The Daily Edit – NFLPA: Dominic DiSaia

Mecole Hardman, Kansas City Chiefs

Nick Bosa, Kansas City 49ers

NFLPA


Photographer: Dominic DiSaia

Heidi: How long have you been shooting the for the NFLPA? (National Football League Players Association)
Dominic: For the last 4 years I have been shooting the incoming class of NFL rookies for the NFLPA (National Football League Players Association).  This entails me photographing over 40 professional athletes over a two day period.

How long to do you have each player?
I have each player for about 5-10 minutes total so there is a challenge to connect with them quickly and successfully accomplish our shot list which includes many variations in two different lighting setups.

What tools do you rely on to make a fast connection?
To help achieve this I always do some research on the individual players and try to find something interesting to ask them about, play their favorite music, or any other technique that will quickly engage them.  This quick connection is very important on these days as these players schedules are packed with meetings and obligations so it is easy for them to be mentally fatigued.  I thrive on the challenge to connect with my subjects in a short period of time despite the fact that they all have very different personalities and their comfort in front of the camera can vary greatly.

How are these images used?
The NLFPA uses the images from our shoot as a catalog of assets they can make available to corporate sponsors throughout the NFL season.

Tell us about these two portraits.
Two of the players shot this season for this project will be in the Super Bowl on February 2nd and played major roles in their teams success this year.  Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers and Mecole Hardman of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Daily Edit – New York Times- The Neediest Case: Ellen Silverman


New York Times: The Neediest Cases Fund

Editor: Lisa Dalsimer
Photographer: Ellen Silverman

 

Heidi:What was the genesis of the column?
Ellen: In 1911 on Christmas day Alfred S Ochs the publisher of The New York Times was out walking after Christmas dinner when he encountered a man who had just had been served a Christmas dinner at the YMCA but had no place to sleep.  Ochs determined that he was a respectable man who was just down on his luck, he gave him a few dollars and told him to come see him about a job.  That encounter led to the establishment of the Neediest Cases Fund.  The next year he sent reporters to social service agencies to gather the stories of 100 people in need. Their stories were published and readers were asked to make donations to help them.  That first year of 1912 the fund raised $3600. Since then the fund has raised over $300 million dollars.  Today, The Times works with seven social service agencies in the city to identify those in need. From October through January the stories are published in a weekly column. The Times continues to manage the investment and distribution of the money to the agencies.  Other cities were inspired by Ochs idea and have set up similar funds.

How did this job come about?
When Kim Gougenheim, the Food Editor at The New York Times first looked at my website she responded to the reportage work and asked if I would like to shoot restaurant reviews for the food section. These assignments have become a favorite job.  They require me to go to an unknown location armed with a shot list and quickly figure out what, where, and how to shoot. The challenge of the unknown, and working by myself is energizing. After working with both Kim and her assistant Lisa Dalsimer for the past year and a half I invited them both to get together for a coffee. These days, so often we are assigned projects via email and submit the work without meeting the people we are working with, a rather anonymous process. I thought that after working together for the past 18 months it would be nice to actually meet each other. Eventually the conversation moved away from food and on to other topics. Lisa mentioned that she was also an assigning editor for The Neediest Cases column. This is a column that my very civic minded mother read to us when we were children and that I have continued to read.  Coincidentally, that morning I had read a profile in The Neediest Cases column that I was touched by and thought would make an interesting short doc. Lisa said she would be happy to put me in touch with the journalist who wrote that piece.   She thought my work was well suited for this column and asked if I would like to shoot one of the profiles.  This was all very serendipitous, as I have been moving my work in the direction of shooting people. This was the perfect assignment.

What drew you to that column as a reader?
As I mentioned, my mother read this column to my sister and I when we were children. I grew up sharing her deep care and curiosity about people. As a result, I never shy away from an opportunity to engage in a conversation with a stranger. Reading this column is like having a one-way conversation. This assignment gave me the opportunity to actually be involved in the conversation through the medium of photography.

How long did you spend with the subject and tell me about the interaction?
The morning of the shoot I met Julio at 7 am outside of his home in the Bronx.  His openness, obvious warmth, and winning smile immediately drew me in. Julio shared bits of his story with me, pointing out the first apartment he lived in when he was put into foster care at the age of 13. He explained that he was moved from his family home on the lower east side to the Bronx. As we were walking the sun started to rise. I was drawn to the strong morning light and began to shoot.  We took the subway together to his office in Times Square where he works at Ernst and Young, one of the largest professional services companies, continuing to shoot along the way.  During our conversation I learned that Julio is a passionate Salsa and Bachata dancer. Although he did not end up dancing for me I continued shooting him, choosing places where the late fall setting sun created strong swaths of light, a natural dramatic backdrop.  In between shooting we continued to speak about his life, passions, and goals.  It was a pleasure to spend those few hours photographing Julio, a young man who has faced more adversity in his life than most of us can begin to imagine.  His tremendous inner strength and focus has taught him how to turn his disadvantages into advantages. Julio is laser focused on achieving his goal of becoming a CPA, exploring the world, and living a life that he creates and shapes just as he would like it to be.  Being chosen as a Times Neediest Cases recipient allowed him to move out of the 1 bedroom apartment he was sharing with his aunt and 7 other family members. He moved into an apartment around the corner with a cousin where he now has his own bedroom, allowing him to shut the door of his room and quietly study for his CPA exams.   Funds from the New York Times Neediest Cases helped him pay for his first month rent, utilities, and broker fees.

 What direction did you get from the NYT?
The direction from the Times was to meet Julio in front of his apartment at 7am on the morning of the shoot and to photograph him during his commute to work.

Why has your work evolved into portraiture?
I have spent most of my career as a photographer shooting food and still life.  In the last few years I have begun to shift my focus to people this started on one of my many trips to Cuba.  I had made a short documentary film about four elderly Cubans who had lived in their homes all of their lives. Our homes are a reflection of who we are. The idea was to explore the relationship between a person and their home, After the film I went back and began to shoot portraits of people in their homes – shooting both a portrait and an object or interior which could alternatively be seen also as a portrait.

Tell us about these portraits.
Two years ago at an event at a church to welcome immigrant children from Latin America who had been “ shipped” to NY from the border that summer, I met two pastors from The Church of Living Hope in East Harlem.  They told me that they wanted to open the church on 3 Fridays after Thanksgiving to neighborhood families for family holiday portraits. I had been looking for photography opportunities to work with organizations which had need of my skills.  Immediately I volunteered to photograph the holiday portraits.  It was both a challenging and rewarding experience.  Challenging because I had very little time with each family as we had a line out the door.  Although I would have chosen a different environment in which to shoot the families, I had to understand that what they wanted was a holiday themed portrait, which meant a tree was set up on the side of the makeshift set to set the mood.  What I had to do was let go of controlling the aesthetics and focus on the families.  The challenge was that in the few minutes with each family I had to make a connection, put them at ease, and take the picture.  I was very touched by the thankfulness and grace of each family.  This year I did this again in a shelter in East Harlem.  I have promised to go back before Mother’s Day to shoot portraits of the children for Mother’s Day gifts. We have a make-up stylists who is willing to come and do make-up for the moms while I shoot the children.  I hope to find a cosmetic company who sells products for Black and Hispanic women who would be willing to donate cosmetics.  Doing these projects satisfies my desire to use my talent to do community based work.  It has also shown me that after years of working in a studio shooting food and still life that I want to now shift my focus outward to people.  I hope to find more opportunities to work with non profits, NGOs or social service agencies who have a need for portrait and location photography to visually explain their mission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Daily Edit – Modern Huntsman IV: Dawn Huemann

 

Modern Huntsman

Tyler Sharp: Editor-in-Chief
Photographer: Dawn Huemann

Heidi: How many days were you with the Salmon Sisters and what was the biggest challenge to the shoot or what about the most inspiring moment?
Dawn: The biggest challenge overall was getting to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska where the weather is really sporadic and dramatic. It was a two day journey up to Dutch Harbor from the Bay Area and I stayed there with the Sisters for 4 full days, then journeyed home for 2 days. The day I flew into Dutch Harbor the air was still and calm and it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.  The Sisters were coming in on their boat to meet me but also because a huge storm was coming in and they needed to seek cover for a few days. They pushed their last day of fishing and I stayed in Dutch Harbor while they fished all night. We met up the next morning and I shot them unloading and selling all of the fish at sunrise.

By noon, the storm had come in and for two days we were stuck inside while sideways freezing rain and 40 MPH wind gusts beat at the boat. We couldn’t shoot a thing.  I was there for four days, but we only got to shoot for one and a half due to weather. It was tricky and took patience, a great attitude and tons of flexibility. These are the best kind of adventure shoots and really you just have to be ready for anything! In the end the storm gave us incredible light, so I was delighted!

How does your education in philosophy express itself in your work?
Philosophy has given me a really broad and creative foundation of thinking.  When you study philosophy you have to keep your mind open to all kinds of contradictory arguments and ways of life. There really isn’t a right or wrong – just theories, ideas and concepts. Philosophy taught me to think creatively and to be passionate about ideas. It also taught me a huge amount about inclusion and diversity of people and the way they think as well as the diversity as to how we were all raised and shaped. People in general are also just very interesting to me and I always want to learn about them!

How did your upbringing shape your eye or experience of the world?
One of my oldest memories is my father pulling over to the side of the road in our old 4×4 van at sunset, pulling his massive video camera and tripod out and shushing us little kids while he recorded the natural sounds and sights of the world and whatever beautiful sunset we had come across. Since my parents were travel filmmakers image making was just a part of our lives. Looking for beauty was unending and my father found it almost everywhere. Without even knowing it, he was training me since before I can remember.

As my parents made travel films they would tote us all over the world. I wasn’t raised with a religion and one of the first things I noticed traveling the world was how all these other humans in different cultures all had religions.  In the end, it was actually religious studies that landed me with my interest and later my degree in Philosophy. I was curious lifestyles, traditions and Gods. Now, as a photographer I travel meeting different people; I love connecting with them all equally no matter their race, religion, viewpoints or lifestyle. Also, I am comfortable, even happy,  in airports and on airplanes and that’s really been a big bonus from traveling so much as a kid.

Are you part of any female creative collectives? 
I am a part of the Luupe and I am a member of many private groups that meet both online and in person. When you find capable, strong women out there – you stick with them, keep in touch and work together over and over whether you are in a group with them or not. For me it’s really about finding your tribe and in such a male dominated industry us ladies stick together pretty well.

Did you pitch Modern Huntsman or did they choose you for this story?
After receiving the publication for the past year I became obsessed with it. I resonated with the beautiful photography and inspirational story telling and really wanted to be a part of it. I sent a few printed mailers to the whole team and wrote personal notes as to how much I loved their work and would be just over the moon for a chance to work with them. Then I waited and crossed my fingers. Shortly thereafter, an amazing woman in my life who’s a writer, advocate, ecologist and the CEO of  Wylder Goods, Lindsey Davis made the connection on a hunting trip with Tyler Sharp who is the CEO and Editor in Chief of Modern Huntsman and one of the people I had sent the mailer to. As far as I know my name came up and Tyler remembered my mailer and Lindsey, who I had worked with on several occasions gave him the thumbs up on me. He contacted me and I pitched the Salmon Sisters (who I had worked with and met before and just adored) for the Women’s Issue.

The Daily Edit – The New York Times Sunday Magazine: Dina Litovsky


The New York Times Sunday Magazine

Director of Photography: Kathy Ryan
Former Art Director now Partner at Pentagram: Matt Willey
Photographer:
Dina Litovsky

Heidi: How much time did you spend with each athlete before taking their portraits, was it before or after Mavericks?
Dina: I did two trips for the story, to Maui, Hawaii and Mavericks, San Francisco. Traveling to catch the waves is tricky, there is only a 24-42 hour notice of when the waves will swell. I had to be packed and ready
, waiting for the last minute green light. When I got to Maui, the weather was too dangerous for me to get on a boat for the shoot so I concentrated on making portraits of the athletes.

Tell us how you got the cover image, where were you in the water?
This was taken at Mavericks. I had 3 days to shoot the waves before the swell was over. The shoot was done on a small boat, aboard with both of the surfers, Bianca Valenti and Paige Alms (cover). Each day trip took from 3-5 hours. The boat had to keep circling around the waves to avoid being overthrown. That, with the combination of looking through a 400 lens trying to pick out Bianca or Paige among the 30 other surfers, contributed to my first ever seasickness. The cover image was taken on the second day when I came more prepared with anti-nausea pills. Physically this was probably the most difficult shoot I’ve done. In the end, I came out with less than 30 images of the women surfing, and one of them ended up on the cover.

Was the photo direction in Black and white?
Mavericks is one of the most dangerous places in the world to surf the big waves and I wanted to translate that into a mood that was a bit threatening and ominous. Once I took away the bright blues and greens of the sky and sea, the waves seemed to turn into stone, both overwhelming the surfers and freezing them into a moment of stillness. Right away I knew that the images had to be black and white. I sent Kathy Ryan both options of each image, color and black and white, and was thrilled to learn that she chose the monochrome versions for the whole story.

The Daily Edit: Anthony Smith


Anthony Smith

Heidi: How much did you shoot for Bike while you were the Photo Director?
Anthony: A big part of my workflow while I was Photo Director was studio work actually. In each issue of Bike Magazine, a fairly large percentage of the pages are gear coverage, and I would shoot all the studio images for those pages. With 8 issues per year, it was a pretty substantial workload, but in a way, it put me in a fortunate position to be selective with the editorial pieces that I shot.

How did being a photographer inform your editing?
Being both a photographer and a mountain biker was paramount to being an effective editor for Bike. Understanding the moments that are going to tell an authentic story was an incredibly important part of Bike’s success over the years.

Do you find it easier to edit your own work?
It’s incredibly difficult to edit my own work. It can be really hard to look at images objectively if there were challenges to capturing them. Perhaps an athlete is battling a trick, or your battling weather, light, or just can’t find that magic angle. When you get the image it’s hard not to let the journey of making the photo influence your perception of its worth. It’s much easier to look at a contributor’s work and make those tough decisions I find.

What do you miss about the office life?
I miss the collaboration the most. Working with the team at Bike was the most satisfying creative time in my career. Everyone on the team had so much to offer to our creative process, and when we nailed it on a piece, that feeling was hard to beat.

Being on my own and out of the office has given me more time to focus on my creative process. I’m able to shoot work outside of my comfort zone and see how those explorations inform my work.

What do you think photo editors could do better when working with photographers?
It’s always been really rewarding when I feel as though I’m being asked to look past the obvious and capture images that will challenge the audience. Knowing that the easy image won’t cut it and that they trust you and the audience to engage the images on a deeper level. That relationship and trust is key to creating meaningful work.

The Daily Edit – Tracy + David Stills and Motion

Tracy+David

Heidi: Were you both involved in photography prior to joining forces?
Tracy+David: We’re both former news photojournalists who left our staff photography positions at newspapers almost 10 years ago, and moved to Southern California to begin freelancing. David was formerly an Art Director and Photo Editor at The State Journal-Register in Illinois, before returning to grad school for visual communication through the Knight Fellowship at Ohio University. Following grad school, he started shooting full time as a staff photographer at the Naples Daily News in Florida (a medium-sized paper that was known for its strong tradition of documentary storytelling).

Tracy fell in love with photography in high school, practically living in the darkroom when she wasn’t in the pool (she was a serious competitive swimmer), and beat down the door of the local newspaper in New Haven, Conn., to learn the ropes of photojournalism when she was 16. After college and a number of summer internships at newspapers around the country later, she landed a job at the Naples Daily News where she met David. After a couple of years there, Tracy was offered a position at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, as a staff photojournalist and sports photographer.

While we love what we do now and haven’t looked back, we’ve always felt that our work as photojournalists was the best bootcamp, where we problem solved all day everyday, learned to be extremely flexible and nimble, and learned to work with people from all different walks of life. We became extremely adept at working in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment, thinking quickly, staying calm in stressful situations, and creating large libraries of images under seemingly impossible deadlines.

Do you both shoot for each project?
Yes. We shoot together on almost every project, working as a team to get more images, angles, ideas, etc. Most often, we’re both shooting from different angles simultaneously, capturing essentially double the images and angles that one of us could do on our own. For this reason, we like to work with natural lighting or continuous lighting, if feasible, as it allows us to shoot at the same time. If we’re shooting with strobes or if it works better for a project, we’ll pass a camera back and forth, both directing and working a scene slightly differently to get a wider variety of images, but almost always, we both have a hand in creating images.

Occasionally, if we have an extremely tight schedule or we need to shoot at two locations at once, we’ll both shoot simultaneously on different sets/locations for the same project. In those cases, we aren’t together, per se, but are both shooting at the same time, and know very clearly what we’re trying to accomplish, how everything needs to fit together, and what the end goal is, so we’re still very much working as a team on the project.

Sometimes we’ll do an underwater shoot or a drone shoot, and one person might be underwater shooting images or flying a drone to get an overhead view, while the other is on land shooting from a different angle. We love to work together to photograph a project from multiple angles at once, and really enjoy getting to see the perspective the other person captured.

What are the best aspects of shooting as a team?
We’ve developed and share a cohesive vision and style, but we are still individually creative with unique ideas. We love that by having two sets of eyes and two minds working through ideas and projects, we can merge our perspectives together and come up with something greater than what we’d do individually. We (and our clients) also love that we can produce more work in the same amount of time than one of us could do on our own. Together, we push things further, find different angles, and push each other to see and think differently, which results in a better final product.

Are you able to turn off your photographic minds and conversation when you’re not working?
Many people often tell us that they couldn’t imagine working full time with their spouse, but now about 9 years into working together, we really couldn’t imagine doing this any other way. Our work is incredibly important to us, and we do find that creating a work/life balance is always a challenge. We pour so much into our work, that we’re often still thinking, talking about, and working on our projects when we’re technically supposed to be off. If we’re on a run or a hike with our dog before or after work, it’s rare that photography or something about the day doesn’t come up. We do make sure we have a number of activities and hobbies we like to do together outside of work as well, which really helps give us some down-time and keeps us connected personally so we aren’t simply business partners. We’re really fortunate that we can spend so much of our time together, and still love being with each other.

Best advice for any photo duo?
Find your individual strengths and figure out how to best divide and conquer — especially on the business side of things. We have many overlapping strengths but also different strengths that complement one another, and it took us a few years to understand what these were and how best to utilize them in the office and on set. We realized that we couldn’t both be equally good at everything, and that having each of us focus on developing certain skills that we gravitated towards would make us much stronger as a team. Once we figured this out, we became more productive and efficient, clearer about our roles, and ultimately much better individually and as a team.

The Daily Edit
Patagonia Journal November 2019: Austin Siadak Part 2

Patagonia Journal
Photographer: Austin Siadak

Heidi: How has your relationship with nature informed your photography?
Austin: Hmmm, that’s an interesting one…I don’t think I’ve ever considered that question before. I have always enjoyed nature more as a participant than a viewer – climbing, skiing, trail running through a landscape rather than just sightseeing. Moving through remote and wild landscapes fills me with wild elation and awe and a heightened sense of the joy of being alive. As a result, most of my imagery captures not merely incredible landscapes, but often people interacting with those landscapes in meaningful ways. I think this helps give a sense of scale to my photos, and it also provides viewers with a more accessible portal through which to imagine them in these spaces.

Were there any difficulties capturing these images?
None of these images were particularly difficult to capture, as I took a fairly documentary approach to the trip and didn’t try to force or create any moments or events that weren’t already happening. I think that the only part that would have been difficult for most people/photographers was feeling completely comfortable in a rugged mountain environment and having the skills and fitness to move swiftly and confidently through it. I’ve spent much of the last decade of my life in alpine areas far more technical and scary than what we experienced in The Refuge, and so luckily for me I felt at home running across uneven talus or soloing ahead on snowy ridgelines.

How long did you wait in place before the animals looked at/smelled you? 
Every day of this trip we had to move 15-20 miles over rough terrain, so we never had any time to stop and really wait for the wildlife. This was a bit of a disappointment for me, as I ideally would have scouted where certain animals spent their time and set up some sort of blind to hide behind. As it was I largely just had to react as quick as possible whenever we happened to come across caribou or other animals. I captured the image of the wolf and of those caribou probably only 30 minutes apart. We had just finished descending out of the McCall Glacier Valley and were entering the Coastal Plain where the tundra flattens out and runs north for 50 miles to the Arctic Ocean. It was a cold, windy, foggy day, and we took refuge in a dry creek bed in order to get out of the wind and eat some lunch. We didn’t take note of the fact that while the depression sheltered us from the wind, it also blocked our view of the surrounding landscape. As we sipped down hot soup, Tommy’s eyes suddenly went wide and he half-shouted, “Holy shit. There is a HUGE wolf right behind you!” For a split second I thought he was joking, but I could see the seriousness in his face and quickly whipped my head around to see a large gray wolf only ten feet away. It bounded back a few paces at our movement, and then stopped and stared at us from 20ft away. Having never been so close to an apex predator, I was a little frightened and not sure what to think, but we immediately realized that its posture was calm and relaxed. It was merely curious, not aggressive. I gingerly reached for my camera, switched lenses as quick as I could, and snapped a few frames before it trotted off into the mist. My guess is that the wolf smelled us/the food we had cooked for lunch. We made sure to never lose sight of our surroundings after that.

When you shot the sweeping vista, what ran through your mind?
In moments like this, I often have two distinct trains of thought running through my mind. In the presence of such monumental natural beauty and gigantic scale, I remember thinking that I couldn’t believe how wild and wonderful the landscape was, and how lucky we were to be able to see it from such a vantage. But because I was there to document and take photos, I also spent much of that time thinking about the technical particulars of composing and making images – What to include in the frame? What to exclude? Where to ask the pilot to turn? To tilt the wings to give me a better angle? Did the wind outside the cockpit window shift the focus ring? These thoughts and questions probably occupied a much larger portion of my mind. (This naturally leads me into your next question…)

How often do you put the camera down and simply look?
I think it is nearly impossible to truly appreciate and witness an event or moment while simultaneously trying to document it to the best of your abilities. The natural conflict that thus arises, at least for me, is that if I want to really experience what is happening in front of me I need to put my camera down, turn off the technical side of my mind, and simply appreciate what’s playing out before my eyes. I’ve certainly missed shots doing this, but I have more meaningful memories as a result. One of the most difficult aspects of a trip such as this is developing an expert feel for when it’s really important to keep the camera out and keep pressing the shutter, and when it’s ok to just stop and stare. I think that only comes through hard won experience.

What is are some of the unseen efforts behind these photos that the viewer couldn’t even imagine? 
It is difficult, if not impossible, to do a great job of documenting mountain sports and culture unless you are simultaneously participating in the action at hand. Many of my favorite or “best” images come from trips and experiences where you simply could not have a staged shoot, set up a studio, or have a dozen supporting members helping with all the necessary tasks besides composing and making the images. It’s usually just me and the people in the shot, and I’m often tied in to the other end of their rope. This brings a palpable authenticity and rawness to the photos, but it requires serious motivation and drive to keep pulling out the camera even when there’s myriad other things that need to be done – coil ropes, boil water, break down camp, keep hiking, climb the next pitch, etc.

After more than 24 hours on the move, and finally in a zone safe enough from falling debris above to take off his helmet, Chris Mutzel takes a short break to soak in the first rays of dawn after bailing off of the route Exocet on Aguja Stanhardt. Argentine Patagonia.

If there’s one thing that ties a lot of my favorite images together it is that they usually capture moments where I wanted nothing more than to keep my camera in its case and deal with those other things instead. For example, in the sunrise photo where my friend Chris Mutzel stands in front of the Fitz Roy massif as wind whips the rope off the glacier between us, we had been on the move for more than 24 hours, it was bitterly cold out, and ice crystals stung my face like a sandblaster. All I wanted was to bury my chin into my hood and keep trudging along. But I could see that the dawn light was some of the most amazing I’d ever witnessed, and so I called out and asked Chris to stop for 30 seconds or so. We made the image and kept hiking.

Sam Seward gets ready to bed down for the night as the moon rises through wildfire smoke over the Tiedemann Glacier, Waddington Range, BC.

Or in the basecamp photo where my friend Sam Seward is in his tent above the Tiedemann Glacier as the moon rises behind, we had been awake since before dawn and on the move all day. We were descending off a climb on nearby Mt. Waddington, and we’d had an accident where Sam was nearly killed by rockfall. In the end all was OK, but we’d spent hours that afternoon bandaging his wounds and I felt completely depleted mentally, physically, and emotionally as darkness finally fell across the landscape. But as I headed to my tent to pass out in glorious slumber I saw the moonrise and knew that if I waited 30-60 minutes the light would be incredible. And so I dug out my camera and a tripod, set it up, composed the shot, and waited. It would have felt amazing to simply go to sleep and get the rest I desperately needed, but I am so glad I didn’t. The reality is that the hardest part is simply making sure that the camera is in your hands. After that comes all the easy stuff.

Chris Mutzel climbs the runout and rime-covered first pitch of Exocet on Aguja Stanhardt. The pitch can sometimes be fat alpine ice, but we found it in lean condition, requiring balance, precision, and a cool head to tiptoe up tiny granite edges and small ice blobs in boots and crampons. Argentine Patagonia.

The Daily Edit
Patagonia Journal November 2019: Keri Oberly Part 1

Patagonia Journal

Creative Director: Kyle McCarthy
Designer: Annette Scheid
Photo Editor: Kyle Sparks
Photographers: Keri Oberly, Austin Siadak

Note: Arctic Refuge image (spread  one), wolf image (top right spread two); caribou image (left page spread five) photographed by Austin Siadak and will be posted in Part 2 next week Tuesday Dec 3rd.

Heidi: The Gwich’in tribe harvest the land and animals they are spiritually connected to, how did that unfold for you on this trip?
Keri: When I went to Arctic Village to document the Porcupine caribou harvest, I went in with locals Jewels Gilbert and Brennan Firth in mid-August, a time when the caribou are usually starting to migrate through. However, with climate change, the migration patterns have become unpredictable. I ended up being in the village 2 weeks before the herd started to migrate through. There was still a lot going on in the village. Lives revolve around harvesting food, medicine, fixing and building things and preparing for winter. It was peak season for blueberries. My first evening, I got invited to go pick blueberries and here I thought we would be gone for a couple of hours, we were out until 3 a.m., under the Arctic sun. That is what we did every night. We would prep dinner then go into the woods, pick blueberries, take a break for moose soup, play games with the kids, then continue until the berry harvest ended and the caribou came. The Gwich’in live off the land, this is how they sustain their culture and identity from the caribou, moose, fish, and berries.

Was the harvest difficult to witness? 
When the Porcupine caribou did start to migrate through, I wasn’t sure how I would handle the harvest, being a former vegetarian for 10 years and having only witnessed the death of an animal once. I found it to be a peaceful experience to watch someone with a deep spiritual connection harvest an animal. I did put my camera down a couple of times to simply watch. It was beautiful to witness someone with so much respect for an animal harvest and handle it. You could feel the love and happiness. They always thank the creator and animal for the food that nourishes their body, mind, and spirit. They also use every part of the caribou, the only part they leave is the stomach, which Jewels says, you have to leave something for the land and other animals – wolves, fox, ravens – they are hungry too.

Since this was the first time Jeffery and Lexine were in the city, what was their reaction?
Since so much of the work the Gwich’in do to fight for their way of life involves traveling on trips across the country and the world to educate people about the importance of protecting the Arctic Refuge, I wanted to cover that as well. Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, is a seasoned traveler but likes to bring other Gwich’in on these trips. This trip she brought her daughter, Lexine, 11, and traditional Gwich’in hunter Jeffery John from Venetie. This was Lexine and Jeffery’s first time to a big city, their first time on long plane rides, and Jeffery’s first time out of Alaska.

Jeffery was constantly surprised by the number of people living in Washington D.C. It was something he couldn’t wrap his head around. He asked multiple times throughout the four-day trip, “So how many people live here? Wow, that many.” Mind you, he comes from a village in rural Alaska with a population of around 180.

How did they react to the lack of nature?
On trips like this to Washington D.C., they get no nature. It is a full day of travel, then straight into preparation, then back to back meetings and press conferences, then home. It’s non-stop. I think if Jeffery had been there any longer than four days he would have gone crazy. I remember being in Sierra Club’s office with him, which is on the 8th floor, and he looked at the windows and said, “How do you open the windows?” I told him you can’t, and he said shaking his head, “Well how do people get fresh air in here?”  At one point he looked at the people working in the high rise building across the street and said, “So all those people are working inside like that with no fresh air for 8 hours a day?” He seemed to be in constant surprise and would give me looks like I don’t understand why people live like this.

What was overarching narrative arc for this frontline community?
I wanted to focus on the Gwich’in people and their way of life. I think a lot of work that comes out about protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge focuses on the environmental and adventurous aspect, not about the people living on the frontlines. To the Gwich’in this is a human rights issue, their identity and food are tied to the land. Oil and gas development would destroy their sacred land and food security. I wanted to show they aren’t what many would consider activists or environmentalists, they are fighting for the right to live the way their ancestors have since time immemorial.

What struck you the most about their fight?
An important part of the story are the sacrifices the Gwich’in make for this fight. So much of the work they do is traveling across the country and the world to educate others about the importance of protecting the Arctic Refuge and the Gwich’in way of life. They make huge personal, financial, and family sacrifices to fight for their people and future generations. One that can be rewarding, but also very emotional and draining.

Let’s remember, these sacrifices aren’t just made by the Gwich’in, this is happening to all indigenous and frontline communities across the world, having to fight for their human rights in 2019.

 

The Daily Edit – One Portrait a Day, Everyday: Brian Molyneaux

Brian Molyneaux

How long have you been doing this?
Almost 4 years – I started on January 6, 2016. I’ve posted almost 1500 portraits since then. At first, I envisioned doing it for only a few months, but a friend suggested making it a 6-months or year-long project. When I got to 6 months, I felt like there was more to do. When I got to a year, I couldn’t stop. My commitment to myself and the people I haven’t yet met was too strong to stop. Here I am now, still doing it once a day, and I have no plan to stop.

This project allows me to create content every day and allows me to feel that I’ve accomplished something special every day, which has built confidence in other areas of my life. I think the project has benefits to my overall mental health too. My mother was diagnosed with early on-set dementia/Alzheimer’s several years ago. She has digressed a lot over the past few years and one thing I’ve heard from doctors is that having a good social network of friends throughout one’s life will help stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s. There are physical and mental health benefits of walking around, genuinely connecting with someone new, and photographing them. Every day.

Heidi: How much time do you have with each subject?
Brian: The process goes pretty quickly and a lot of it is based on intuition. I’m always on the lookout for interesting people on the street. When I spot a potential subject, I introduce myself, talk to them about the project, and invite them to participate. Then I let our connection unfold organically. I have to convince them that I’m not too weird, allow them to share with me what’s happening in their life at that moment, and get a proper portrait of quality within a few minutes. Usually I allow between 2-5 minutes to do all of this and have them sign the model release on my phone.

It still surprises me how we can as humans can get so vulnerable and truly honest within minutes. Sometimes, I am so taken up by the connection, I don’t think about it as a process. Those interactions usually result in the best portraits. But as much as I love the portraits, I love the connections I’m making more than anything else. I thrive on being able to capture that moment in someone’s life and I am floored that people trust me as much as they do. I prefer not to hammer the shutter. I don’t ever worry about whether I can get the shot. Once the connection is there I know the photo will come.

How has your process and imagery refined now that you are almost 4 years in?
The first day I used my iPhone. It wasn’t planned it just sort of happened. I was leaving the grocery store and there was this guy cutting flowers in the flower department holding a knife. I approached him and asked if I could photograph him in that same position. He agreed and the project was born. I switched to photographing with my Nikon the next day on the street.

For a bit I used an AE-S Nikkor 24-70mm 2.8, but mainly I’ve used a manual Nikkor 50mm 1.4. The entire project has been photographed at 50mm. I wanted to honor how I learned to shoot with film years ago so I’ve added challenges, like getting the shot in 24 frames or less. I often come away with several selects from those 24. The constraints I have added have helped me a lot.

I’ve also developed better skills at reading people, which has translated into having a high success rate. I’ve only had 67 rejections. Recently I started using video to ask people one relatively deep question after we finish the portrait. I like expanding the experience to literally give voice to the people in the photos. All the verbal cues, changes in facial expression and intonation that video allows captures a thicker slice of their story than just the photo and the blurb I write.

Any plans for a book with images and stories?
Yes. I am talking with a couple publishing houses about creating a book or book series of this project. I’d like to take the project on the road to places that I haven’t spent much time in, like the Deep South and Cuba. I’m excited for the possibilities of meeting new people everywhere I visit.

What is the drive to continue?
Total world domination. Well, not really. To connect and tell stories through photos and words. I am fascinated about people and human behavior and the stories that connect and unite us. I want to capture that as much as I possibly can. Here we are – floating around on this ball in space – all unique but sharing bonds of commonality. I want to expose what makes us similar and connected. There’s plenty of noise out there about what divides us. I’m all about connecting people.

The Daily Edit – Bello Magazine: Stan Evans

Bello Magazine

Photo Editor: Aleksandar Tomovic
Photographer:
Stan Evans


Heidi: What was the photo direction?
Stan: Taylor Hatala is a dancer who’s worked with some of the best in the biz. She’s toured with Janet Jackson, and been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I wanted to get inside her head and show that motion but also the stillness of maturing.  I figured every time she gets off a plane, someone is probably asking her to move on the spot. I wondered if we could show her expression of dance through light painting? The concept would give her a break “per se” from performing and it would be a new challenge as an artist for both of us.

For Niles Fitch (This is Us), it was more of exploration of attitude and maturing. He’s got a great smile that he can knock that out of the park in frame or two so that was easy.  He’d played a darker roll in a pretty intense episode of Law and Order so I asked him to go there at times to show a range of his skills.  We discussed some older actors like Idris Elba, Denzel Washington, Shameik Moore John Boyega and I asked him how he sees himself in 5-10 years? We got into a good vibe as he projected his own future.  It was cool to see that side of him and he had so many good outtakes.

How did you interact with the subjects?
I think the biggest thing is letting subjects know you are on their team and today I am here to try and shoot the best photos I can. I’m here to represent them (and myself) well and achieve the common goal. You have Publicists, Managers and Parents all looking out for their kids’ welfare. If you get them to understand “help me help you” things get elevated. Hopefully then you can keep everyone happy and walk out with a couple images that are magic.

These subjects are transitions from kids to young adults, how did you approach the portrait to illustrate that transition?
With both subjects I asked them about how they wanted to be perceived. How do you see yourself in the future? I know, as a teenager there are a lot of people telling what to do and how to do it so talking to them from a place of mutual respect is important.  These kids have achieved a lot in a short time and keeping if fun with a bit of room for them to improvise was key.

Tell us about the background
I went to a workshop presented By Kwaku Alston and Arri at their headquarters in Burbank.  I chatted a bit with Kwaku about how he’d been using the Skypanels and some of the techs at Arri.

A bit later this editorial came up and unfortunately we didn’t have the budget to really get a bunch of skypanels. I went to Samy’s on a Sunday in LA looking for some cheap continuous light options to rent or buy just to come up with some ambient effects and found this Savage RGB LIGHT Painter for about $150.

I read the manual that evening sent my assistant Seth Mower some reference photos and I think our shoot was on Tues. I had some ideas for patterns I wanted to try and the wand was programmable so we tried to key in colors that would accentuate the fashion styling.

All the motion and color is in camera and I simply removed some of Seth’s shadows and background elements (as we were in a really tight space) It’s a lot of old school camera film tricks like second curtain sync, adjusting flash and continuous lighting ratios and having our subject Taylor stand really still. We worked really hard to have a high budget impression with some low budget tricks and I’m really happy with the results.

The Daily Edit – Frank Ockenfels: Volume 3


Frank Ockenfels 3

Frank has been a friend of the blog for sometime now. Our first of eight posts with him was in 2009, we’re excited for Frank’s new book, Volume 3 published by teNeues.

Heidi: Why did you want to pull this body of work together?
Frank: It all started with a conversation with David and Nicholas Fahey. They asked me what was my plan for all of my personal and published work I had created over the past 34 years. I went home and put together four bodies of work I wanted to share and realized that they all  went together seamlessly. My portraits went with my David Bowie work that connected to my journals that lead me to my drawing and collage work. I felt after seeing this it was time to make a book that was reflected how I see.

How do you see your earlier work now that you’ve had distance on it?
I see the simple act of failure and growth, to not be afraid to go outside the box of what is comfortable. I can look back and say I could have done better or I will never be that person again or see that way again which is good. I accepted and kept myself from fixing or changing older work because I feel in the moment they were true to who i was at that time, I think that’s important.

Has your “eye” changed and what are the benefits of time as one looks their at life’s work?
I would say it’s part of my life’s work and because of what I have seen and done there is so much further I will go.  I am at about 75% of understanding where it is I’m going and what I’m still trying to say and create. At 59 I am still open to trying different and new things that scare me, this is very exciting and l look forward to my failures as much as my success in the years I have left.

December 5th: Fahey Klein show
December 7th: Gallery Talk
November 7th: Art Center College of Design Talk

The Daily Edit – American Way: Jose Mandojana

American Way


Art Director:
Christos Hannides
Photographer: Jose Mandojana

Heidi: How long have you been shooting for the magazine, was this your first assignment with the publishing company?
Jose: I had worked for Hemispheres a few times ( also ‘lnk Publishing’ ) over the years, but this was my first assignment for American Way. The best part about landing this cover story, was that shortly after wrapping the shoot,  they reached out again to see if I could work on their November cover story as well. I truly enjoyed working on this style of shoot that incorporates a lot of portraiture mixed with travel/lifestyle.  I also loved working with their creative team throughout the process.

Did you send them promos?
I have kept in touch via email with Jessie Adler (PD) at Ink.  She actually referred me to her colleagues for this particular San Diego cover story.  (Thx Jessie!!!)

What was the photo direction?
The American Way cover stories follow a formula. There are always 5 locals (for the city mentioned) featured in the story,  so I needed to make environmental portraits of all 5.  The creative direction is that really any of those 5 could potentially end up on the cover.  Aside from the portraits,  there are travel elements that each of those locals mention in the text that also need photography.

How many locations did you shoot?
For this particular story I actually traveled to Encinitas first to photograph surfer Rob Machado.  I had to photograph him before the rest of the story was finalized because he was headed to Indonesia and the window to photograph him was small.  For that portion I photographed a donut shop, a fashion boutique, and then headed to Seaside beach to meet Rob.  I kept it simple with one Profoto light and just tried to keep the images authentic to who he is.  He’s a legend in the surf world, and I was thrilled to meet him because I grow up in Hawaii loving the sport.

A week after photographing Rob,  I traveled to San Diego and was joined their by Christos Hannides – AD from Ink Publishing.  He travels to all cover shoots to assure that they have a variety of cover options to work with.  We had a great time roaming the city over three days and photographing the other four locals mentioned in the text.

The Daily Edit – Vogue India: Bikramjit Bose

Vogue India

Creative Director: Heidi Volpe
Photo Editor: Ankita Chandra
Photographer: Bikramjit Bose
Stylist: Ardhana  Baruah

Heidi: How did you direct the women of the Commonwealth Games in order to capture their power, grace and strength?  What was the conversation on set like?
I had the distinct advantage that they were all athletes of the highest standards, in peak physical form. So the power, the grace, the strength, all of it was already a given. I just had to find a way to bring it out at that given moment in time.


It helped that they were not used to being photographed, so there were no preconceived notions about how to pose or be in front of a camera.  It helped that I spoke the same local language as some of them did, so that helped ease the situation and break the ice. And then, I asked them to imagine to recreate or re enact, what they would do when they’re actually competing. That was, I suppose, the only challenge – to get them into that mindset – to get their ‘game-faces’ on, as it were. Even though I was shooting against a seamless black cloth backdrop, I wanted their faces to reflect that certain intensity and single-minded focus that only athletes are capable of.

The simplicity of the styling, the props is lovely and felt like portrait photography in its purest form. Did you also have simple production?
I photographed this series of portraits across different cities, over a period of a few weeks. So the first priority was to keep the whole setup not only simple and travel friendly, but consistent, so I could essentially set it up and recreate the same lighting situation anywhere.  Some of it was shot in a daylight studio with the backdrop placed next to a window, and sometimes the setup was done out in the open and a light tent created around it to cheat window light.

I often feel when resources are low creatively is high, does or did that that surface for you?
It is definitely true –  you’re forced to think on your feet when resources are low or limited. And sometimes, that is when you come up with the best of ideas. Having said that, I don’t think that this shoot necessarily needed a lot of resources in the first place. I always imagined it to be as pared down as it turned out.

Where were these portraits shot and how long was each session?
They were shot across different parts of the country – some in a studio, one in a hotel lawn, one by a poolside, one on a terrace….and they all lasted anywhere between 20 mins to an hour, at the most.

 

The Daily Edit – Emmy Magazine: Ian Spanier


Emmy Magazine

Photo Editor: Rose Cefalu
Creative Director: Rich Bleiweiss
Photographer: Ian Spanier

Heidi: Actors are notoriously busy, how many set ups did you do and in what time frame?
Ian: We shot 5 sets in a few hours, (4 looks). Tom was actually surprised we did so much so quickly! I could have pushed for more but everyone liked what we did so we wrapped it up after the last set. I do always however approach celebrity shoots anticipating I’ll have only two minutes.

How many images ran?
Tom Payne, actor and our subject, formerly of The Walking Dead and newly staring in Fox’s Prodigal Son was being featured in the “In The Mix” section of EMMY Magazine. The article is always a one-pager, but I love to give my clients options. Tom was really easy to work with, and liked the first set up, so we were able to do a few different sets. I’m a big proponent of going in with a plan, so by being able to move from one set to the next quickly I was able to maximize my time with him.

Was your direction the same for the existing portraits?
The other assignment was actually quite different. For that one I was photographing a number of students, who wrote screenplays for a TV show called Killing Eve. They would actually be composited into a final image in post. For that assignment we had two set ups for each subject to get through. Nine subjects in total, so it was a full morning. It was going to run in the same issue, so I did not want to do the same lighting. Since this was a last minute add on to that shoot, it was a good challenge.

Tell us about your “safe” portraits and has too many options ever backfired in some way with the client?
I often cover the “safe” portraits, which is something I developed over my years of shooting for magazines. I feel that I’m very good at looking at a magazine and understanding the “voice” of the magazine. Providing a set up that feels like the look of the magazine, even if it’s not exactly “my” look. I don’t mind it as I both love the challenge and always tweak a bit to make my stamp on it. That chameleon skill (as I’d call it) is both a blessing and a curse. It can confuse some potential clients. I like to think it’s an asset however, as I’m confident I can shoot the dark, moody image as well as the bright, beautiful lit image. I love to have many lighting solutions, you never know what the next request will be! In this case, we nailed the cleaner look, and Tom was open to playing around a bit. I did one final set that played more off his TV show- where Tom plays a crime-solving son of a notorious serial killer who has a unique ability to break down the crimes he solves. His character consults with his father ala Hannibal Lecter/Clarice Starling. At the time, only a trailer was available, so I had to extrapolate a lot. I love any chance on an assignment where I get the opportunity to be a little more creative and try some new things.

 

The Daily Edit – The New York Times: Jessica Pons

The New York Times


Photographer: Jessica Pons
Editor: Crista Chapman
See the interactive piece here


Heidi: How did you decide which vendors were going to be shot?
Jessica: I didn’t have specific vendors in mind, instead, there were specific locations in LA where I knew vendors posted up. Some of the locations I wandered to were MacArthur Park, the Piñata District and Boyle Heights, where I walked around, approaching vendors more so intuitively. There were, however, a few vendors who were scouted through East LA Community Corporation, an organization that advocates for economic and social justice in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles. The writer on this story, Tim Arango, had interviewed a few of the vendors who had played a key role in legalizing street vending so for those individuals I reached out to directly.

How did this idea come about?
The idea emerged after Los Angeles finally legalized street vendors, which have long been a fixture of immigrant life in LA even as they operated illegally and were subject to periodic crackdowns. NYT editor Crista Chapman wrote me that their aim was to do a story that wraps in a few threads: the history of food vendors; immigration; food culture; and street life in a city that is dominated by the automobile.

What was the photo direction?
Visually speaking, the photos had to be shot vertically to fit the specific slideshow. My approach was to try to encapsulate  the culture of street vending the best I could; I looked for moments, details, wider landscapes and of course portraits.

How did you interact with them, where they receptive?
For the most part, vendors were happy with the news that they were no longer outlawed so they were very welcoming and open to sharing their stories with me. I think being able to communicate with them in Spanish helped build trust a little easier. There were a few who hesitated sharing their names due to the current political climate, which is completely understandable. But for the most part, vendors showed a desire to speak up about this issue as they felt justified in their stance. They know deep down they have dignified jobs, and make food with passion, some even following the foot steps of their ancestors who were street vendors back in their homelands.

The Daily Edit – Forest Woodward

Forest Woodward

Heidi: How did that experience and film making push you forward now that we’re 4 years out?
Forest: The making of that film with my father (The Important Places) has shaped and continues to shape me in ways that I am still working to understand. When we pushed our boats off into that river, it was November of 2013. It was supposed to be a 28 day trip. Little did I know, I’d never really get off the river, and I mean that in the best way. The currents of that journey, the experience of going that deep into the canyons and into our family history with my father…well, I guess I could have guessed that I wouldn’t just be able to step off that raft and forget about it. It was an experience that has fueled a curiosity in my work relating to time, to family, to aging and to our relationships to one another and the natural world. The making of that film taught me a lot about listening, about humility, about giving things their due time. I continue to trip over my own ego and desire to be somewhere further downstream from where I am. That film reminds me, both in my work and professional life, to watch the currents, pay attention to the people and landscape around me, a reminder that when I am able to do that, there is a certain ability to flow, not to fight or flail, or grasp or desire what’s beyond reach, but rather to appreciate being right where we are. It all passes soon enough. I saw that then in the way my dad looks at the canyon walls, and at me. But it is also all enough, I learned that from him too, to appreciate it, soak it in, and care for the people around you.

What advice would you give your younger self?
Do good work. Be kind to the people around you, and to yourself. Balance your idealism with healthy doses of action. Embrace failure and continually seek opportunities to learn – in whatever form or medium they might take. Question societal definitions of success. Make your own. Surround yourself with good people. And be one, as much as you can. Watch, listen, and when the time is right, act with conviction. Be willing to adapt, to flex, to see from different angles, but don’t ever give up on the unique point of view that makes you you.

Since you wrote the film are you also being hired as a writer for stories you are shooting? 
I have kept my writing mostly personal. I’ll do some script writing on films I work on, and share some snippets here and there on instagram or my site but by and large I’ve reserved that part of my creative process for self reflection and more personal explorations. Maybe I’ll try writing something longer than an instagram caption one of these days. I have a vague notion of doing a book of short fictional stories based on people I’ve met and places I’ve visited, a project for another decade though I think.

Images from Future Stewards
Tell us how you earn trust in order to stand next to a human being?
I think trust is built over time and there’s no shortcut around that really. I look at the creation of an image as an exchange, a relationship. It can take place over years, or it can take place in a thousandth of a second. Sometimes there is an understanding and trust that is implicit in a meeting, understood in the grip of a hand or the meeting of eyes. Sometimes it is there, for whatever reason, whatever past events led me and that person to that place in time – sometimes it adds up to an implicit trust. I try not to take advantage of or to force that though, and try to steer myself towards projects where I am allowed the time to build understanding and trust between myself and my subjects.How do you deal with “the hurry”?
I try not to. I try to create and cultivate situations and scenarios where “hurry” is the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. As humans we’re very perceptive to other people’s energy, and that sense of “hurry” or “busyness” comes through in imagery I think.  I used to be a lot more frantic about “getting the shot”. Now days I see a lot of shots, and know I can’t get them all, and that chasing each shot often makes it so you don’t get any of them. I think patience is an underrated skill, and like any skill, it takes practice. If I’m feeling hurried I know my subject is probably feeling that too, so I stop, try to step back, reset.

Creative Director: Marshall McKinney | Photo Director: Maggie Bret Kennedy

What are some parallels you can draw from the allure of the west and the south as eluded to in this Garden&Gun story?

I grew up in North Carolina, in Southern Appalachia – just south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but from age 12-17 my family lived in a very rural town (100 people, no phone lines or internet) in the North Cascades of Washington State, and during my early twenties I spent 7 formative summers in Missoula Montana. I think the tie between west and east is twofold for me – landscape and people. The people in rural Montana and Washington remind me in a lot of ways of the folks in rural Montana – they’re the first to stop and help you if you’re broken down on the side of the road, humble, quiet, knowledgeable of the landscape around them and in most cases with a deep appreciation of family and community. The thread that connects the landscapes for me is the rivers – and the wild country you can access by moving through them. A lot of folks don’t think this exists in the South – but in some ways it’s even more wild, more nuanced than the west, with incredibly diverse and rich ecosystems that are often best accessed by waterway or by taking a couple extra turns down unmarked dirt roads.

Was travel always a big part of your life?
I grew up homeschooled and learned at an early age that my family was not what the world would call “normal.” Looking back I see that as a badge of honor, but growing up I eschewed it, wanted nothing more than to be able to blend in. I became a bit of a chameleon at an early age. The way our parents raised us was with the idea of experiential education – so lots of time spent traveling, both in and out of the country – and interacting with folks of all different ages and walks of life. As a young man I continued following those same threads – majoring in sociology and Spanish in college in hopes of moving more fluidly through diverse communities and social settings. I continued to travel widely and eventually decided to swing the pendulum as far away from the town of 100 people where I lived as possible – living in New York City for 5 years.

Images from Children of the Rising Sea

 

 

The Daily Edit – Gmaro Magazine: Claudia Goetzelmann

Front and Back covers Issue 15

Front and Back covers Issue 15

 

Front and Back covers Issue 18

Front and Back covers Issue 18


Gmaro Magazine

Photographer + Art Direction: Claudia Goetzelmann
Stylist: Zoe Joeright

Heidi: How did it come about to shoot front/back covers?
Claudia: Gmaro Magazine had contacted me awhile back about publishing some editorials with them as they feel my style aligns with the magazine. I send them a couple of editorials I had recently shot. They fell in love with the Desert Dweller Story and chose to make it front and back covers.

How often have you had the front and back covers?
I’ve published four for the magazine so far.

Where was this shot?
Joshua Tree. I love the desert and always enjoy shooting there as it makes such a great backdrop – setting and light. The location is actually the stylists home and the two vintage trailers are part of her property.

What was the photo direction from the magazine?
When Zoe (stylist) shared with me her vintage trailers I was hooked. We wanted to embrace what the location had to offer – desert vintage vibe with modern/ current looking models. The story feels very current Joshua Tree to me.

Where was the clothing sourced from?
80% of all the clothing we shot was pulled from stores in the Joshua Tree area.
We also wanted to support and feature local stores.

The Daily Edit – Climate Change Covers

This week is a round up of newsstand covers addressing the topic of climate change in a variety of creative, graphic and portrait driven executions.
Climate Week NYC is an annual event that takes place every year in New York City. Started in 2009 this has become a global movement with greater awareness largely driven by our youth. The summit takes place alongside the UN General Assembly and brings together international leaders from business, government and civil society to showcase global climate action (or inaction).


Cover Sand Art By Toshihiko Hosaka


Cover Photograph by Ryan Pfluger


Cover Art By Pablo Delcan

Cover Photograph by Christopher Hunt