Jul/101
new portrait
Greg - co-owner of Bear Garden Farms. In earlier times, he raised quarter horses and was a hunting guide in Texas. Now, he and his wife Terrie raise Alpaca in eastern West Virginia. Weekends, at least; during the week he's an engineer working on disaster relief projects.
Jul/100
First footage of the ballet project
An early edit of our test footage of American Ballet Theatre's principal dancer Michele Wiles.
Shot 6/28/2010 at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center to RED 2k, 3k, 4k formats.
Director: Nicholas LaClair
CO: Michael Cano with Unfolded Films
Gaffer: Katie Vukovich
Sound and moral support: James McCullough
Only a test to get us out of the dark woods of high frame rates with the RED. In the end (because we didn't have enough light to keep the noise down) I decided to retreat to the Aesthetic of Paul Himmel and his wife Lillian Bassman - the pair of fashion photographers who were married for 73 years before his death in 09 and whose work is strikingly similar ... I've been looking at a lot of his work lately, and just added two of his books to my collection: the first is a mid-fifties printing of "Ballet in Action" and the second is a recent retrospective. They're gorgeous and easy to get lost in; I'll have to post a handful of the images soon.
Paul Himmel - Ballet Sylvia “Pas de Deux“
Lillian Bassman
Jul/100
ballet behind the scenes
footage coming shortly ...
meantime:
Filming Michele Wiles at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. Photo by Katie Vukovich.
May/100
Short Film Project
I'm really excited to be working on a short film highlighting the spirit and process of ballet - a treatment idea I've had for some time and is recently taking shape. It will feature a principal ballerina with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) named Michele Wiles. She's simply amazing - one of the best in the world. For more on her see her site and her profile on ABT).
She moves like no other, and I eagerly look forward to capturing that on film. Here are a few clips from another video collaboration of hers: | 1| 2 |.
See what I mean?
I sat down with Michele and her fiancee James last week to discuss our treatment and begin the process of logistics with a hopeful shoot date in the fall. I'll keep you posted. Meantime we're going to kick out a small studio project later this month filming her turning - more of an instructional film on proper technique, which will serve as my camera and lighting test and a chance to see what the RED can do at 120 fps.
I'll keep you posted.
Apr/101
New Book
A few weeks ago I finished printing my new book, custom made by Scott Mullenberg, who is an amazing portfolio artist based in Biddeford, ME. He worked with me in hand-picking the materials and on the back-and-forth of the design in all its iterations. Book and slipcase were collaboratively designed by me and my good friend Kim Karston, and I owe her huge thanks for all her help.
I realize very soon we'll all be marketing ourselves in person and otherwise with the iPad or something like it, but there's still something inexplicable about seeing the work printed. It's well worth the expense. The pages are 12x12 on Moab Entrada Rag paper, which looks amazing when printing B&W 4x5 Polaroids (or anything else, for that matter). I'd post interior photos, but they wouldn't do it justice. Wanna see it? Come on over and I'll make some espresso.
The first two photos came from Scott's studio; the last two are thanks to Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir - taken while we visited friends at Bitfire in Manhattan.
Apr/102
Little writeup in Popular Photography Magazine
It's been a crazy month and now that it's off the newsstands I'm finally getting around to posting the news. Popular Photography Magazine did a feature on me for their "Creative Thinking" section of the March 2010 issue. Click below to see:
Of course, it's primarily for amateur photographers, so it deals more with the process of shutter/aperature and post processing than it does with any broad views of making good pictures - though it's still nice to get attention, especially in a magazine with such a huge circulation. Since it was published, I've been contacted by a handful of photo students wanting to do final reports on me, and a few assistants in the general mid-Atlantic area who want to be on set when I shoot. It's a little surreal. Though it says I'm a New York-based fashion photographer ... I suppose that's the much sexier version of a DC-based editorial photographer ...
Thanks again Larry for getting in touch; it was a really fun interview.
Jan/100
pierogi
Making pierogi in the kitchen of the Polish Village Cafe in Hamtramick, MI
Leica M4 - 50/2 - Ilford Delta 400
Jan/100
more from detroit
American Legion Post 447 in Wyandotte. The "downriver area" is a blue-collar suburb closest to the Rouge River industrial area of Detroit, marked by small brick houses with aluminum awnings on postage-stamp lots. At any time of day, you can find retired, jobless, and working veterans in this windowless 154 year old train depot.
Speed Graphic 4x5; Heliar 135/3.5; Portra 400NC.
Jan/100
she’ll hate me
This is my aunt ... who wanted desperately to be serious ... but whose nature (and some behind-the-camera idiocy) got the best of her. She'll forever hate me for posting this, though I love her and this series. Being drummed out of the family must be worth the sharing.
Don't worry Teri - other than a measly hundred people a day, nobody sees this blog.
Jan/100
first of the Detroit images
This is the first of a handful of images I took during my trip. Since Detroit (and Dearborn specifically) has one of the highest mideastern populations outside the fertile crescent, I thought it was appropriate to capture that culture as part of my work on the area. The subject is a Lebanese butcher named Abdullah, and he was very happy to learn I'm 1/4 Lebanese myself, and know how to make kibbi nayeh.
Tech notes:
Speed Graphic 4x5 to Provia 100F chrome. I think all the magic of this image is in the lens: a very rare 1924 Rietschel Prolinear 135/1.9. Less than 100 were produced, with a price tag equivalent to $9,000 today.
More to come ...
Favorite
NYTimes Photography Blog
- Pictures of the Day: West Bank and Elsewhere 9 September, 2010Ramadan and Rosh Hashana are observed. […]By THE NEW YORK TIMES
- Medieval Flagellation in an Italian Town 9 September, 2010The images are medieval but Roberto Boccaccino shot them only a month ago, as Daniel J. Wakin reports. […]By DANIEL J. WAKIN
- When the Shah of Iran Took the Pictures 8 September, 2010Newsha Tavakolian was inspired by an intimate series of photos taken by the shah of Iran. Yes, the shah. […]By KERRI MACDONALD and AMANDA RIVKIN
- Pictures of the Day: On a Chinese Oil Rig and Elsewhere 8 September, 2010Oil workers were perched precariously but the oil company said no oil had been spilled. […]By RAYMOND MCCREA JONES
- Mourning at the Scene of a Stabbing 8 September, 2010At the scene of a stabbing in Manhattan, a little girl mourned a young woman she didn't know. […]By KERRI MACDONALD and ANGEL FRANCO