photographer of the day: jodi beiber

jodi beiber's new project real beauty is amazing. real south african women, no retouching whatsoever, a rare treat. jodi goes beyond what we often see: they involve the the subject's perception "fantasy" (via their pose) in conjunction with the pure reality of retouching-free presentation . go check it out and make sure you read the text at the end of the series of photos. the rest of jodi's work is wonderful too so take a moment to look around her site.

european syndication with o'gorman visual research

i'm very excited to announce that i'm being archive represented and syndicated in europe by daniel o'gorman visual research. daniel has great taste and syndicates a handful of extremely talented photographers whose company i am really flattered to be keeping. please don't hesitate to ask about syndication/reuse of any of my images by contacting me directly for usa usage or daniel for european syndication.

new portfolio work

i have 3 personal shoots scheduled in the next 10 days - i'm really excited to add new work to my book!

photo/cooking trade with my assistant eric

for quite a while my assistant eric webster and i have talked about doing a trade: he'd teach me how to cook and i'd teach him more about photography. this weekend we finally did it! given eric's pre-career-change history as the kick-ass chef at calistoga ranch, i've been understandably excited! i had two main cooking goals: 1. learn to break down a whole chicken and 2. learn how to make gnocchi. eric, josh and i cooked/ate/photo'd and had a grand ol' time from 2pm-3am and my dear friend jen even joined us after work for the dinner. the whole thing was a huge success and a complete ball. i highly recommend calling eric if you ever need a great assistant or private chef!

our menu:
leek, beet, crouton and purslane salad flavored with butter, oil, thyme and garlic
butter glazed gnocchi with nettle/walnut pesto and baby artichokes
seared/roasted soul food farms chicken on a bed of swiss chard with fingerling potatoes, glazed baby turnips, and baby brussel sprouts
individual chocolate cake/souffles made with dark valhrona chocolate

here's a small photo documentation of our fantastic 13hr cooking/eating/photo extravaganza from raw to gourmet:

i broke down these 1.5 of these 2 soul food farms chickens after eric demo'd the process

eric beating eggs for the gnocchi

whisk in sauce

josh prepped these stinging nettles for the nettle pesto (it was awesome!)

"riced" potatoes with egg mixture just before adding flour to make gnocchi dough

eric rolling out gnocchi (my logs fell apart, gnocchi is surprisingly delicate!)

the fantastic beet/crouton/purslane/leek salad. unfortunately i don't have any photos of the gorgeous perfectly delicious gnocchi/baby-artichoke/nettle-pesto dish since we were so enraptured with eating it that the camera never came out!

our awesome chicken

perfect tiny brussle sprouts

closeup of a perfect tiny brussel sprout. you'll just have to trust me that the chocolate cake/souffle was so divine that they were all gone before the camera came out!

tons of stuff!

i have tons of exciting new stuff to talk about in the next week including shoots, interviews, personal projects and more! check back soon for a detailed post or two!

a great loss

"a good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. it is, in a word, effective." - irving penn, 1917 - 2009 (age 92). you can read the nyt obituary here.

my book is on sale

just a reminder, for a limited time my monograph is being offered as a softcover at a discounted price. please check it out and get yourself a copy!

two of my favorite photo quotes

“i never invent anything. i photograph what i know.” sacha van dorsen

"I don't know who was behind the camera... but you can tell she loved her subjects." rebecca wells

inspiration

and in the spirit of yesterday's post, a spontaneously shot pack of polaroid. wonderfully fun and invigorating!

colorwars photos

colorwars in la last weekend was a fun competition. 100 polaroids in 1 hour - crazy! here are 4 of my favorite photos:

the four competitors pre-contest with our mamiya rz67s
me, eric charles, sita kaylin and john henry bailton

my awesome assistant (fiancee) josh. he rocked.
my color was green. can you tell?

my final collage

passers-by looking at our work.
someone said as they looked at my polaroids "oh, it's like pieces and details of people." and i thought to myself, "yay! success!"

eric was the much-deserving winner of the competition and his work was gorgeous. but really, who am i kidding - i was in a group of three other stellar artists who inspired me and reminded me how fun and vibrant photography is when you just love-love-love it. i really enjoyed the sheer freedom of just shooting with no goal other than to make pictures and it gets me back to the core of why i sometimes just need to take out a pack of polaroid and shoot whatever the heck is immediately in front of me. there is always a good photo just waiting. goodness, i love this job!