So it was a few days before, the meal was not quite hamburgers and hotdogs, but it was outside and there was beer. I had only had Maryland Crab once before and this time the experience was much the same. As much as it is about the crabs, it is about having a communal meal with your friends and enjoying the summer.
I have now shot over 25 magazine covers and it is still very exciting to hold the finished copy for the first time. There is just something special about seeing your photograph under the masthead, at the newsstand or better yet when a stranger is reading a copy. My mom has even been known to carry a copy with her to show her friends.
I always say that my education was divided into three parts, a B.F.A. in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology, assisting for Annie Leibovitz and the year I took off from school to play in a band. What I learned during each of these periods played an equally important role in helping me to be photographer. Some background: two years ago on the morning of my wedding, the members of my old band Figure Ground assembled in a New York City practice space to play together for the first time in fifteen years. Guitarist Eric Carlson’s wife, Erica having not seen us play before, became convinced that a reunion show was in order. We were not as convinced until about six months ago, when it came to our attention that a seventeen year old video of Figure Ground, sound checking in Columbus Ohio, appeared on YouTube. Unbeknownst to us, it appears from the comments that we were big in Norway all along. So after seventeen years I am once again in a band and ready to continue my education.
Figure Ground will be playing at the Cedars Lounge in Youngstown, Ohio on Saturday, September 1st and we hope to tour Norway in the future.
When I Photographed Richard J. Harrington, CEO of the Thomson Corporation, you would never know that he had just completed one of the biggest deals of his career; the purchase of Reuters. Dick, as he is known, was such a nice guy and the conversation flowed so well, that I never even had to bring up the fact that I grew up on Harrington Ave.
When I photographed Crispin Glover at the Sundance Film Festival this year, I met Margot Gerber, Margot was the publicist for Crispin’s film Fine Everything is Fine. Margot is now doing publicity for the new Guy Madden film, Brand Upon the Brain. The film is a beautiful, modern, silent movie with a score by Jason Staczek, narration by Isabella Rossellini and elaborate sound effects. To celebrate the theatrical release there was a series of performances, in several cities, with a live orchestra, narrator and foley artists. If you are having a hard time picturing all of this that is where I come in. Margot wanted to get some pictures of the performance showing all of the elements, mainly the foley artists, to convey what a special event it was. For two and a half performances, I sat in my perch and captured the event, completely mesmerized by the foley artists, they stole the show.
Last week I went on a whirlwind journey to Chicago to photograph Gordon Segal, CEO of Crate and Barrel, with Guari Nanda, inventor of the Clocky, for an Inc. Magazine cover try. When I say whirlwind I mean whirlwind. The idea was to fly in Thursday night, shoot in the morning and make it back to New York at a reasonable time. In theory it was a great plan. My original flight from LaGuardia was cancelled, with a thoughtful automated message informing me that it would be impossible to get to Chicago until mid-day Friday, just in time to miss the entire shoot. With some fast thinking and even faster phone dialing from Assistant Photo Editor extraordinaire, Kate Spear, I was booked on another flight from Kennedy airport on another airline. Once at the airport we met up with photo editor and partner in crime, Travis Ruse, whose flight had been delayed for four hours. When Travis finally attempted to board his plane he was informed that he had been bumped and was now on our flight, which was also delayed. Add in almost two hours on the ground and then a bonus wait upon arriving in Chicago due to no available arrival gates; it was a full day of travel. This was only the way there. The return flight was best summed up by the reoccurring phase I kept overhearing “Well it’s Friday night at O’Hare.” As for the rest of the trip I was still was able to have a delicious slice of famous Lou Malnati’s deep-dish pizza, courtesy of the also delicious Crate and Barrel cafeteria. What about the photographs you say? Well ever since I bought a book of Carlo Mollino’s Polaroids I have wanted to use bamboo as a backdrop. Thank you Carlo.
As I often say, the best part of being a photographer is the people you meet, this could not be truer than in the case of Barbara Holland. I am truly richer having met her. Barbara seemed like an old friend the minute I met her. After we were done shooting we went for lunch and martinis, it was a perfect day. Shortly after the image was published in AARP The Magazine, Barbara contacted me about using the image for the jacket of her new book. I was flattered.
I know next to nothing about professional sports and have often joked that the only reason they do not take away my “guy license” is that I love all things with wheels. As a child I would drive around with my mother and name all of the cars by make and model. As an adult the Speed Channel completes me. Last week I made my annual pilgrimage to the New York Auto Show and this year I took my camera. My favorite client is currently working on an Infiniti campaign and used a slideshow of my travels in Taiwan to pitch an Idea, so I decided to see if I could make a slideshow using details from the Infiniti model line as a sort of spec spot. I had never made a slideshow on command and also thought it would be good way to show how my slideshows could be used in conjunction with a product. I have no doubt that the people staffing the Infiniti booth thought that I was up to some sort of corporate espionage. The other first for me is the music choice. I had a hard time finding an appropriate soundtrack and then remembered a little piece I did fooling around with Garage Band, so this is my first all Josh production.
I learned yesterday, that my image of Lordes and Esteban was chosen as a finalist in the American Photography 23 competition. The winners will be announced in April, so please send out good vibes.
This is the result of me falling into a creative black hole of time. In this case, it all started with my two very good friends Michael Loncar and Erik Carlson. Loncar is an amazing poet, teacher, musician, filmmaker and man about town. Erik Carlson is an amazing musician, architect, photographer and all around artistic handyman. Loncar is currently living and teaching in Taiwan. A year and a half ago Erik and I made our way there, on what I refer to as “Sideways, without the premarital affair and wine.” Our trip to Taiwan was amazing in so many ways, but I will always remember it as a photographic safari. Fast forward to last week. Erik asked Mike and I if we had any video footage from the journey to donate to the making of a video for his song Trick With A Knife. Loncar rose to the challenge and locked himself in his apartment for a weekend and made a great video. When I watched the video, I realized that the last two and a half minutes of the song would be a perfect soundtrack for images I had recently taken at The War Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. I watched Mike’s video in the morning and then proceeded to have a productive day of photographic office work. Mid afternoon, as a reward to myself for hard paper pushing work, I decided to just “start working on the slideshow.” Five hours later the rough draft was completed.
