The new issue of Genlux Magazine comes out this week with the fashion editorial I photographed, “Speak Easy”, featuring Harvard and Stone as the illustrious location.
Inspired by the wave of sexy, hidden, back-room cocktail bars I discovered in New York from 2007-2009, along with the love of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby, and all things forbidden, here is my fantasy of fashionable imbibing:
Here’s a sneak peek from a music video I shot and directed last week in Toronto for incredible singer songwriter Jimmy Rankin. The lead actors are played by musicians Dustin Bentall and Kendel Carson.
The lyrics are beautiful and heart-breaking. ”She took half my heart, and left me with the hurtin’ part.” ~ Jimmy Rankin.
I think not…
More from Desert hot Springs…
Yummy Desert
Desert towns always hold particular fascination for me. One of the reasons I moved to southern California was my recurring dreams of the desert, wrought with symbolism of this challenging environment.
"Plus" - Desert Hot Springs
"Barren" - Desert hot Springs
"Unleaded" - Desert Hot Springs
So, as my bio has stated all these years, I’ve always been fond of rust and scrap metal. Growing up in Windsor, Ontario, my father worked in the foundry at Ford Motor Company for 30 years. I loved visiting the plant, and in my teen years, I would start photographing it.
Almost every week, we would drive by the wrecking yard and I would stare longingly out the passenger window, wanting to be surrounded by the essence of these vehicles that held so many stories, so many memories.
And other than that, the only other thing there was to do in Windsor… was go to Detroit. I was fascinated by The Motor City. It felt so real and raw, perhaps a bit rough, but also challenging. The stories of arson, and violence filled the media while I was growing up, and I just found it riveting. I wanted to be a part of it somehow.
My father would accompany me on my photo expeditions to Detroit, to make sure I was safe. He would wait in the car, keep a watchful eye, follow me block by block while I kept discovering new photo ops around every corner. One day a rather menacing-looking fellow stopped me, but only to make sure I was ok because he noticed this guy “following” me in his car, not realizing it was my dad. ah, good times.
Detroit holds a very special place in my heart. I feel I did a lot of growing up there.
Isn’t it amazing that now that film has all but disappeared, everyone seems to be into the “vintage” look for their films and photographs? Hipstamatic, Camera Bag, 8mm iPhone apps.
Behind-the-scenes Photo by Jason Van Fleet on Margaret Malandruccolo set
We spend all this time, money and effort developing new digital technologies for cleaner, sharper, higher resolution images, and now everyone wants the throw-back to 8mm grain, texture, scratches, and dirt (which I’ve always loved, so I’m not complaining… just….)
Hmmm….. Interesting.
Elliott photographed by Ben Nussbaum
A very wise friend of mine introduced me to the idea of the pendulum swing (yes Tank, I mean you), and we certainly see obvious signs in politics, fashion,
art movements, etc. So we’ve gone from far left, to far right, to center. We’ve gone from cross-processed to cleaner realism to hyper-real, and now I’m seeing this trend back to texture, age and grit.
Last year in PDN Magazine I noticed that one of the Photo Contest winners had shot a self-portrait on her iPhone, processed it in Camera Bag, entered the contest and was declared a winner.
Hmmmm…. Interesting.
A couple of months ago I shot yet another video on the Red Camera, and after falling in love with the iPhone app “8mm”, the artist really wanted to go with that old 8mm look.
Lindi Ortega still from "Little Lie" video director: Margaret Malandrucolo
Let me tell you, the amount of work it took our underpaid and overworked editor to create this look and make it seem organic was really something. I’m always told “digital is cheaper” and “we just can’t afford to shoot on film”, but honestly, at the expense of how much man-power and how many sleepless nights?
While I used to have time to sit on a patio and share a drink with a fellow photographer while the film was processing at the lab, now I am the lab, now I am the printer, now I am the retoucher. And hence, no more time to be social and explore ideas with my peers. Just a lot of lonely nights in front of the computer.
But, at the end of the day, it’s always nice to have really cool photos that you look really good in – we don’t really want to see all those pores and imperfections and details. So whether Hipstamatic helps us out, or a retoucher/photographer spending endless hours, hopefully, at least we’re creating photographs that make people look twice.
Katie Laster photographed by Nick D'Itri
