Heading to a favorite place, Las Vegas, next month. Will do a lighting workshop with a spin, and the seriously wonderful spin is the deeply talented, experienced, and amazing performers we will photograph. Viva Las Vegas Workshop! Thrilled to be working again with Joli Irvine, and her equally wondrous sister, Alexi, both of whom bring extraordinary grace and physicality to the lens. Veterans of a number of Vegas shows (they are in Awakening, the new show at the Wynn) and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, both of them, along with numerous other talented artists, will gather for our workshop in a variety ..read more

In a nutshell, dancers rule. They literally can play with the light. Most folks, in front of a camera, blinking, perhaps nervous or uncertain, just let the light come. Hard light, soft light? The person behind the camera knows best! The photog becomes similar to a doctor, diagnosing (quietly), and then prescribing. “You’ve got a case of deep set eyes, so I’m going with the umbrella and an on axis hard pop that’s going to run about two stops under the main. Trust me, you’ll feel better after this treatment.” “Uh okay, um, uh, what do I do with my hands?” Dancers don’t do that. First of all, the ..read more

Prompted by some traffic on an Instagram post, I got to thinking about…long glass. For some, it’s a no fly zone. Going north of the wall. The “It” that lives in the sewer. Riding the Shai-Hulud. Whatever, I digress already. The avoidance is understandable. Telephotos, especially long ones, are historically heavy, bulky, and often requiring the trundling along of a tripod. They are anathema for instance, to the street photographer, who has to remain light and fast and live as seamlessly as possible in the rhythm of whatever life is being observed, always seeking context. It is not generally an ..read more

But to me, anytime, anywhere a dancer leaps, it is improbable. A flight of fancy, of beauty, a form struck or created in space where the body does, perfectly, that which it has been trained to do via countless hours and many years of practice. Truly, when you see for instance, a grand jeté, the laws of gravity are suspended, both physically, and in your heart. Another improbability about the banner picture above is the measure of reverberation it has, sort of like a keeping a constantly vibrating tuning fork on my hard drives. Partnering with Vital Impacts, and my dear friend Ami Vitale, I loa ..read more

Heading in the fall to the Saguaro Desert near Tucson with my dear friend Bill Fortney. We’ll be teaching together at the MNLP-Masters of Nature and Landscape Photography. The title of this symposium weekend is surely true of Bill. Given the pandemic pause in all our lives, we haven’t seen each other for some time. But I hark back to when he helped me out. I’ve always loved to photograph industry. How do they make stuff? Is the factory cool? Unusual? Sparks, steam? Heavy industry has always been the stuff of fascinating photography. And the camera has always honored labor. Hard work, and the p ..read more

I did put a lampshade on the ever-patient Amber Tutton‘s head. (And it wasn’t even a New Year’s Eve party!) But the location offered more than lampshades. We spent the day making other images, taking advantage of the wonderful old house we had rented, moving around to different areas. In the scouting pictures I saw an old copper tub. Excitedly, I thought, bubbles! Then the fine print. No water, prop only. So, what to put in there apart from Amber? Annie to the rescue, with yards and yards of fabric. I mean, a sea of soft shimmery fabric. Why not? While Annie arranged fabric, our wonderful HMU ..read more

Pelé, the magnificent football player, and ebullient, gracious human, is gone. I only photographed him once, in the showers at Giant Stadium in New Jersey. The occasion was the happy, raucous locker room scene that occurred right after the Cosmos successfully defended their championship of the NASL. The year was 1978, and the crowd out there in East Rutherford still ranks as the largest crowd to ever watch a soccer game in North America. (I use the term soccer in reference to the game, as the league called itself the North American Soccer League.) Professionally speaking, I was still a rube ..read more

Humankind has an eternal fascination for the sun. Understandable. The center of the universe, the flame in the sky around which all life rotates. We worship it, raising our hands and faces upwards to seek its warmth. We despair without it. Absent the sun, darkness of life and spirit occurs. We bask and bake in it, flocking to beaches, drenched in oil, veritably roasting in its rays. We need it for things to grow and sustain life, and have consequently tried in various ways to harness its astonishing power. This has produced mixed results. On the positive side of the ledger–solar power! As a f ..read more

Just had the pleasure of wandering the Big Apple in search of the lights of the holidays, in the company of some very cool photogs, and with that preeminently talented duo, Fancy Girl Street Boy. (Otherwise known as Liza Politi and Ari Espay.) The swarming holiday crowds indicate the city is back, at least in terms of visitors, once again brimming over with its customary energy and verve. Moving through streets was like playing rugby, and finding a seat in a restaurant akin to searching for the lost ark. Times Square, never a shrinking violet of a locale, even had a constant air blast going ..read more

I didn’t tell anyone, most of all Annie at first, but when I saw the scouting pictures of this location in south London, I knew I wanted to put a lampshade on Amber Tutton’s head. For wardrobe direction, I was of course more specific. Given the pastel walls, I said I wanted her to look like a parfait. I believe I said something like, “Color-wise, you know, think of a scoop of gelato with legs and stilettos.” Annie and Lynn gave me a quizzical, time-honored head tilt, and, with that overwhelmingly precise type of direction, went forward with the styling. An absolutely fun day of shooting proce ..read more