Windsor/Detroit

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.

The vintage feel…

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

Mystery photographer

even without the fascinating story of being an undiscovered photographer for her entire life, these striking photos by Vivian Maier speak for themselves.

http://www.cracktwo.com/2011/04/amazing-mystery-photographer-comes-to_28.html

real-life is so cool.

I wonder who did the printing?

LA Ink

These were some images I created recently, mostly for fun and to work with people I respect and admire (i.e. Mike Sam, fashion stylist & designer:  www.englishclientelebymikesam.com, and Melanie Manson, makeup and hair artist:  www.melaniemanson.com).

It seems a lot more difficult these days to shoot just for myself.  The busy-ness of life aside, i think I just have a tendency to over-complicate things and I have such high expectations and such grandiose ideas.  I want models and art direction and set-building and on and on.

So with this one, I decided to simplify, and shot it in my living room.  We had a wonderful day.  We explored, we laughed, we had fun and we ended up with some wonderfully self-indulgent images.  I played around a bit with the “ink blot” effect in post.

Inspired by a combination of Levi’s and The Oracle from the movie “300″, here’s what we ended up with!

Thanks to models Alicia Vallejos and Ivon Lakey from Pinkerton Models.  And thanks to Genetic Denim for the great denim!

jack ‘n cake

You can’t say the word cupcake and look angry at the same time.

Thanks to Jeremy Shockley for this great idea.  I was drawn to the immediate dichotomy in this suggestion for a photo shoot concept.  I’ve always loved juxtaposing old and new, clean and gritty, hard and soft.  How perfect to combine “angry” and “cupcake”!

I’ve always been intrigued by people that have two sides to their character – one apparent and one more hidden.  A gruff exterior and a teddy-bear interior.  A calculated, intellectual exterior and a goofy, child-like interior.

And of course, not to mention how much I love motorcycles and the seemingly bad-ass persona that goes along with them…  Soooo….  the end-product is:

(hey Jeremy, I hope you don’t mind I changed “muffin” to “cupcake”!)

Time Waits – The Concept

I think what struck me about the concept of “Time Waits” when Ted Ellis submitted it to me as an idea to photograph, was that the actual concept of time is so intangible.

I was always a big fan of Salvador Dali.  His many paintings of melting clocks brought up an interesting perspective – the “malleability” of time.  I was so captivated with this idea that I had a melting clock tattooed on my thigh, along with a crustacean, in true homage to Dali, and as a reminder of strength and regeneration.

Think of those days that seem to drag on forever because we’re bored or doing a menial task, or those days that flash by in the blink of an eye because we’re having so much fun or experiencing an entirely new activity, or just have so much to do that we couldn’t possibly finish it all in the given time.  So, in theory, time is malleable by perception.  But do we have control over this malleability?

Clocks have always fascinated me.  Their design, construction, function, precision.  Sundials, wind-up clocks, electric clocks.  Sunpath charts, compasses, inclinometers.  And those that understand and know the inner workings of these instruments seem to hold a magical power.

So as the concept of “age” becomes more pivotal in our lives – the aging of parents, the birth of children, the dreaded “middle-age” – so does the concept of “time” become more prevalent.  “If we could turn back time.”

“We can give time its dimension and meaning, or make it worthless or absurd or important.  But in the end, it has a meaning of its own.”