March 16, 2009 – 7:43 pm
Styling by Katie Gaffney.
Earlier this month, I got an e-mail from a girl named Katie. She was a student at LIM college and wanted me to be the photographer for a shoot she was styling. I’ve worked with LIM students many times before and each shoot has turned out great, but Katie’s idea was a little bit different. She wanted to have the model dressed in bright colors, lots of spandex. Kind of like the American Apparel ads, except instead of using wafer-thin hipster models, Katie decided to use her mother. I knew that this sort of thing was right up my alley style-wise, but I could not have foreseen how AWESOME the shoot would actually be.
Katie had mentioned that she wanted a grungy, industrial backdrop for her outfits and I knew that my own neighborhood would be perfect for that sort of thing. When Katie and her mother arrived at my apartment on Sunday morning, I didn’t really have anything planned in terms of specific locations and poses. I suggested that we just go out on the street and find what works best. The location turned out to be almost too good. We took advantage of my Navy Yard neighborhood to its fullest extent, going to playgrounds, car repair lots, and even convenience stores. Katie’s mother was honestly one of the best models I’ve ever worked with. Most models, if they are unprofessional (and sometimes even if they are professional), need a great deal of direction. It’s a wonderful thing when you hardly have to say anything and SNAP, they’ve got it. That’s how it was working with Katie’s mom. All I had to do was shout an emotion and she nailed it instantly.
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March 4, 2009 – 5:23 pm
I came home today to find a package sitting on my coffee table. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the packaging had the words “Leya ASA” printed all over it. This is when I started screeching and jumping up and down and running into the kitchen to grab a knife to tear open the package. I’m pretty sure Shannon thought I was having a heart attack. I almost did.
About a month ago, I received an urgent e-mail from a woman named Mafalda. She told me that she worked for a publisher in Portugal and that they wanted to use one of my photographs on the cover of the Paul Auster Book, Hand To Mouth. It was difficult for me to contain my excitement over this. This wasn’t some random ass author on some random ass book. I’ve seen Paul Auster books in book stores! I own one of his books! Granted, it would be released only in Portugal, but STILL. AWESOME. Even better, they agreed to pay me for it. And send me two copies of the book. And put my name on the inside of the cover!
The photograph was from the photoshoot I did with Russell at Coney Island over the summer, entitled “The Stranger.” It’s kind of funny that this photograph would end up on the cover of a book, considering its literary inspiration, Albert Camus’s book of the same name. Russell will undoubtedly be very excited that he’s on the cover of a book, especially because it’s the author’s autobiography.
Anyhow, the package with my two books arrived today and I practically passed out from hyperventilation as I unwrapped it. The book looks awesome and it even has fancy-shmancy embossed lettering on the cover. Check out the information about it on the publisher’s website here!
