Sundance 2007

One of the best parts of a photo shoot is the minute after the client/subject leaves. For a brief moment there is an incredible sense of satisfaction, a personal victory lap. I am now in the midst of a three-day victory lap. The Sundance Film Festival is the photographic equivalent of a marathon. There is no time for celebration, because the minute you finish shooting someone, you have to run to your next appointment, deal with a publicist, reschedule someone, find parking, find a new location, to replace the one you have just gotten thrown out of, think of an idea, convince someone not to cancel, upload files, eat one meal a day and sleep a few hours. Yes, it is exhausting but I am not sure it could be more fun.

After three years off, this was my fourth trip to Sundance. In that short time away, the festival has really changed. There are more filmmakers and actors that are known rather than unknown. Everything is more concentrated geographically and in terms of schedule, Main St. in Park City is now the epicenter instead of somewhere to buy a souvenir t-shirt. The opening weekend is the main time to be seen and party, then things start to dissipate towards the conclusion at the awards ceremony.

This year I was working for my stock agency Retna and Total Film Magazine in the UK. We really were the underdogs going into the festival and I could not be happier with the results. I had planned on blogging everyday from the festival, but that was just plain naïve. I am in the process of compiling a gallery of everything we shot, but until then, enjoy Jared Leto and Mandy Moore. Words cannot describe the vibe that Park City takes on during the festival. I am fortunate to have been able to experience the craziness, delight, disappointment, challenge, triumph and exhaustion. If you ever get the chance to go, take it and see the movies and madness in the mountains firsthand. It is the only way to describe it.

Vietnam

I apologize for the gap in posting, but my wife Beth got access to my frequent flier miles, abducted me and took me wandering Vietnam from north to south. Referring to Vietnam in terms of north and south is not a current way to look at it. The main thing I took away from my visit, was that it is now a country divided between new and old. Even if I return I am not sure it will be possible to see the same country again. Vietnam appears to change on a daily basis, more scooters, more cell phones, more factories, more homes and the W.T.O. From speaking to expats that have been living there, Vietnam is a completely different place than it was even five years ago. Seeing all of the construction, wedding stores and hipsters, I can only imagine what it will be like in even five weeks.

Just saying Vietnam conjures up all sorts of things in all sorts of people. I am not sure what I think, on the tale end of major jet lag, but I know that the country I visited will be with me for some time.

L.A. and Such

At Thanksgiving dinner, one of my aunts in Ohio asked me, “what do you do when you are not working?” this may be the greatest misconception of photography and freelance work in general. I never thought I would say this but taking the picture is the easy part of being a photographer. When I am looking through a camera I know what to do, what path to take, what to say. The hard part is getting to the point where you are looking through the camera. So what does this have to do with Los Angeles you say? Well, last week I was in L.A. working, but not taking pictures. From the very start of my career I have always tried to hit the bricks and show my portfolio. When you sit in a room across from someone looking at your work, you can really gage if you are going in the right direction.

The above picture was taken while landing at JFK.

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.

I’m a photographer and I play one on TV.

On Monday and Tuesday my career went in an unexpected direction. For those two days I was the guest photographer on The Learning Channel's new series Cover Shot; hosted by Frederique van der Wal. In the course of my career I have shot over 20 magazine covers, but never one for TV. Unfortunately the shows co-host and photographer, Richard Dean, had to miss an episode due to a family emergency and I got the call. After I got over the initial shock, I was quite excited. I still have to shoot the final segment and will have more information on when the episode will air in the coming days.

www.tlc.com/covershot

Edward Hopper

Even though I am no longer in grade school, I still believe strongly in the idea of the field trip. The other day I embarked on one of my adult field trips, to the Whitney Museum of American Art, to see the current exhibition celebrating the Museum’s 75 anniversary. The Museum has a large collection of paintings by Edward Hopper and dedicated an entire floor of the show to his work. Edward Hopper was one of the first artists that I remember being influenced by. For many photographers Hopper’s treatment of the subject was the influence, but for me the vibrant color pallet is what has always fascinated me. Seeing some of these paintings sometimes feels like seeing an old friend.

Welcome!

This is the inaugural installment of my blog. All of this came about when, Mike Hartley of Bigflannel fame, and I embarked on a redesign of my website.

www.joshuakessler.com

For fans of the old site, it can be found at:

http://www.joshuakessler.com/opener.html

The idea was to have an evolutionary design, while modernizing and expanding the site's capabilities. Mike did a great job. As part of the expansion there are now RSS feeds that accompany the story with each photograph. Clicking on the, “bits and bobs” button while viewing an individual image will access the stories. With this addition it made sense to also add a blog. So here we are. Enjoy!