Olaf Hauschulz: Volkswagen Phaeton

Why is Julia Roberts kissing Patrick Casey? We’ll maybe that was Javier Bardem..??

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2010/08/pics_julia_roberts_on_cover_of_elle.php

GO DO THIS!

Scion Presents: The 2010 Vice Photo Show [HD]

Bill Diodato: Care of Ward 81. book launch

Care of Ward 81: Photographs and text by Bill Diodato. Foreword by Mary Ellen Mark.
Golden Section Publishing, 2010. 64 pp., 46 color and black & white illustrations., 10×6½”.

This is Bill’s first monograph. Care of Ward 81 is the first of two books on the subject. Located at the Oregon State Mental Hospital (the hospital where One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed in 1976), Ward 81 was set up as a psychiatric ward to help women in need by providing them with medical attention and isolation.

From the Introduction by Bill Diodato:
“…. Entering Ward 81, I found each room vibrated with pastel colors, some walls even adorned with curiously upbeat art from the patients. All this beauty was contrasted with a dense chalky air, earthy odor and constant crackling of debris beneath my feet….In the end, I can’t say where exactly the many sleepless nights I spent pondering what happened to the women of Ward 81 have taken me. I simply do not know. If, by chance, it helps even just one woman and her family, I rest my head with a renewed sense of hope.”- Bill Diodato

Asger Carlsen: WRONG book party!!

Asger celebrates the launch of his first book “WRONG”. Forward by Tim Barber.

The Doctor Is In(sane) : The Questionable Reality of Asger Carlsen

What are these?  They appear at first, like so many photographs do, as candid moments, mundane vernacular portraits or documents of small news events from the pages of a weekly local paper.  The on-camera flash blasts in with that harsh direct light we are used to seeing in our family albums, the black and white palette inexplicably adding to their authenticity (why is that?).  They are familiar, and there is nothing out of the ordinary in these photographs except everything. Are they even photographs? I think of the bumper sticker, stuck upside-down that reads “Question Reality”, where the gesture itself is a visual pun of it’s own sentiment.  The “truth” of photographs has always been in question, but in these images, it’s the un-truth you are left wondering about, like vivid hallucinations you see out of the corner of your eye. They are optical illusions in the grandest sense, doctored images with invisible scars. I can look and know that no one has two functioning wooden legs, but there he is, vacuuming the floor. There he is, stopped at a red light on his motorcycle, and I believe in him, over and over. There is a funny expression that people use online in reaction to awful or disturbing images: “Cannot Un-See!” they say in dismay. The image is burned in, the damage is done. I cannot un-see the alternate reality that Asger has created in these images. I am convinced.

-Tim Barber
NYC, March 21, 2010

Featured Artist: A Baker’s Dozen with Chris Buck

Q: Who has been your favorite photo subject?

CB: Leonard Cohen.I’ve shot a lot of famous and interesting people but being sent to photograph him was weird because I usually do research on people to prepare for a shoot but I didn’t have to do any prep work for this one as I already knew way more than I needed. 

He was kind and very gentlemanly. He could tell I was nervous and I told him that I really wanted to do something great and special. He looked at me and said “if you are meant to make a really wonderful picture there is nothing in this world or any other that can stop that from happening.” And I thought “wow, that’s cool.” He paused and then said, “if you’re meant to make a bad picture there’s nothing in this world or any other that can stop that either.” Very much a Leonard Cohen moment.

We had been told that we’d have two hours with him so at the exact two-hour mark we stopped taking pictures and he prepared lunch for my assistant and I. I had pastrami on rye, with a side of chopped chicken liver.

Q: Who would you like to photograph most, dead or alive?

CB: Well, I wouldn’t pick anyone dead because that’s ridiculous. Who would I choose? Attila The Hun? Jesus Christ? So I am going to suggest someone who is alive - Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister. Mrs. Thatcher reflects where I’m at these days as I’m more interested in politics than I am in general pop culture.

Q: How would you shoot her?

CB: In one of those fish and chip take away shops in London. Surrounded by awkward, spotty teenagers and immigrant kids holding their white fish wrapped in newspaper. Thatcher would be standing there dressed formally, looking at the camera. It would be a great honor to do a sitting with her.

Q: What is the process for coming up with ideas for your personal projects?

CB: It seems to be a mix of hard thinking and dumb luck.

The “Chris Buck” series was an idea I came up with many years ago when a guy emailed me also named Chris Buck. It got me curious so I googled my full name and found a picture of another man with my name who had an insane looking face. He was a Las Vegas real estate agent and was dressed in a suit but looked like he was 15. He was bizarre and wonderful looking. So I thought, “I have to photograph this guy! This could be the beginning of a great series” and that is how that started.

Some ideas start as one thing and then it turn into something else. For example, the “All Fours” series started off as an idea I wanted to shoot about Salt Lake City. It’s a dry (LDS) town so if you want to drink there you have to go to these bars that are technically private clubs. You pay a fee to become a member for $5, and then your first drink is free. So I thought it would be fun to do a whole portrait series of people that are regular drinkers there. One of the shots I envisioned was someone drunk, crawling around on the floor of the bar looking for something they lost. It was pretty much the only image from the imagined series that seemed at all interesting visually so it transitioned into “let’s just shoot people randomly on all fours.”

Q: Do you approach the creative process for your advertising shoots differently than your editorial assignments? If so, how do they differ?

CB: Editorial is a chance to really do what I want with a story or sitter. I’ve been shooting for magazines for two decades so where I once took nearly every job offered to me, now I get to focus on assignments where the publication really wants me to do the best of what I can do.

In advertising what happens is they essentially marry their ideas to my aesthetic. I get hired because I think similarly to the way the Creatives think so I can execute their ideas with the aesthetic they are looking for - where as in editorial they literally hiring me for my ideas as well as my visual style.

People sometimes see ads like the Diesel campaign and they think those are my ideas and I have to explain to them that it’s really an appropriate marriage of the photographer to the campaign.

It seems that my access point to top end advertising is my sense of humor. I think that a lot of photographers have a signature style and when my humor comes across in my photos it’s great. They say it’s something that not very many people can do well and so that’s my in.

Q: What commercial client would you most like to work with?

CB: I’ve never really thought about that, I guess that if it’s a product I like I think it would be cool to shoot with them. With a high-end gin company, such as Bombay Sapphire or Hendricks it would be fun to say, “I love your product!” My photographic life isn’t that connected to my personal life, however, it would be fun to shoot some things that are related to causes that I care about. I’d be proud to do some ads that supported the military or veterans, or ads that let people know about religious organizations that are doing good work. It would be exciting to use my skills to bring attention to something I care about.

Q: What importance has personal work had on your development as a commercial photographer?

CB: When I first got into photography, people would ask me what I did for personal work. I was already shooting celebrities on some level, that was my personal work because that’s what I wanted to do.  I was not the kind of person to carry around a camera all of the time or to go off and do “personal projects.” It was just not my thing.

My attitude towards this changed about five years ago. I hadn’t done a printed promotional piece in a while and I didn’t want to make a piece with a bunch of celebrities so I needed to show real people portraits, or just work that showed ideas. I started shooting a few different projects all at once, a couple of which are out now, including “All Fours” and the “ISN’T” look-a-like series. But, what started as a promotional necessity has blossomed into a full-scale obsession, so I guess I’ve done a 180 on “personal projects.”

Q: What has been the difference in photographing “real people” vs. celebrities?

CB: The thing with celebrities is they come in with history and a story that the audience will recognize, so they’re fair game and I can go to town with them. With regular folks you can’t really do that.

For instance, my portrait with George W. Bush is a nice looking picture but pretty quiet. People read into it, especially over his scope of his term as President. Viewers have different interpretations depending on what was going on at the time. When it was early in his presidency he looks confident and self-assured, but people would see the photo at the end of his term and he looks lonely and kind of lost.

In the “(un)Common” section of my website I look to photograph people as regular folks but make uncommon images of them. I push myself to make pictures of people who are real people as engaging and interesting as famous people pictures. With the “Chris Buck” series I learned to say “look, I may ask you to do some weird stuff” and that way they know and I feel liberated to do what I want and what I think is interesting without holding back.

Q: Who has been your most difficult/memorable subject?

CB: A couple years ago I did a shoot with Donna Hanover, the first wife of Rudy Giuliani. I first met her while she was getting her makeup done and we had a brief, pleasant conversation. But when she came onto the pre-lit location things turned. She said, “This lighting just won’t do”. One can be critical of a set up, and certainly sitters have a right to have input into how they’re photographed but telling a shooter straight out that you don’t like their lighting is tantamount to saying “you are incompetent”. I just kept my mouth shut, made the best of it and moved on.

Q: What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

CB: I like politics, but part of the job is a popularity contest and that’s not something I’m comfortable doing. Not because I’m so modest, but more because I am too insecure to put myself out there and be rejected.

Something that I’ve enjoyed doing more of recently is public speaking. I’m a pretty open person so I think that along with seeing my twenty years of photography audiences appreciate my story, with its ups and downs. I could see myself teaching photography, or even doing a photo book in the form of a memoir.

Q: What sound do you love/hate?

CB: The sound of my baby daughter cooing is a very nice sound. The other sound I like is when you go to the race track and they play the horn that starts the race.

The sound I hate is the sound of our baby crying at 4 am!

Q: If you had to be an animal, which would you choose?

CB: A giraffe pops to mind first. They are very beautiful animals, but also confident and powerful.

Q: If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

 CB: When I get there, hopefully I’ll be let in, and when I meet God I would like him to say “I always thought that your work was really more interesting than David La Chapelle’s.”

UNICORN - Claudia Goetzelmann →

Hype Reel →

FIRE IN THE HOLE!

Is it hot in here or it it just us? Every other day we could admit that, yes, it IS us. However, on what seemed to be an ordinary Thursday at the office Patrick claimed he smelled smoke. After confirming he wasn’t having a stroke, we all laughed and went about our work. A few moments and one scared-as-hell employee later he noticed that the roof of the building and water tower right outside of his window was on fire. Thanks to our fearless leader we made it out safe and sound.

Meet Jackson Casey, Entertainment Director, master of disguise and purveyor of all things “Po”. While dressing himself for his daily “business” we noticed his silhouette took on a familiar shape, everyone’s favorite clay-mation character…Gumby! So with a little help from a skilled intern, voila! We give you Gumby-Po! Come on, the resemblence is uncanny.

On a freakier note:

Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby and Pokey died later that evening. Maybe he felt that his life’s work had finally been completed or maybe he was totally shamed, in any case THANKS ART!

Chris Buck and Marge Casey + Production say “buck off” to the cold!

2 December days in sub-arctic NYC temperatures, $200 in finger/toe warmers and 10 amazing images later, the tough-as-nails MCA production crew, lead by everyone’s favorite Canadian photographer, Chris Buck, wrapped the Merril Lynch shoot. Traipsing all over town to 10 different locations, braving the ruthless holiday crowds and blustery winds the team showed that the Postal Service doesn’t have anything on us! Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these photographers from the swift completion of their appointed shoots!

Zoomed in on the birds and bees of Lyndon Wade

Zoom Magazine takes a moment to enter the wacky, whimsical and wild world of Lyndon Wade. The publication dons one of his images on the cover as well as a spread and revealing article inside. Lyndon talks about how he got his start and where this ride will take him. When coupled with his brother, David Lindsey Wade, the sky is the limit! The Wade Brothers are beginning to venture into the realm of film which, with the dynamic duo’s flair for the dramatic, takes like a duck to water, or like birds to small children’s heads. So come one, come all and enter the Lyndon Show! We guarantee it will be a time you never forget.

new lifestyle portfolio by VINCENT SKELTIS