The War Issue

When Guillaume Ferrand, editor of Veine Magazine approached me about being included in The War Issue, I actually thought he had the wrong photographer. Perhaps he was looking for James Nachtwey?
What transpired was an insightful interview that opened my eyes for sure. Here is a chunk to give you a taste of what he is up to:

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GF : For me, this project fits with the theme of war, because of the way you decided to represent your relationship with your son. Is it a fair point of view?

TA : War is a powerful metaphor, and surprisingly I feel it is accurate. War is a broken relationship, one where each party is certainly not harmonizing with the other. Was I at war with my son? Well, that sounds more like a place you 'd find yourself in with a teenager. But I 'd agree that he and I were not understanding each other, and this was our attempt to have that understanding.

Really, I don 't care about autism. I 'm not interested in it at all, but it is the fuel that really fueled this project. What I do care greatly about is the power of relationships. For whatever reason photography here worked as the bridge to let us understand each other, learn about each other, and suddenly, due to the very democratic nature of a camera, we could work as peers together.

GF: Did you want to show the beauty that all those moments can bring ?

TA: I was one who always said that raising kids is totally impossible for me. But just because it's hard doesn't mean I don't like it. ECHOLILIA shows the tension and the struggle and the feeling that there is a channel he is on that I am not on, but I can see it and respect it and still look at him with love, but acknowledge our difference. So sure, the process of raising kids is filled with beautiful moments. But for these things to seem real, the beauty also has to have an acknowledgement of the struggle, the tension, the chaos as well.

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Read The War Issue HERE.

It Might Get Loud : Duncan / Channon SF

When SF advertising agency Duncan Channon commissioned us to create a group portrait of their team for their forthcoming feature story in CA, we left the meeting a little confused.

Should we get risers for people to stand on? How are we going to get everyone to smile? Oh...I have an idea: let's get the really crazy people up front...can we do that?

In the end, the agency wasn't really able to tell me what this experience would be like, and I was totally unprepared to address what we'd find. Let's just say it was more of a large scale collaborative performance art piece than an executed photograph really. It felt like creativity, like live performance in the most immediate way. And in the end we all were in awe of our epic creation. Art direction by Anne Elisco-Lemme and retouching by Faye Champlin.

See the image in all it's splendor HERE and see it in context in this month's Communication Arts magazine.

Joe Sullivan / Forbes Magazine

Spent an enjoyable day at the sprawling Facebook campus last month working on the story for Forbes Magazine on Joe Sullivan, head of security for FB. Have you heard of Facebook?

A fascinating story ( really) that addresses keen negotiations with the Russian hacker group Koobface gang, our own ANONYMOUS, as well as situations that were resolved by simply speaking to the offender's mom.

We wanted a shot that hinted at the bleakness of a police interrogation room amidst this very vibrant FB offices...and we kinda got it I think. Some out takes are below.

Read the story written by Kashmir Hill HERE.

This Week's Spam

The Butcher, The Baker email blast was sent forth this week. I realized I was so wrapped up shooting the Otto Bock campaign that I never actually celebrated it to the masses. At the time I felt the project was commercially handicapped a bit by being shot in B&W. These days I'm searching for commercial work that can work as a bridge to my personal work (such as Stereoscopy Photographs) and I felt this fit right in.

Enjoy images from the Otto Bock Relationships campaign HERE.

Green Felt for ZEIT Magazine

Setting up a makeshift studio in an opthamologist office was the first shoot of 2012.

Dr. Brien Seeley and his very ambitious flying hobby....preceded by a trip to Discount Fabrics in Berkeley, CA.

Out this week in Berlin for Zeit Magazine, Germany.

Charlie Hess / POP

Many years ago I wrote a profile of Fred Woodward for Print. He said that in order to get good work you’ve got to give the artists a big safety net, so that they know they can take chances and if it doesn’t work out, they know you’ll still hire them again. That idea stuck with me. Take chances, go for it, or the work will always be expected and vanilla.- Charlie Hess of Chess Design

Photographers On Photography published a totally unexpected and inspiring interview with Charlie Hess of Chess Design in LA.
C.H. and I collaborated on one of my favorite shoots this year, and then he and JB Fitts came out with my favorite photo essay of the year. Reading the interview is what it is like to spend the day creating a photograph with him- true creative spirit flows thru this guy, and it's clear he enjoys every moment of the process. I was so glad POP was able to capture this all in the interview.

Read it HERE.

The Lonely Doctor / CPW

Wow...we shot this series a while back.
Story was held, went quiet, then never saw the light of day.The Lonely Doctor was ideal for Commercial Photography Week. Originally commisioned for Smart Money Magazine, we wanted the scorched desert of daytime and the cool night light of closing time...and I think we got it. Killer tumbleweeds flown in by Shannon Amos and recently polished in post production by Laura Johnston.

See the images in all their splendor HERE.

Commercial Photography Week Continues

And just as I was wondering if Commercial Photography Week should either come to a close or be made an annual thing, the Acura OUTLOOK Magazine arrives today.

Elegantly designed and printed on thick coated stock by Story World Wide in NYC, assigned by an early fan of ECHOLILIA. This project arrived yesterday and kinda reminded me that the process sometimes works. In addition, of course, to the million other things we do at the same time!

Runner's World 2 / 2012

Just got a copy of Runner's World's February issue in the mail today. Right in the middle of Thanksgiving we were trying to put together this very affordable and very story-boarded photograph and I was reminded really just how hard it is to produce anything around any holiday. But...it landed.

Lot's of sketches, lots of fedexing of clothing and juggling of dates and wow...by the time we arrived in the studio the hardest part was behind us. Andrea Maurio of Runner's World handling it all with charm and patience. Me? I was just trying to find a way for it not to look like a stock photograph. And once you get that in your head it's hard to shake it. Tyler Wood, starring as the interview-ee, tapped into his acting skills and brought his character to life.

Micah Bishop, always elegant, managed the wardrobe and Studio 308 SF was our location. We rented a natural light studio and then set up a bunch of strobes to look like better natural light. Can you fool Mother Nature? Prolly not.

For me...this is the year of the Commercial Photograph, so every opportunity is one that I jump on....

Below are the sketches that led to the end product above. Enjoy.

More Real Life Science Fiction

Been away from the blog for a week working on all sorts of things, really. It'll start cooking again, don't worry...

Walking into our location and finding a audio engineered robot in a cardigan always makes us think the photograph will go well. More on this shoot in the week ahead.

Guy Walking In Nature With Technology

Guy Walking In Nature With Technology was essentially what we needed to create for this think-piece in Forbes last month. The wetlands off 101 in Palo Alto really could not have been kinder to us, as was Michael Woelk, CEO of Picarro.

ERFINDER : Zeit Magazine 12/2011

Ever since shooting The Nerd Convention a million years ago, these inventor stories always seem to find their way to me. I almost always welcome them.

Spent a totally enjoyable few days meeting inventors at TechShop in SF and Menlo Park last month. Everybody wants to know, of course, about Team Phoenicia. Here are some pages from the photo essay in Zeit Magazine, Germany.

Frank Gehry 11/2011

Q: Have you ever shot Frank before? Do you know what it's like?

A: No, I haven't. What can you tell me?

Q: Well, he'll just walk in and you'll push the button...it can't really be more complex than that.

A: I think we can handle that.

Working For A Living

Great time at Studio 308 yesterday.
Sz, Micah, Erich putting it all together.
Coffee filtered thru a napkin makes the day on this foggy morning shoot ...

Real Life Science Fiction

Spent some days last week working on a story for a client in Germany. Details and communication for the subjects were few and far between...they kind of needed me to track down the subjects to an extent and work out the details myself. After shooting the story I felt this one subject had something special in his shop we really had to go see. He had a window for me to visit last nite and this is what I saw.

There is something special about raising my camera phone and pointing it at something otherworldly. Suddenly I'm the astronaut who landed on the moon, realized he forgot his camera, and just takes a snap with what he's got.

Tales Of The City / PDN

Photo District News came out with their City Guide on San Francisco. Essentially it is supposed to spell out the pros and cons of the local and national market from the perspective of those living and working here. In the end it read like a big puff piece to me, but from the vantage point of Manhattan, I guess it seems like The Garden Of Earthly Delights out here. Happy to see new Dad Jeff Singer grab the opening spread with a great portrait as well.

I'm super thankful to have some images included in the story, very thankful that I'm remembered as a commercial photographer with projects shot for Duncan / Channon and Crispin Porter in the mix . But of course, you can't look thru the story and not think of all the killer talent the bay area is packed with who are living and working and kicking ass here on a daily basis.

Print Lives.

Happy to get my hands on the elegant October issue of UCLA magazine designed by Charlie Hess. Big beautiful images printed on thick coated paper and it feels good when you hold it. Inspiring work by Amanda Friedman, Everard Williams and Max Gerber as well. No links, nothing on line...this is all about the printed piece. Amen.

National Geographic / November 2011

Sarah Leen, Senior Photography Editor at National Geographic approached me about doing a story on the feelings and ideas behind ECHOLILIA earlier last year. I really never thought it would see the light of day...I couldn't envision this kind of curious personal story about my life and my son, all shot in our home, to fit in with the global vision of National Geographic. In April I got a chance to visit Sarah and see everything she was up to at the magazine: great stories with a contemporary sensibility, interesting features by unexpected photographers, humor and irony and all of these curve balls thrown in amidst all that is classically National Geographic. I left there inspired by what photography in the mass media could really be.

So happy to have ECHOLILIA celebrated so elegantly in the pages of the November issue of the magazine. I haven't got my hands on it yet, but saw a sneak peek of the production online last night. You all can see it HERE.

Today's Spam : The Twins

2 Things On A Friday

Above is a painting of a cat my son Wilson just did this morning after breakfast. I drew the cat and he did the stain glass painting treatment. Kinda looks like cubism to me.

Busy week this week culminating in the neat experience of having my AA grad student Emily Sevin accompany Sz and I on a very make-shift portrait shoot we tried to pull off in the early hours of San Francisco's bustling financial district. SF is not LA, thus you can try to pull off guerilla style photo shoots in various knooks and crannies and alleys and foreclosed storefronts and business facades...really now more than ever. The snap below is from our class / shoot. Grecian columns appreciated by all.

October has lots of big stuff going on...so we are getting ready for that and thankful and amused by every assignment we are getting to do as well.

Peace.