New portrait of Sagmeister & Walsh

Stefan Sagmeister’s 2008 art exhibition at Dietch Projects in SoHo was the original inspiration for my series of graphic designer portraits. I’ve photographed a dozen other prominent designers since then and Stefan is the first one that I’ve photographed twice. The impetus for that was his new partnership with incredibly talented designer Jessica Walsh.

I spent one afternoon photographing Jessica with Stefan and my favorite portrait is shown above. Sagmeister & Walsh is famous for its use of aphorisms, so it seemed fitting to incorporate one into the portrait. Their faces were lit very simply by the digital projector used to project the STEP UP TO IT sign. The soft evening light falling on the firm’s fourth floor deck provided the only other light source.

True transparency:  A 24/7 live video bird’s eye view of Sagmeister & Walsh at work constitutes their website homepage. Clicking on the words painted on the floor navigates users through their site.

Both members of this new partnership garnered a lot of attention by baring all in some arresting and humorous photos of themselves announcing their professional alliance. 

The photos received so much attention that I couldn’t help but feel that my portraits of this duo would be the first ever of them wearing clothing. Not true, of course. 

Photo by Christian Parsons

Inside the design studio my assistant and I had to gingerly set up our lighting around a number of their designers who were working on a fascinating project involving thousands of vividly painted pencils, hot glue guns, and styrofoam forms spread out all over their floors and desks.

A very low key street entrance illustrating one of their aphorisms: “3rd world offices, 1st world prices”

Encouragement for photographers and their assistants who are schlepping equipment up four flights of stairs.

Past projects including Stefan's famous Lou Reed poster.

The S&W team happily at work.

The view looking out onto 23rd St., one of the busiest streets in Manhattan.

Goodbye, old 21 megapixel friend...

I sold my once favorite camera on Ebay the other day. It was my Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, a remarkable tool whose technical capabilities were outlined in its techy name comprised of numbers, letters, and even classic Roman numerals. 

Camera manufacturers, for some reason, refuse to give their products sexy or ironic names like Shutter Leopard, Exposurenator, or Megapixel Badger. The best they can come up with is usually a combination of numbers and letters that hints at years of refining and reworking technical details to death. In the end, however, the names just sound as random as a game of Pachinko.

I’ve replaced that camera with one far better. It not only has a host of incredible features and improvements over my old 1Ds Mark III but Canon gave it a sexier, simpler name: The Canon 1DX. They correctly surmised that eventually there wouldn’t be enough room on the camera body for all those numbers and letters if they continued with the old naming convention. 

I like to think that I’m not so nerdy that I could become attached to something like a camera and I really wasn’t. You can’t refer to something that is capable of taking 10 frames a second as an inanimate object but, still, its just a tool. Besides, I had already moved on to a committed relationship with my shiny new 1DX (14 frames per second!) while my Mark III was gathering dust in the closet. 

When that winning bid came through on Ebay for my Mark III I was glad to see it go and stop depreciating. The buyer was a Manhattan based orthopedist so I was able to arrange an in person meeting obviating the need for Fedex, insurance, and all that bubble wrap. As I handed over my old camera, a constant and uncomplaining, reliable companion that had accompanied me on hundreds of shoots all over the world for more than 6 years I was surprised to feel a momentary twinge of regret. That camera had taken a lot of great photographs. It had been between my eye and countless adventures - mostly good, some bad and a few really annoying. 

It wasn’t exactly a Sophie’s Choice moment but suddenly I started feeling a little sentimental about a little ergonomic black box. “So what kind of photography do you like to do?”, I asked the doctor, hoping that my camera was moving on to a meaningful or exciting retirement. Maybe he’d be taking incredibly sharp photos of his patients’ injuries for medical research. Perhaps it would help him record his African safari vacation or that trip to the Galapagos that he’d been planning for years. “Oh, I’ll probably just use it to take pictures of my grandkids”, he replied. 

My heart sunk just a little. All those hopes for my tireless and dedicated camera that had never once asked for a roll of film, a repair, or even an oil change and this was going to be how it spent its last days? I’m sure his grandchildren are really cute, but... Oh well, I could use that money for something that would help me continue to explore my own love of photography. He might use it to take a few photos of his patients and it would make a great tax deduction. As my buyer pulled away with my camera resting on the leather seat of his Infinity, I knew, at the very least, that he had an appreciation for a supremely well crafted piece of technology.

Tokyo Shoot 2

Sake barrels at the Mejii Shrine

Last year I was photographing for a large retailing client in a few places around the world including Tokyo. I had a day off to explore and take some personal photographs. You can see a few of those photos in my blog post from last May below -scroll, scroll, scroll..  I intended to post more of my Tokyo photos and today, Alyson Kuhn, a good friend and ultra talented writer for Felt & Wire beat me to it with a marvelous blog piece about a unique Found Muji store that I stumbled upon in Tokyo. Her post reminded me of the fact that I had some other Tokyo photos I wanted to share...

They're all empty and non-recyclable.

The National Art Center

No matter the shape, windows in Tokyo office buildings are the cleanest in the world.

This reminded me of a giant hi-tech version of a New York storefront security gate.

Storefront display at Found MUJI

Mad Max inspired boots for the apocalypse

Poster: Why proper footwear is important to your pancreas

Bill Cunningham would love this city

New Delhi Group Portrait

This is a recent shoot that I did for a client in India. It's one of many complex group portraits that I've shot all over the U.S. and in places as far flung as Tokyo, Shanghai, London, Auckland, and Caracas.

My client was one on the world’s largest and most successful engineering firms. They design and engineer huge projects like dams and airports all over the world. For this photograph we gathered 25 of their local engineers who were working on a major road building project outside of Delhi. We wanted an impressive setting, indicative of India. I relied on my knowledge from previous shoots in India plus the advice of an Indiaphile friend of mine to find this spot, Lodhi Gardens, which had good exposure to late afternoon light.

My assistant, Kyle Dorosz, and I went to the location to work out as many details as we could. With my camera locked down on a tripod I photographed Kyle in 25 different spots in front of the mosque. Later that evening he used his Photoshop skills to give us a preview of what the shot might look like.

That dress rehearsal gave us a critical advantage for the real shoot as we had almost every detail worked out including placement of the subjects around complex areas of type and graphics that would eventually be overlaid on the photo. As is the case for many of my large group portraits I needed to allow for the gutter on a double page spread - a split composition that looks a little off until it's actually in print. Thanks to a lot of careful planning along with the considerable logistical support from my client plus the good weather, our shoot went off quickly without a hitch. 

Irish Hunger Memorial

This ramp, a favorite of skateboarders, leads up to the memorial's elevated top level, a beautifully conceived half acre chunk of actual imported Irish countryside. This photo, taken with my iPhone, was set to shoot HDR creating a ghosted image of the boarder.

Last August Antoine Odom, 24, of Long Island, with the help of some “controlled substances” failed to notice the memorial, jumped a curb and crashed into the corner with his Chevy Impala. Five months later a low key memorial to Antoine in the form of a barricade and a sheet of plywood covers the scar. Someone should tell the governor and mayor to fund this repair.

The governor and mayor get top billing for approving the memorial. The artist, Brian Tolle, landscape architect, Gail Wittwer-Laird, and 1100 Architect who collaborated to create the memorial are listed in smaller type off to the side.

Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan

I recently had the pleasure of photographing Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan to add to my series of noted graphic designers. Their new book “Dialog": What Makes a Great Design Partnership  shares the story of this legendary partnership.

Leslie Smolan and Ken Carbone

Reception

Leslie's office

Ken at work or play?

A few pages from some of the 28 exquisite journals, which Ken refers to as "Soulbooks" or  "a laboratory for ideas".

Ken: "I date each page with a rubber stamp. However, I work in them only when I'm inspired. This way it's never forced and always fun."

In total, Ken's journals, compiled over about twenty years, fill roughly 6000 pages of notes and sketches.

New portrait of Phil Berg

Meet Phil Berg, whom I photographed as part of my documentary, MONTAUK. The film has been selected to premiere in the New York Surf Film Festival on September 20th. I shot it over two summers and interviewed twenty unique individuals; Phil is one of Montauk's most ebullient residents. Multi-talented, he is  a tree surgeon, a baseball coach, a bouncer and a writer—and he goes nowhere without his trusty companion, Umma.

This portrait was set up in the middle of a quiet road on the outskirts of town. We had a huge strobe lighting him, taking up an entire lane. Every few minutes, someone would slowly drive by this spectacle and stop to say hello to Phil. It seems that there wasn’t anyone in town who didn’t know him. The fifth or sixth friend to stop by was driving a monster truck with enormous tires. The driver began chatting with Phil for a few minutes until he was interrupted by his girlfriend, whose head popped up from somewhere below the steering wheel. She cheerfully introduced herself before disappearing again and we continued shooting till the sun went down.

Montauk is a place I love and I hope you can come to see Phil and and the other fascinating citizens of Montauk when my film premieres in The New York Surf Film Festival, next Thursday September 20th at 7:30 pm.

HOW magazine award for my blog

I just received the great news that HOW magazine has included my blog as one of their "Top 10" websites for designers. You can see the article by clicking here. 

Jessica Hische

A few weeks ago I traveled to San Francisco to photograph another subject for my series on noted graphic designers. Jessica Hische is an incredibly talented and versatile letterer, illustrator, and designer who, at the age of 28 has created an enviable and prominent place for herself in the graphic design world.

My assistant and I arrived at her studio in the Mission district one afternoon and I was immediately overwhelmed with the number of fascinating objects and artwork in her, nevertheless, uncluttered space. There were countless examples of her beautiful hand lettering work, lots of interesting furniture, LP’s and a turntable, and a fine collection of the world’s best bourbons.

This plethora of arresting props presented an unusual photographic challenge - too many great objects from which to choose. To make matters worse, she was really fun to talk to about almost everything. Jessica’s considerable language skills are known to many through her hilarious and informative blog pieces. Those talents also came across in her easygoing and lighthearted conversations. I had to force myself to concentrate on photographing her.

The end result was well worth it. I like to think that this photograph, my favorite from the shoot, conveys Jessica’s considerable artistic talents, quirky sense of humor, supreme confidence, and good taste in drinking. It also nicely shows off her Type tattoo. Altogether, she could probably give “The Most Interesting Man in the World” a run for his money. At the very least, I know she has inside jokes with total strangers.

Flag Day

This winter one of my clients commissioned me to photograph a commemorative flag salvaged from the ruins of The World Trade Center. After September 11th this enormous flag was restored using pieces of other historically significant flags from around the country. For the tenth anniversary of 9/11hey asked me to find a unique way to photograph it along with some of their employees. Here's a 45 second time lapse video of the ten hour production involving 3 assistants, one art director, one client, one hair and make-up artist, and 50 flag bearers. Try to watch it with the music soundtrack on if you can.

Tokyo Shoot

One of my clients recently sent me to Tokyo, London, and Mexico City on assignment.  Between those shoots I had a just little time off to explore all three cities with my camera. 

Having photographed in Japan on several occasions over the years I have to say that it's one of my favorite cities in the world. Its the most futuristic, civilized place there is, and its populated by extremely considerate, tidy, and polite people. 

Tokyo is very quiet for such a teeming metropolis. People don’t honk their horns, yell, or talk loudly on their cell phones. Sirens from police, firetrucks and ambulances seem to be almost non-existent. An ambulance driver transporting a dying patient calmly encourage other cars to move out of the way using a relatively quiet and, of course, hi-fidelity speaker atop the ambulance. You don’t have to scream when you know how to manufacture some of the best speakers in the world.

You’ve probably seen those videos of Japanese commuters being shoved into rush hour subway cars by professional sardine packers. My assistant and I avoided the subway at that time of day and, instead found many serene and beautiful environments. See below..

It’s amazing that it looks intimate with the photographer on the east side of town and the subject on the west. — Michael Bierut

One day last winter I went out to photograph the streets of Manhattan, freshly covered with a thick blanket of snow. Instead, I accidentally spotted the perfect setting for my upcoming portrait of Michael Bierut as I walked past Pentagram’s Fifth Avenue building glowing warmly in the blue light of dusk.

Pentagram has been a very familiar place for me since the 1980’s. I’ve shot for a number of their designers in the United States and overseas and had the honor of collaborating on some of my favorite projects with Peter Harrison, Woody Pirtle, Michael Gericke, David Hillman, and Michael Bierut.

Having Michael stand in Pentagram’s window above his firm’s renowned name seemed like the perfect setting for his portrait. He agreed to the concept perhaps because he liked the fact that he only had to step away from his desk for a few minutes.

The best viewpoint required that I shoot from a twelve foot ladder on Fifth Avenue at rush hour, across the street from Pentagram.  I unsuccessfully attempted to get a permission from the city of New York and then just decided to wing it, hoping that any passing police would assume that I must have a permit.  To decrease my chances of getting run over by a bus, I persuaded a NYC garbage truck driver to park on Fifth Avenue in just the right spot to protect me and my ladder from traffic.