Hasselblad Polaroid Self Portrait

Shot with my 503cx Hasselblad and Polaroid 100 back. I love these polaroids- the lens is so sharp and renders the tones so nicely, but there's still that instant film quality. The film is daylight balanced and there's a combination of tungsten lights and sunlight in this shot, so there's kind of a cool mix of colors.

I also just got some expired Polaroid film that I can't wait to toy around with....

Connie Imboden

Connie is a very good friend and mentor of mine, and it was a huge honor when she asked me to photograph her for the Biography page of her new book, "Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden". I've modeled for Connie countless times throughout the last several years, so it was interesting to be on the other side of the camera!

We shot this with her standing in front of a mural print in her studio. Connie works intuitively, exploring the body and allowing for discovery, rather than preconceiving or planning images. In the portrait it almost looks as though the figure in the background and over her shoulder (her work) is informing her, almost whispering to her. I also love how it's essentially both B&W and color, which seems so appropriate for the new book as it features some of Connie's never before published B&W images, as well as some of her latest color work. But most of all, I think it's just a great shot of my friend.

"Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden" is an amazing book and collection of Connie's work. It's available to order now from both Connie's website as well as her blog. It's also the first book containing several images that I modeled for, so you KNOW it's good!

Violet Glaze

I met Violet Glaze in back in October when my good friend Henry Hong was helping her out with a piece she was writing for Baltimore City Paper about eating bugs. Specifically crickets and meal worms, which, I gotta say, really aren't too bad after all! Here's my favorite part of the article:

"But the final test would be in the eating. I met up with fellow City Paper foodie Henry Hong and his equally adventurous buddy Cory Donovan in the kitchen of Henry's restaurant..."

But that is another story, click here to read it.

Anyway, Violet eventually contacted me to shoot a head shot for her. She was interested in doing something fun and dramatic, something more like an environmental portrait rather than a just a head shot. The original idea was to shoot it outside, at night, near some sort of a neon light that would actually highlight part of her. Here's a sketch Violet sent me early on to give a sense of what she was looking for:



The original location we had in mind fell through (the neon lights weren't on), so instead we decided to shoot at The Charles Theater. The Charles Theater is a small but popular art house theater here in B-more known for it's hard-to-find documentaries, independent films, and foreign flicks, and Violet is well known for her movie reviews. We were given access to the second floor, which was a GREAT space with all kinds of awesome crap laying around- cool movie posters, old projection equipment, prints and negatives pinned to the walls, etc..

One thing I wanted to do was keep our original idea for the lighting - where part of Violet would be lit by the light glowing from a neon sign. Fortunately, the space we shot in at The Charles was funky and mysterious enough that it didn't look awkward. I used color gels on the strobes and loved the effect! Here's a few more of my favorite shots:











The same color gels are on for these as well, but with a little more subtlety...

Consider this a preview...

This is jumping forward a bit in the context of recapping 2008, but since I shot it in 2008 I figure it makes some sort of sense:

In April, Baltimore Magazine will be running it's annual feature on "Best Places to Live", highlighting some of the best neighborhoods in and around Baltimore. Since the issue goes into production in February, the magazine needed it shot back in July of '08, when the weather was still appropriate for an April issue.

I can't post any of the images they'll be using here yet, nor can I reveal which neighborhoods made it to the best of list. But now, damn cold February day, I figured I'd share a couple of my favorite shots that absolutely scream summer and warm weather:



I loved shooting for this assignment because it was the first time in a long while that I had the opportunity to just grab my camera and go. I hadn't done such street, documentary style type shooting in years, and it was really fun to get into again. There's a good story to these shots, but I'm afraid it will have to wait until April....

October 2008, Urbanite Magazine

Had this assignment for Urbanite Magazine back in October 2008. The theme of the issue was health care in Baltimore...

The Penn North Neighborhood Center is a facility in west B-more that offers alternative medicine and procedures to recovering addicts, one of which being acupuncture.



The description in the article of a typical treatment takes place in the large conference room, with some 40-odd recovering addicts getting their "ears pierced" by a handful of needle workers. The scene sounds quiet, calm, meditative. Delicate needles still fanning out from everyone's ears, the lights are dimmed and everyone just chills for about an hour - reading, thinking, some even sleeping. The experience sounds much more communal than you'd expect.



The color image is the shot they used, but I really liked the feel of the B&W one. Although the color image certainly grabs you, I think the B&W image feels more real, more authentic to the experience, even though we had to shoot it in the waiting area...