is a man unafraid to highlight the flaws of life: “…the mistake is a part of it, it is poetry…and for that you need a bad camera.” -Miroslav Tichy

I was so inspired by Tichy’s work that I wanted to explore the introduction of purposefully blurred and distorted focus in my next shoot. However, I found that “tricking” my high-end digital camera into creating the desired effect was far harder than I imagined. The camera was always attempting to correct my purposeful incorrectness.

If you have any thoughts on Tichy’s work, or the use of digital equipment in a non-digital manner, please share them with us here. I am very curious to know how other people are responding to his work, and evolving their own in turn.

The ICP exhibit offers a glimpse into the mind, life, and work of this recluse Czech artist. Some 100 of his works will be on display through May 9th. A must see.

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By Webmaster, January 6, 2010 6:09 pm

Lauren Beatty Photo Assignment

My start in photography as assistant to Richard Avedon is admittingly a very magical beginning that not all aspiring photographers are lucky enough to have. I started teaching at New York’s International Center of Photography to teach and mentor emerging photographers. Lauren Beatty was a student in my Fashion Vision & Practice course at ICP this Fall semester. This photo is an outtake from one of her assignments that I liked so much and wanted to share with you here. I’m very happy to announce I will be teaching at ICP again this Spring!