Wednesday, December 14, 2011

50/52 Laura Woods



Once a year I take a journey to my homeland for one specific, spurious purpose: the Indiana State Fair. Tractors, bad food, smelly animals, LOTS of fat people, carnies, and ugly lamps. It's a tradition celebrating all the delightfully boring things Indiana has to offer. As per usual, we rallied the troops and made an outing of it.


Monday, December 12, 2011

49/52 Josh Davis



This weeks portrait was for a commercial shoot, and the resulting photo ran in Time Out Chicago.


Saturday, October 29, 2011

48/52 David Latimer



Normally I ask my subjects for a bit of biographical info, then I string it together into something that's usually borderline incomprehensible. My subject for this week, David Latimer, gave me a quick typed statement that does an excellent job of describing him. Anything I would ad or modify would simply get in the way.


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

47/52 Alexandria Ott



Hey there Internet, long time no see. While life without a computer screen is going extremely well, I've started this project and I certainly plan on finishing it. It just, uhh... might take a while. Maybe another year, who knows.


Thursday, October 13, 2011

46/52 Holly Sabin



Well hello there friends. It's been an awful long time since we've caught up, and I have to say it's all my fault. Let's skip the usual excuses and get right down to it. This time around I caught up with Hinge Gallery's co-owner Holly Sabin on the gallery's opening day.


Saturday, September 10, 2011

45/52 Brian Sorg




So, good news and bad news. Good news is all 52 portraits have been taken, on time, and are accounted for! Bad news, I've used this as a serious excuse to slack on updating this blog. It's not over till it's over, kids. After this, seven more updates to go.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

44/52 Samuel Evans



Normally the bulk of this blog would be focused on the shooting aspect of the portrait. This one, however, will be just a little different...


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

43/52 Katrina Zimmerman




I've recently acknowledged that as a people shooter, I need to brief my subjects before shoots. It sounds obvious, but simply telling the sitter what's about to happen can go a long way to make them feel more comfortable. There have been some shoots where chatting with the subject leads them to do really interesting looking things, only to raise my camera and have them immediately stop.


This shoot is certainly not one of those.


Friday, July 15, 2011

42/52 Evelyn




So, time has finally brought us to one of this project's weirder moments. My steadfast commitment to completion, paired with my frequent lack of foresight, crosses paths with the rebellion and indifference of youth.


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

41/52 Matty Colston




I've been meaning to catch up with Matty for a while, and this shoot provided the perfect opportunity.


Sunday, July 10, 2011

40/52 Joshua Kleckner




So far in the project, I've yet to miss a deadline. This week I came really close, but pulled it out, quite literally at the last minute. After one very vexing failed portrait attempt earlier in the day, this one came together, and quite well, I might add. 

 

Friday, July 8, 2011

39/52 Leo Rosen




It's always nice to be able to integrate an artist's style and technique into their own portrait. I've done a few shots like that recently, and this one is along the same lines.


Friday, June 24, 2011

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

36/52 Daniel Schneeweiss




So I get a call from Jaime Salas,  the east coast brand ambassador of Milagro tequila. He says "hey, this is going to sound crazy, but would you like to go to Mexico with Milagro in a week and a half to visit our distillery?" Um, yes. Yes I would.


Thursday, June 2, 2011

35/52 Brett Swinney




One thing I may or may not have mentioned thus far in my project is that despite being EXTREMELY clumsy, I have an uncanny talent for climbing on things. Getting up to a precarious high place? No problem. No ladder? I'll figure it out. Staying up there as long as necessary? Can do. I may well trip over my own feet the second I get back on the ground, but at least until then I'm safe.



Saturday, May 21, 2011

34/52 Brian Hicks




Since doing this shoot, we've arrived at the conclusion that the world would be a better place were there an army of Brian Hickses running around taking care of business. Preferably suited, for style points of course.



Wednesday, May 18, 2011

33/52 Emma Hospelhorn



How dorky is it that I'm super excited about my dual-folding Calumet silver-over-white 42" umbrella, especially when paired with a sto-fen to double diffuse? Please don't answer that.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

32/52 Kenneth Varner




Not often is your subject's foot a few inches away from your face, nor is that foot often above their head. Looks like I can add this week to the long list of unique experiences I've encountered through this project.


Friday, April 29, 2011

31/52 Garo Tokat




Sometimes a concept for a photo just falls in your lap and it's too good to resist. When you find yourself in an old building with a super deco interior, and your subject just happens to have access to a smoking jacket, you just have to go with it.


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

30/52 Gideon Evans




This week, I had a last minute cancellation, and thus a last minute change of plans. I scrambled to Star Lounge on Sunday night and informed Gideon that I would be taking his portrait. As expected, he was totally game.



29/52 Amanda Clifford





29 weeks in to this project, and I'm running out of one-liners for this section of the writeup. This is the first thing that came to me: "This is a photograph that I took." That's my A-material right there, folks.



Thursday, April 14, 2011

28/52 Brian Warling




Due to a lack of general internets, I've been on hiatus from writing. Now once again my frantic attempt at getting caught up resumes.


I was going to use this space to jokingly make reference to Brian as a tyrant, a cruel heartless task-master, someone who makes animal noises and fart sounds for a living. That material is too obvious, and thusly, I'll save it for later.



Monday, March 28, 2011

27/52 Ryan Szeszycki




This week, and interesting attempt to photograph an artist, incorporating his own techniques.



Saturday, March 26, 2011

26/52 Mary Reese

This time around I once again find myself doing a remake of a black and white frame, not properly a portrait, but close enough.



Monday, March 21, 2011

25/52 Justin Purcell




This week I caught up with a friend of mine from high school, who is also an Indiana expatriate. 


Monday, March 7, 2011

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

23/52 Luis Alas




Sometimes you have to come up with an idea for a shoot at the last minute. This is definitely one of those times.


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

22/52 Martin Orellana




For my first portrait in Guatemala, I had the opportunity to meet, sit down with, and photograph a great man. Character like this isn't something you just have, it's something you earn.


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

21/52 Coyote De Groot



This is the last post before coverage of 52portraits Special Edition: Guatemala begins. This week I got to catch up with a friend of mine at his west town eye-wear boutique.



Thursday, February 10, 2011

20/52 Chad Leverenz



For this instalment of 52 portraits, Wendy and I paid a visit to the home of our friend and coworker Chad.



Saturday, February 5, 2011

19/52 Slava Balasanov



A couple weeks back I had the pleasure of meeting up with an old friend, grabbing a beer, and taking his picture. We did the shoot at Danny's, one of his favorite bars, and I kept the lighting pretty simple. 



Saturday, January 15, 2011

18/52 Gustavo Castañeda



This week I had the pleasure of doing an opening menu shoot for La Taberna, a new Tapas restaurant in the UIC area. I love doing shoots at restaurants. The first reason being I love taking pictures of food. The second being how diverse these kinds of shoots are. You photograph plates of food, the space, portraits, whatever is needed. I spent the whole day shuffling around lights and shifting gears. Not only did I provide them with some really fantastic images of their plates, but also some nice portraits of their chefs, if I do say so myself.




Monday, January 10, 2011

17/52 Mildred Weber




So far in this project, I've had the opportunity to photograph 18 different people in 18 different environments. I've found myself in restaurant kitchens and people's living rooms. Shooting snippets of every day life and people on the ascent to big things. But by far the shoot that has meant the most to me is this one, my own Grandmother.


Oh, and this week we have a co-star.




Tuesday, January 4, 2011

16/52 Joe Hahn




This week's portrait is a bit of a conceptual crossover. This time around it was unintentional, but I have some schemes of taking this concept a little farther in the future.




Monday, January 3, 2011

La Taberna Food Shoot




Just a quick update. I did the menu shoot for La Taberna, a new tapas restaurant on south Halstead near UIC. Click on the image above for a few sample pictures. I'm really happy with how they turned out. I also did my portrait for this week during the shoot, about which you'll all be hearing shortly.