Vegas Vs. The World

I have now been to Las Vegas three times. My first two visits were almost fifteen years ago and my third last week. In the interim Vegas has become a one-stop shop to see the world. New York, Paris and Venice are there just to name a few. New York without sirens, Paris with wall-to-wall carpet and Venice without trash is just not the same. Soon Rat Pack era Vegas will be so long gone that someone will rebuild the Sands as a Vegas themed casino.

Vote For Me

Recently, I entered the Alternative Pick, Alt Pick Awards Contest. There are two types of awards for the contest; one juried and one people’s choice. The images I entered are selected from a ten part series I did for AARP. Photographed in ten cities over two weeks, from Alaska to Puerto Rico, fifteen planes, eight rental cars, king crab to chili relleno, countless cups of coffee, amazing people and amazing stories. This was the first assignment where a parka shared space in my backpack with flip flops and produced some of the best photographs of my career.

The voting is open to anyone so vote for me, tell all of your friends to vote for me and coerce your friends and family to do the same.

head to:

http://awards.altpick.com/

Register, log in, go to the "series" section, look for the above image titled: Financial Makeover and vote. In the interest of fairness the entries appear in random order, mine could be first or last.

Thank you in advance and spread the word.

The No Longer Big Easy

Almost two years ago I was sent on assignment to New Orleans, one month after hurricane Katrina. It was my first trip there and I could not help but thinking what a grand place it must have been and would be again. I thought again would be sooner than two years and honestly it may still be sometime in the future. The French Quarter was shockingly unscathed. It was the first few days that people were allowed back to their homes and a few bars and strip clubs were already open. Two years later the same is true. If you go straight from the airport to your hotel in the French Quarter, you would think that the recovery is complete. Disappointingly, the true pace of the recovery can only be seen when you leave the tourist centers. It is subtle at first, a pile of debris in front of a house, then a FEMA trailer on the lawn, followed by a whole parking lot of trailers and then once you hit the Lower Ninth Ward it’s just empty lots with a sporadic house; total destruction. Unfortunately, that is where I was sent to photograph Gwen Adams, her house had survived the flooding, was salvageable and she had just applied for a building permit, when the second phase of the disaster hit. Without notifying the Adams the city deemed the house uninhabitable and with all but a few exceptions raised the whole neighborhood without notifying anyone. Gwen found out that her house was gone from a neighbor who had come by to cut the grass to keep from being fined by the city. So now Gwen is paying a mortgage, taxes and cutting the grass at a home that is gone.

Wendy

When I was growing up my first photographic role models were my brother Rebel (it’s his nickname) and my cousin Wendy. Reb (the nickname of his nickname) and Wendy are 14 years older than I am. When I was six they were in film school and photo school respectively. They would come home from college with their latest projects and I was enamored; Reb made an incredible short film with tennis balls and Tang and Wendy used an early color Xerox machine to make images of flowers that she combined into a tapestry. Even then I would run around saying that I wanted to be a photographer and follow it up with the statement that I would not shoot weddings or bar mitzvahs, So it was a treat to come full circle and photograph Wendy. I would not be writing this if it were not for both of them.

In addition Wendy has the greatest collection af salt and pepper shakers I have ever seen!

Apples In China

Normally, when one of my images is used without permission, it is a headache. In this case, I was elated. This is my first Chinese magazine cover! Even better news was that the cover shot contributed to the Apples In Stereo being invited to perform at the Modern Sky Festival, with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, in Beijing this October.

JJL

It was fourteen years ago when I first “met” Jennifer Jason Leigh. I say, “met” in quotation marks, because at the time we met I was a lowly, all black wearing, photo assistant. Even though I was strongly discouraged from entering into discourse with the subjects, I got the impression that Jennifer was a really nice person and an incredible actress. Fast forward to the present. I now have confirmation that Jennifer is very nice and a joy to photograph. I’ve never liked to work with models because they, model. True actors are such a treat to photograph, because they have such control over their bodies and emotions.

Roy S. Johnson

As with Doctors, lawyers and countless other professionals; photographers specialize. Over the course of my career I have been asked many times to photograph headshots, weddings or bar mitzvahs. I always politely say no and explain that I am portrait photographer. Truth is, I have photographed both headshots, two weddings and thankfully no bar mitzvahs. The reason not to photograph headshots, weddings or bar mitzvahs is that they may be the hardest assignments in photography. Dealing with the family dynamics of a wedding or an actor who does not understand that the camera can only lie so much is not an easy job. The main criterion for accepting a job is, if I want to do it and in this case I did. Roy recently became the editor in chief of Men’s Fitness Magazine and needed a set of photographs to be used for his monthly editors column. Monica Bradley called me, the photo editor of Men’s Fitness who is an old friend and client, so of course I said yes. My hunch was right about Roy, he was a very interesting guy that made for a great afternoon.

Atlanta

I just returned from photographing Sara Blakely, inventor of Spanx, for the inaugural cover of Start Up magazine, a spin off of Inc. What are Spanx you ask? More than likely if you asked that you are a dude. Spanx are the equivalent of the modern girdle. I come from a family of inventors and someone who can build a better mousetrap always impresses me.

Modern Anachronism

I took this photo in the Pittsburgh Airport after visiting my Mother in Ohio. The Pittsburgh airport was designed in the late 1980’s and finished in 1992. Obviously, they did not anticipate the popularity of the cellular phone.

Quasi July Fourth

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.