YOU'RE THE STAR OF MY MOVIE » Pictures I took

Pop The Champagne

John — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:06:29 +0000

I’ve been on a really nice jag work-wise and I am happy to report that I made
it into The New York Times Magazine! I took the photos to accompany
Mark Bittman’s column about the East Village Japanese restaurant Kajitsu. Somewhere, somehow the photo gods smiled on me… Evidence below:

My wife has twice tried to get into the restaurant for dinner and it looks like we’re going to have to wait even longer as Chef Masato Nishihara’s food was both insanely delicious, beautifully prepared and, there’s no denying, that’s a very nice press clipping.

A very grateful thank you goes out to Photo Editor Luise Stauss (whom I met through Natasha Lunn)… in my book they drink free!

Hell Yes Being Busy Feels Good

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:00:34 +0000

I’ve been surgically attached to my laptop since September and those long long days are coming to an end (in the sense that I’m finishing up some projects, not in the I should try this kind of way). For the first time since I decided to quit my job as Associate Art Director at American PHOTO Magazine to become a photographer in 2008 I have been Capital B Busy… Like weeks and weeks of 14 hour days busy. I know it’s been a while cause my late night drink of choice has changed from Campari (summer) to Vodka (fall) to Bourbon (winter) … yes, sadly I am marking time with alcohol…. It’s like those prison movies where they scratch a mark into the wall except I’m drawing bottles. BUT… there is a stack of food photography prints sitting next to me. Thank God I didn’t get fat… I skipped dinner for weeks.

All of which is to say: Dear Reader (that would be my wife, sometimes my sister, and maybe a few people with desk jobs that have Google Reader tattoos, and God willing a few Photo Editors), I apologize. But here is a little sunshine in the form of a recent picture I took of Alexis Rothenberg. She runs Worthwhisland. You, my friend, can actually buy a Ross Bleckner. It’s not everyday someone says that to you. Right?

Some people are awesome and Helena Christensen is one of them.

John — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:18:14 +0000

I can now cross SUPERMODEL off my photos-to-take list!
Want more details: This was easy, I’m lucky, she’s awesome.

You can read an interview on LOVING and learn about her secret blog.
She is an excellent photographer: Listen to her speak and see some of her work for Oxfam. Thank you Helena!

After the Hurricane

John — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:03:34 +0000

A loose double window frame on the 11th floor in 80 mile an hour wind seems kinda dangerous so I attached it with a wrench tied with wire to the radiator. It worked. The frame is still in place. There was some water damage when I woke up but I managed to sleep through the majority of Hurricane Irene’s not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been encounter with New York City.

Sunset was a dozy after the storm broke. Unlike those intrepid CNN reporters who are either trying to up their pay grade, or have death wishes, these photos are as close as I got to photographing the hurricane.

Nice clouds, eh?

Kate Jones / Ursa Major

John — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:24:49 +0000

Kate Jones has a wonderful eye for both making jewelry, with her label Ursa Major, and for editing photography, on her blog which covers style and sailing. Check it out and tell me you aren’t ready for an adventure on the high seas! My wife and I started researching used sailboats this summer. Bill Storandt regaled us with tales of putting down anchor off the coast of Italy and Kate’s stories of growing up on a boat only fortified the bon voyage-desire.

Here is Kate featured as a Lady of Castor & Pollux with a photo I took in her studio.

Karyn Starr / Nina Freudenberger

John — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:36:00 +0000

I have new photo’s of Karyn Starr (top) and Nina Freudenberger (bottom) who are featured on my wife’s blog LOVING.

Lisa Oppenheim / Killed Walker Evans

John — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:09:44 +0000

You know that feeling when a Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, or Russell Lee photograph isn’t up to snuff and you take a hole punch to the negative? No? Me neither, but Roy Stryker did when he ran the Works Progress Administration (check out this interview with Mr. Stryker).

Artist Lisa Oppenheim’s series of worked based on the killed negatives of Walker Evans’ pictures reconstructs the missing hole punch and displays it next to a print from the photograph which Mr. Stryker struck out. She neatly touches on photography, memory, history, hidden versus revealed, reenactment and other smart stuff if you take the time to unpack the work.

I shot Lisa for The Ladies of Castor & Pollux and I’ve met her before but it is always funny what you learn about someone when you are taking their portrait. Like she is friend’s with my sister. Small world, right? (or maybe just small semiotics department at Brown University.)

Johanna Fateman

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:32:26 +0000

Here’s a new portrait of Johanna Fateman. She owns Seagull Salon which is next door to my wife Kerrilynn’s store, Castor & Pollux. Neighbors and what not. She is 1/3 of Le Tigre and writes and produces music for Christina Aguilera, among others. She looks like this and makes music with Le Tigre member JD Samson as MEN that sounds like this (watch the video: German romantic landscape + so much more)…

Reece Solomon / Reece Hudson

John — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:37:36 +0000

Designer Reece Solomon, was prepping for a trip to Paris, and I like to make all my shoots quick and easy, so I shot this around the corner from her Reece Hudson studio. She is easy on the eyes and that makes a photographer’s life simple…. thus no assistants, no bounce cards, one camera, two compact flash cards, 20 mins… No problem.

Reece is Lady number 26 for Castor & Pollux’s Loving blog. You can read about her there.

Katie Finn – Diamond Life

admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:45:20 +0000

Katie Finn of Elizabeth Street Jewelry is a virgo, makes stuff out of gold and diamonds, has NOLA pride and likes the ocean. This pic is for LOVING where you can see her interview. She really doesn’t like having her picture taken so I was tempted to offer up some tequila but is wasn’t even lunch yet… I do wear white after labor day but drinking before five? I reserve that right for picnics and funerals. I dig the oxalis over her shoulder in the background, and the blue shirt/red hair combo but wish she was wearing one of her diamond necklaces. There was a crazy moire pattern in the fabric which I hadn’t encountered before. I’d been warned about it though and Mr. Rothenberg was right: a nightmare. Every portrait is an adventure and in this case it was mostly photoshop-related. Hanging out with Katie was cool too.