A Story of a Thanksgiving Long Ago

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, but for the past 14 years it has been the anniversary of my move to New York.
Fourteen years ago I hitched a ride with my good friend Erik Carlson and moved in the middle of the night, with one suitcase, for good.

The summer before that Thanksgiving, I interned in the city for Annie Liebovitz and Josef Astor. Luckily, I was able to sublet my apartment while I finished up my last quarter at R.I.T. All I had was the apartment, my suitcase, a brand new B.F.A. and the hope that I could get a job with Annie. When I talk about that time, I always say that ignorance is bliss and in my case it was true. Everything fell into place, Annie hired me and I started my career in photography a week later; I had no idea!

Fast forward one year to the next Thanksgiving: I went from green college graduate to battle hardened photo assistant. We had just wrapped shooting Siegfried and Roy and the white tigers for the marquee of the Mirage in Las Vegas. For various reasons the shoot lasted for 23 hours, causing me to miss my flight home to Ohio the day before. I had an awful cold; I was propped up on cold medicine and coffee while I wandered through the casino at 5:30 a.m. looking for food before leaving for the airport. When I got to the airport I found out that I had been upgraded to first class. On the plane it was just a lonely looking businessman and me. The stewardess knew I was sick and just kept bringing me bloody marys. This was the backdrop for one of the most surreal days of my life. As I walked into my parent’s house it hit me how far I had come in one year.

My first year in New York was all about work and more importantly learning. I went from the White House to P.L.O. headquarters in Tunis and everywhere in between. There are way too many stories from this time in my life to recount here, but if you buy me a beer I would be glad to share them at a future date.

I have much to be thankful for both in life and photographically and
Thanksgiving has been a great time to reflect on both.

Elijah Wood

Yesterday, I photographed Elijah Wood and it was such a treat. It was one of those days that reinforces the stereotype of what it is like to be a celebrity photographer, that we hang out with cool people and do cool things. We only needed to do two simple shots so we shot at my place. It was if Elijah came by to hang out drink some coffee, talk about music and oh yeah, we shot some pictures. Usually before I photograph someone, I search for information about his or her interests to find common ground to have a discussion. With Elijah, it was so easy because we have so many common interests from music to cameras. We discussed everything from the Stone Roses first album being one of the greatest records of all time, coffee brewing tips, London and the eccentric greatness of a Widelux camera.

The icing on the cake was that Elijah went straight from the shoot to appear on the Conan O’Brien show and his publicist got us tickets. What a great day!

The Big Reveal

Yesterday, I reenacted my role as guest photographer on TLC's Cover Shot. The final element of the episode, is revealing the photograph on a billboard in Times Square.

I could not be happier with how the final image came out. I believe that a photo shoot is a group effort and this was an extreme example. Everyone involved in the shoot went above and beyond. Eebie Zobitz, truly went from “super mom to supermodel”, Peter Butler did amazing hair, Charlie Green did flawless makeup, Kevin Lennox knew exactly how to mold Eebie into that bathing suit, Ché Graham did photoshop magic giving the image a Technicolor feel and Frederique did a great job guiding the whole ship. This was the first time I have had an image on a billboard and I think I was more excited than Eebie.

The billboard is located @51st street and Broadway and will be up until November 13th. If you should find yourself in the neighborhood definitely stop by.

The Never Ending Photo Shoot

Yesterday, my longtime friend Dan Efram, of Tractor Beam Management, and I added yet another adventure to our already illustrious collection. Dan manages The Apples In Stereo and I was chosen to photograph publicity photos to coincide with their upcoming February release "New Magnetic Wonder" on Simian/ Yep Roc Records. The release is the first on Elijah Wood’s new label Simian. Yes, Elijah’s eyes are really that blue and more importantly, in this case, he really knows his stuff when it comes to music; he is a true fan.

Dan and the bands publicist, Allison Elbl, knew that in the coming months gathering all of the members for photo shoots for the various magazines interested in the new release would be tough. In addition to a touring schedule, the different members of the Apples live in three different cities. So with that in mind, Dan approached the photo shoot with a take no prisoners’ attitude. As if Dan was a survivalist stockpiling beef jerky, we barreled through nine different setups in a fourteen-hour day. I think it was no coincidence that the New York City Marathon is also this week.