the latest shot

matt nathanson - boston accent

today, july 29th, 2022, marks the release of my good friend matt nathanson’s new album, boston accent.

i feel like we’re still kind of moving through the molasses of pandemic time, as this photo was actually shot in june of 2021. [in fact, i have a lot to post from the past pandemic years, and am slowly gearing up to do so]. as matt himself has noted, this is a big deal for him insofar as album artwork goes. he’s someone who has never really liked looking directly into the camera. the fact that this album cover is him, alone, confronting the viewer/listener directly, without any type whatsoever, is really remarkable. as a photographer, i couldn’t be more grateful and pleased.

matt was, arguably, one of my very first photo subjects. we went to college together. he was a year ahead of me, and he was the very first person i met when i arrived on campus. when i started taking photo classes he was always the first to volunteer to help me with whatever silly thing was required to get the homework done. i’ve shot him countless times over countless years. actually, we could count the years, but let’s not. suffice to say that my personal history and my personal history as a photographer has always been very much intertwined with matt, and pointing a camera at him over those early years was very foundational and important to me.

go give the album a listen and throw your money at it. it’s good stuff.

the actual cover is below with the designer’s moire overlay:

Ali Wong -- Don Wong Netflix comedy special key art

at the end of 2021 i was once again enlisted to provide key art for Ali Wong’s third Netflix Special, Don Wong. this time shot at a large studio, with a large crew and a classic car – we’ve come a long way from shooting baby cobra in my living room with my son crawling around the seamless, or even a long way from shooting hard knock wife in the lobby of Netflix HQ in Hollywood.

michael angelo covino co stars in the paul greengrass/tom hanks western news of the world that was released on christmas, 2020. i’ve been sitting on these photos for quite a while. looking back, i see the draft of this post from december of 2019, over a year ago. at first i was waiting for the release of covino’ s film, the climb, for which these were shot. this is a film he directed, starred in and co wrote with kyle marvin (also pictured below), and was actually the expansion into a feature length film of a previous short of the same name. the climb, unfortunately, was due to be released in march of 2020. just after everything shut down and theaters quickly became a relic of the before-times. in the climb covino plays a man who has an affair with his best friend’s fiancé. the first part of the film (and the entirety on the initial short) consists of covino confessing this fact to his friend (played by kyle marvin, also pictured below) and their ensuing confrontation. i was reminded of these photos again after seeing the poster for the bob odenkirk film, nobody, which uses a similar conceit. remember, though, the photos here were shot a year and a half ago. also worth remembering is that people getting punched in the face is a tale as old as time.

when we shot these photos michael was just about to leave to film news of the world. he was self conscious about his hair being messy, as he had been told to let everything grow out for filming. he was excited to be a movie villain, [spoiler alert] potentially killed by the nicest man in hollywood.

it was one of those shoots that i just felt very lucky to do — two subjects who were game for anything, were clearly so talented and funny and unselfconscious and just on the verge of being too famous to do silly things like this with no publicists around to tell them otherwise.

jessica watkins, astronaut

i’ve been very lucky to work on a fundraising campaign for CalTech over the past few years - consisting of portraits of students, alumni, professors and others associated with the institution. vicariously, it was an immense, nerdy thrill. back in 2016 one of our subjects was planetary geologist jessica watkins. at the time i believe she had just been accepted into the astronaut training program. with no missions in mind at that point we were all still very excited at the prospect of even being near someone who might go to space.

it was just announced that jessica had been selected to be part of the artemis mission, projected to go to the moon in 2024. congratulations, jessica! you probably don’t remember doing this shoot, but it’d be great if you could bring me back a moon rock, anyway.

RIP — fred willard

i had a very brief session with fred willard in 2006 for a small weekly publication. he was charming, hilarious, snappily dressed and witty. fred willard died friday, may 15th, 2020. he was a great talent and will be sorely missed.

masi oka for the wall street journal

save the cheerleader, save the world. i’ll never not think of that when i see masi oka – and i truly mean that in the best possible way. we are in superhero overload more than 13 year old geeky me ever thought possible, and while i’m exceptionally grateful for the current state of affairs, heroes kicked things off proper back in 2006. and i watched the hell out of that series. twice. so it was a unique thrill to get assigned to photograph masi for the wall street journal. he was the heart and soul of that show, the audience’s emotional stand in, and his ability to convey wonder and spectacle and exuberance held the show together.

aside from being an actor and producer, masi started out as a VFX artist and now runs a video game company in LA called mobius games. i photographed him on a landing outside mobius’ office where he was charmingly worried about getting in trouble with his landlord for shooting there. (see, celebrities are just like the rest of us. . .)

jamie nieto, olympic high jumper

jamie nieto is a high jumper who competed in the 2004 games in athens. to qualify for the olympics he jumped 7’8” in the air, which would be a good two feet higher than my head. in 2016 he was demonstrating how he could do a standing backflip at a practice. he landed wrong, and was instantly paralyzed from the chest down. in the years since he has been slowly and painstakingly been regaining some mobility. he can move his arms. he can walk, slowly and with difficulty (and a cane). his years of training provided him with the discipline to approach his recovery in a way most of us would not be able to muster. jamie had an incredible, soulful face, and this is one of those rare circumstances where the very first frame became our cover.

joe davis, announcer for the dodgers

joe davis in the stands at dodger stadium, los angeles, calif. 7.20.19

in the heat of the summer baseball season i was sent to dodger stadium to photograph joe davis, the dodgers’ new announcer. joe had taken over for vin scully in 2017, replacing a legend. big shoes to fill. judging from the reactions of the crowd streaming into the stadium at seeing joe, he’s definitely been well received by fans.

i’ve only been to a handful of baseball games in my life – and truth be told, i i was mostly there for the hot dogs. while i’ve photographed in stadiums before, never have i done so as a game was about to start. the fact that these pictures don’t show the chaos of 50,000 people swarming into the stands is pure luck. at times the noise of the crowd was so loud that joe couldn’t even hear me directing him from ten feet away.

initially we were just supposed to shoot in the announcer’s booth — we did, but it was an extremely cramped space, where two other people were working as well. i’m very grateful that joe was willing to venture out to other locations around the stadium, ultimately. in the booth he looks out over the field, and we finished up our shoot there. joe sat on one side, and someone else sat on the opposite side. that other guy (whose name i did not catch), had his desk underneath a blue wall with the dodgers’ logo on it. i asked joe if he would switch with him for just 30 seconds. at that point the game was about to start and joe was busy doing his final prep. i was to be a fly on the wall. joe didn’t want to disrupt what everyone was doing and politely refused. knowing this was to be the shot, i took one frame of the other guy to show joe what i was thinking of. joe looked at it on the back of the camera, frowned and said “yeah, that’s better”. it ended up being the cover. my thanks to the fine people at beloit college for an outstanding layout - even though i do prefer that lead image in black & white!

michael hill, professor of chemistry

occidental professor of chemistry mike hill comes up in google searches for a “miracle five minute nose job” — due to a press release run amok. his research involves a technique used to reshape cartilage and soft tissue on a molecular level. while they’ve demonstrated this on the ears of a rabbit and on corneal tissue, it’s a far cry from a surgery-free nose job. it should go without saying that this stuff is still pretty damn cool, with possible far reaching applications, even if you still need to go to a plastic surgeon for your face.

also worth noting that mike is far more affable than this photo makes him out to be. but that’s my fault. it’s so rare you find an actual functioning science lab with real slate blackboards anymore. couldn’t help it.

alyssa limperis, comedian, for middlebury college.

i recently had the opportunity to photograph comedian/actress alyssa limperis and a giant swinging chair for middlebury college. these are probably my favorite kinds of shoots to do — going to a subject’s home with no preconceived notions, and just seeing what we can conjure up together. like many performers, alyssa mines her own life, family, and it’s associated eccentricities and tragedies for comedic material. earlier this year decider.com dubbed her “the next gilda radner”.

the sidebar of the magazine had us take photos of a few of alyssa’s characters, below:

clark (and friends) graduate preschool

this friday my son, clark, graduates from preschool. of course, as his father i’m incredibly proud of his every hiccup, utterance and proclamation. this is not the first major milestone and will certainly not be the last. it has been immensely gratifying to see him go from the uncoordinated, wide-eyed toddler he was to the slightly less uncoordinated kid he’s become, still wide-eyed and intensely curious about the world around him. parenthood is, of course, all consuming, and my favorite photos will forever be of him. yes, he’s been over it for a while now.

to commemorate the past two years i went to the school in may, set up a small studio, and took portraits of the graduating seniors. here are a selection of them.

eleni mandell for yep roc music

i’m very pleased to have had the opportunity to photograph musician eleni mandell at the end of last year for artwork to illustrate her new album, wake up again. eleni spent time teaching songwriting to inmates at a women’s prison and that experience shaped the songs on the album.

this is the third time i’ve shot eleni, with the first being all the way back in 2004. for this round we actually shot in my living room - and the photo above, my favorite from the day, was shot against the blackboard wall in my office.

isaac larian, CEO of MGA entertainment, for the wall street journal

my portrait of isaac larian, CEO of MGA entertainment, toy mogul extraordinaire, is out this weekend in the wall street journal. this is actually the second time i’ve photographed isaac. the first was sixteen years prior for the london sunday telegraph review. when ronnie called with the assignment the name sounded naggingly familiar, and a quick dive through the archive of old 6x7 transparencies yielded a match. it’s very rare that i get to revisit a subject, and really appreciate the times that i do.

isaac is what you hope a toy company CEO would be. smart, focused, and business savvy, but incredibly personable and funny and comfortable being silly. from what i understand, he controls the largest privately owned toy company in the world. MGA is famous for its bratz dolls, and i couldn’t help but notice in their offices that they also own the cozy coupe, which has sold more units than most real life cars. in fact, there’s one sitting in my driveway right now.

when i left his office, isaac had arranged a care package for my four year old son. a pile of toys, including a remote control car. it was a good day.

roy ashok, CEO of daqri, for cornell enterprise magazine

daqri makes augmented reality glasses for use in manufacturing and warehouse environments. it’s really cool and cutting edge stuff, with broad applications in the future. roy is daqri’s CEO, a man with a truly awful commute (san diego to LA) which made him two hours late to our shoot. He also had a really, really big chair.

shooting CEOs can sometimes be hit or miss, but honestly, roy couldn’t have been more gracious, or photogenic or generous with his time. most people would be grumpy and short tempered after struggling through several hours of southern california traffic and then being forced to sit in front of a camera. roy was only apologetic for keeping us waiting, and he was even nice enough to model daqri’s smart glasses.

these things are seriously cool, and the potential for what they can do is pretty vast. right now they’re mostly in a manufacturing environment, but give it a few years. heads up displays are where it’s at.

ethan brown and beyond meat

a couple months back i had the opportunity to photograph ethan brown, CEO of beyond meat, and visit their corporate HQ and research facility under the auspices of a story for der spiegel. i saw that the story was posted online last week (i can’t understand german, but am able to recognize my own byline and photos), so here are some out-takes.

let me just state my position on the matter right off the bat: i’m an omnivore. i eat meat, have always eaten meat, and will very likely continue to eat meat unless something really drastic happens. i also love vegetables of nearly all varieties and nearly all preparations. i crave vegetables just as much as i crave meat. i’m always slightly disappointed by the sides at barbecue joints. i don’t care much for tofu, i’m very pro-gluten. i’m also pro-GMO. i acknowledge that the food industrial complex might be a necessary evil (for now) to deal with the sheer number of people who require feeding. i appreciate real food made in an artisanal fashion. i am anti instant mixes (oatmeal, brownies, cakes). pie is better than cake. butter is better than shortening. frosting weirds me out a little. creme fraiche is awesome and easy to make.

most importantly, i’ve long been against transmutation. that is, i don’t want my vegetables to try to look like/taste like meat. i want my meat to be meat and my veggies to be veggies.

however. . .

beyond meat’s burgers and sausages are pretty damn good. honestly, they’re good. the hot italian sausage is especially good.

ethan brown is a vegan. he’s excited about plant based proteins. unlike many other vegans he doesn’t seem to hold animosity for meat eaters. the driving philosophy of the company seems to very much be one of environmentalism rather than animal rights. they make every effort to publicize their positive environmental impact in relation to traditional livestock farming. ethan’s office is full of large poster boards containing early critical reviews of their product, reminding him of the naysayers constantly. he knows that it’s all a moot point if the things plain old don’t taste good. so, taste - and, yes, mouthfeel - are of paramount importance in their process. you can tell he’s excited about it. you can tell the people working there are excited about it. beyond meat feels very much like a tech startup in that regard. i have to say, i’m sold.

this week beyond meat will go public, estimating their IPO at $1.5 billion. that may be a drop in the bucket to the meat industry, but it’s a solid start.

the fascinating thing about being at beyond meat’s research facility is that it feels very much like a research facility. that is, it looks like a science lab rather than a kitchen. people are wearing white coats. they have pipettes and instrumentation that i would expect to see in a microbiology lab. the people working there are very much scientists, not chefs. to be fair there was also a separate proper kitchen area which i only got to peer into from the window. but the researchers i did meet were young, very enthusiastic and spoke excitedly about protein structures and beet extracts and mouthfeel. the only piece of equipment there that i would not expect to find in the middle of a bio lab was an electric griddle, which they were using to fry up a couple patties for testing. the patties were then put in what looked like a miniature hydraulic press (dubbed “the e-mouth”) that measured the bite resistance of the patty and how much juice was extracted under pressure. . . the mouthfeel, if you will.

frying up some patties in the beyond meat research lab

beyond meat research associate john berriman displays patties cooked for sensory testing.

breakfast sausage, beyond buger and hot italian sausage. next time remind me to remove flags before eating.

chris rowles, osseointegration prosthesis

chris, a retired police officer, lost his leg as a result of a runaway staph infection that was set off by a bug bite, of all things (compounding on previous injuries sustained on the job). so, that’s horrible, and gives me something new to worry about that i wasn’t previously worried about.

as chris’ amputation was above the knee, he found that the prosthetics offered to him never quite fit right, never stayed put and caused considerable discomfort. after several years he ended up as a candidate for a relatively new technology called osseointegration, performed at cedars sinai hospital in los angeles. in this procedure a metal rod was surgically attached to his femur, with a stud protruding from the skin. this allows him to attach the new prosthesis in a way that is secure and doesn’t rely on suction. added to that, the range of motion is far greater and more comfortable. he can even cross his legs again.

on an unrelated note, i understand the shoes (to keep the height level consistent from side to side), but the sock on the prosthetic always seemed unnecessary to me. is it just a symmetry thing?

jon gutman, animator

jon gutman is a previz animator and layout artist at dreamworks whose credits include the how to train your dragon and kung fu panda series.

there’s something undeniably exciting about going to the dreamworks campus. unlike what i usually do, these guys get to make worlds out of whole cloth, and it all starts with previz. not limited just to animation, a previz artist will sketch out basic action and composition as a framework before principal photography even begins on a film. think of it, perhaps, as a very advanced form of storyboarding that moves.

the idea was originally to shoot him with some iconography from one of the films - ideally, how to train your dragon. since the walls were basically covered with materials from movies currently in production showing any of the dreamworks office environment (or, any interesting part of the environment) was off limits. we were able to poke around the merch closet and came up with this little stuffed doll of toothless, the dragon. there were a handful of much larger figures but those were also off limits for us to move and handle. so, little toothless the stuffed animal it was. . . a bit of gaffer’s tape had him sitting nicely on jon’s shoulder. later on the magazine had the idea of replacing the toy dragon in photoshop with a drawn version, but this was quickly shot down by dreamworks PR as they didn’t want it to seem like the actual character from the movie was so diminutive.

wanting to make something a little more fearsome, but still playful, we tried toying with shadows - shadows that were surprisingly difficult to get in the right place. to his credit, jon was amazing. he totally played up the shtick and it was great. if only every subject would be so involved in the process.

we finished up with a little love for the giant kung fu panda in the dreamworks courtyard, just in case dragons weren’t the editor’s jam in the end.

katherine spillar, executive editor of ms. magazine

stan lee, three times. (RIP 11.12.18)

today is veteran’s day, november 12th, 2018 - the day stan lee died at the age of 95.

for a certain type of kid - the type of kid i was - growing up in the 80s, (and for other kids growing up in the 90s and 60s and 70s) stan might have been as influential a figure in my life as any of my friends or even my parents. stan took the fantastical things we were drawn to and grounded them in a depth that no one before him thought they deserved. i grew up collecting and admiring stan’s work, never thinking how silly capes and tights really were. even when i became an adult these things still mattered to me. i never cared much for sports, but the closest corollary i had was the way my friends and i would discuss superheroes. like sports, it’s all just a little silly and semantic. but our teams were our teams. and stan was the general manager.

(my wife will either be proud of me for attempting a sports metaphor, or horrified that i likely mangled it.)

[part of this post will be repeated from a former post on a now defunct page, from the last time i shot stan on august 12th, 2013. exactly one year before my son was born.]

the first time i photographed stan lee (in 1997) i was as green and wet behind the ears as could be. i was trying to be fancy, using an old speed graphic 4×5 camera that i barely knew how to operate. i got everything set up and the moment stan arrived the camera decided to break. i was sweating bullets, in my twenties, in the office of the man whose ideas formed the foundation of the happiest, nerdiest times of my teens and i had just blown it. he let me come back the next day and things went a bit better.

a few months after that i received this note (below) in the mail from stan. i had sent him a print of the photo and i was beyond thrilled to get an actual note back.

four years later (2001) i shot him again, this time at his house, shortly before christmas. he didn’t remember me at all. the house was veritably overrun with christmas decorations. it seemed like every square inch of the place was covered with tchotchkes (or whatever the gentile term might be), all except for stan’s office, which simply had a lamp in the shape of spider man. the equipment worked then, but i mentioned to stan that once we were done i could have it all cleaned up and loaded out inside of ten minutes. he sat in the chair where i photographed him and timed me with a stopwatch, calling out the minutes as they flew by. i made it out with a few seconds to spare. i was never quite satisfied with that picture, but really pleased at the experience. sometimes that’s what you’re left with and that’s okay.

all i could find of it on my computer tonight was this one low res film scan. we’re so far into the digital world now that i’d have to go dig through boxes of proof sheets in my garage to find something else.

i photographed stan for the third time in 2013, for a spread in the “hollywood issue” of elle men, china. i felt better going in this time. i knew stan looked great. i knew he’d be wearing his trademark sunglasses, but if i lit him all right i’d be able to see his eyes. i knew i wanted to shoot him in color on a white background and in black & white on a black background. i knew how i wanted the spread to look, and i knew my equipment worked. i even found a copy of wolverine #1 in my garage, from 1988, in case the generalissimo felt like autographing things. the only hiccup this time was that we had to set up in the smallest possible office space, around an intern’s desk, even.

still, we made it happen, stan was as gregarious as ever and – as expected – didn’t remember meeting me. i showed him the photos i had taken of him previously and he was polite enough to pretend to recall the episodes. it’s a great privilege to be able to revisit the same subjects over a period of many years, and an even greater privilege to be able to revisit a subject who had had such a profound impact on me growing up. making the pictures sing is – dare i say it – a great responsibility, too.

just before we left stan smiled, shook my hand and said “i’ll see you in a few years.”

it’s heartbreaking that he was wrong that time. i was really counting on it.

excelsior, generalissimo! you were a force, and you will be missed by many.

peter arnett for stern magazine

journalist peter arnett, photographed for stern magazine - this is an older shoot from february of this year - took a while to get around to being published. i photographed peter at his home in fountain valley, calif.

peter, now in his eighties, was a journalist for magazines and television, mostly covering war zones and conflict around the world, beginning with vietnam. he is most well known as being the first western journalist to get an on-camera interview with osama bin laden, for CNN in 1997. this is definitely worth watching as it eerily foreshadows the september 11th attacks.

journalist peter arnett, working at home in fountain valley, calif. 2.20.18