The Eyes Have It

“They Eyes Have It” is a masked portrait series I photographed on Montauk’s beaches this summer. I wanted to see if I could capture some sense of emotion on the masked faces of people in a setting that is normally fun and carefree. I set up my camera on a tripod at a busy entrance to a popular beach in Montauk, NY. That beach has become much more crowded than usual as many residents of New York City have fled their urban environment for safer spaces.

You can view more portraits from this series by clicking on this link.

I approached the most interesting looking people and asked if they would pose for me with their masks on. I was able to shoot at a socially safe distance using a long lens. Almost everyone was shot in bright sunlight with a scrim overhead to soften the harsh natural light. The background was simple, consistent and out of focus to keep the attention on the subtleties of my subjects’ masks and eyes.

Photographing at Eddie Ecker Park in Montauk with wardrobe stylist, Veronique Zanettin and our model, Tanish.

Promo piece for the upcoming show

What does a socially distanced photo show look like? Hero Beach Club helped me find out by generously hosting an outdoor art exhibition for my masked portrait series “The Eyes Have It” in Montauk. Despite appearances we had a pretty good turnout with plenty of room for everyone to spread out. Our guests seemed to really enjoy getting together in a beautiful (and safe) environment. Thanks to everyone who came and also to Rich Silver and Lucy Geisinger for taking these photos at the show and to FotoCare for their support.

Whalebone Magazine ran an extensive article with some enlightening Q&A’s about how my subjects felt about their masks.

My portraits were eventually turned into a compelling bilingual public service ad campaign by a talented team of advertising professionals including Melissa Berman, Clio McNicholl, Lois Pyan, and Jen Maguire. The ads can be seen as posters and in publications throughout the Hamptons thanks to the generous support of East End Cares and The East Hampton Star.

East End Cares even produced several mini-billboards and placed them in the Hamptons to remind everyone of the importance of wearing their masks.

Promoting Social Distancing

I won’t be photographing people for my clients around the globe for some time. Even though one of my specialties is shooting group portraits I decided to promote the idea of social distancing. My portrait session with the Grim Reaper is designed to reach people who have been ignoring public service messages.

The talented writer Alyson Kuhn came up with the copy for our message and Decker Design provided the chilling typographic solution.

Me giving the Grim Reaper some direction on how to emote - something he’s unaccustomed to. We of course kept our distance and the real danger came from the fact that we were shooting on the edge of a very windy 100ft cliff. The subject matter called for an ominously dark and windy day and the weather cooperated in the worst way.

Our shoot took place in Montauk, NY where surfing is a very popular sport. Depending on what part of the world you are in there’s growing controversy about the safety of people being on public beaches during the pandemic. With that in mind I also covered a variation of Death contemplating a surf session.

This is another photograph I took to illustrate the importance of social distancing. Who knows whether or not a wetsuit helps avoid transmitting the virus but a couple of ten foot poles should do the trick.

A portrait with the best view in Manhattan

John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan Publishers, photographed on his office balcony atop the Flatiron Building, one of New York’s most iconic structures. He’s casually balancing on a narrow windswept ledge 250 feet above Fifth Avenue, flanked by an array of Macmillan’s many best sellers.

Before John stepped up onto the ledge I shot this video, showing off the extraordinary view and the perils of a misstep.

My assistant, Clay Howard-Smith, stood in for John Sargent while we set up lighting and propped the scene with dozens of books borrowed from John’s office. The Flatiron Building overlooks the famously windy intersection of Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd St. We had to be very careful, lest any books free-fall 23 stories into a crowd of pedestrians.

I also photographed John from street level on Fifth Avenue, to try capturing him in relation to the magnificent Flatiron Building.

While photographing John from street level, I was surrounded by the ever present crowd of tourists photographing the same building, usually with the help of a selfie stick. None of them noticed the lone man balancing on that ledge so high above. The huge lens I was using did attract the attention of a couple of photo enthusiasts, and my assistant helpfully pointed out the tiny speck of a person that I was photographing.

Freeze Frame

Although I’m a better photographer and filmmaker than I am a surfer, I do have a passion for riding waves. I’m often inspired to combine those interests through my portraits and documentaries. My latest project captures 50 individual surfers just as they emerged from the frigid winter and spring waters of Montauk’s Ditch Plains beach. The series is called “Freeze Frame”. I’m very excited to announce that the beautiful Hero Beach Club in Montauk is hosting an exhibition of my portraits on Saturday September 21. Here’s a sneak preview of some of the photographs along with a behind the scenes production shot.

I set up this canopy to soften the midday light and asked anyone who came out of the water at Ditch Plains beach in Montauk if they’d let me take their portrait. Thankfully, almost no one refused. Each session only lasted about 3 minutes.My subjects were often pretty cold from having just left water temperatures ranging from 35 to 50 degrees. Air temperatures were around 30 to 50 degrees, usually with a stiff wind to make it feel even colder.

Executive Action Around the World

I recently completed an exciting and ambitious assignment for a long-time client. The goal was to create a photographic library that portrays their people working together in a dynamic way in different environments and cultures. With more than 500 offices worldwide to choose from, the client narrowed our locations to a single city in each of eleven countries on six continents.

LONDON: THE offices have a large terrace… —just the thing to provide a sense of place.

MILAN: As one might expect, the Milan offices are beautifully designed.

ALWAYS: Close-ups infuse a meeting with warmth and personality.

DUBAI: Most of the client’s employees here wear standard Western business attire, but this isn’t mandated. Showing traditional garb in the workplace provides a sense of place and diversity.

JOHANNESBURG: These employees are enjoying doing business outdoors on a beautiful day — and what a pleasure for me.

TOKYO: I’ve worked in Tokyo many times over the years for various clients. The office windows are always remarkably clean—a plus for photography. And the people I’m photographing always seem not just professional, but dedicated.

NATURALLY: I like to take advantage of natural light to evoke an open, bright, modern look.

SINGAPORE: Lobby areas frequently provide the most attractive settings, with lots of leeway for compositional options.

SYDNEY: Shooting in Australia always leave me with such positive impressions. The executives in this shot really seem to know how to enjoy their work. They all have great senses of humor—perhaps all that sunshine helps. Directing scenes like this one call for me to be a bit of an acting coach. It’s gratifying to see my subjects rise to the occasion!

SYDNEY: A meeting on the go, with Sydney’s ferry terminal in the background, is particularly energetic. I like to get my subjects to forget that they’re being photographed in a public place.

SÃO PAOLO: My own heritage, going way back, is Portuguese, but I don’t even speak menu Portuguese. Almost all of the employees I met, on all six continents, spoke fluent English—which was convenient but humbling. Over the years shooting around the world, I’ve developed a repertoire of hand gestures and body language that works surprisingly well.

Close-up from a São Paolo meeting

MEXICO CITY: We photographed many indoor and outdoor situations, all with their executives at work. Most of my subjects find our shoots to be a lot of fun and a chance to help show what it means to be part a great company. I try to show the intensity of a dynamic meeting and that often requires much directing and encouragement for my non-professional models.

DALLAS: The building manager generously permitted us to to do this shot in the lobby of my client’s Dallas offices. Like Blanche DuBois, “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

TORONTO: This was the last stop on our 6 week itinerary. Toronto had the advantage of ending our job with only a ninety minute flight back home to New York - by far the shortest leg of all.

The last situation we covered before running off to the airport for our return back to the States. This marked the end to one of my most memorable and extensive shoots after 6 weeks of traveling.

Group Portraits on Location

URS Corporation, responsible for enormous projects such as the Hoover Dam and the Panama Canal has trusted me for over 15 years to photograph their engineers in dramatic settings around the world. Rather than depicting people in working situations they allowed me to take a more interpretive approach, featuring their people and projects in group portraits. Over the years, group portraits have become a strong point of my photography.

74 of the URS people responsible for engineering the United States Courthouse in Brooklyn, photographed early on a Sunday morning in the courthouse’s cavernous lobby. To get the detail and quality required my four assistants and I spent hours setting up hundreds pounds of lighting equipment.

Overview of the entire lobby. The biggest challenge was getting everyone placed perfectly and lighting this enormous space without having our lights visible in the frame.

URS engineers off the coast of Southern California with an offshore oil rig that they designed. We arranged for a good sized yacht that would be stable and high enough to line up visually with the rig. Fortunately, it was a beautiful, calm day on the water.

A temple in New Delhi was chosen as the backdrop for URS engineers. My assistant and I went to the location the day before the shoot to carefully plan out the positions of all our subjects, taking into account the direction and quality of the light at sunset. With only the two of us to rehearse the group portrait, my assistant stood in for each of the 15 anticipated subjects and then used Photoshop to combine the different positions.

We used two enormous electronic flash units to help the subjects stand out against the background. Our URS hosts graciously helped keep them steady in the wind. Packing just the right photo equipment and lighting for our international shoots is a critical part of planning. One must plan for many unknowns without getting bogged down by too much weight, exorbitant excess baggage fees, and customs documents.

I strive to keep our shoot time to a minimum, especially because group photos take so many people away from their demanding jobs. Shooting near sunset further complicates the timing. Just before the golden hour ten additional, unplanned subjects showed up. We shifted gears quickly and fit everyone in nonetheless, even leaving room in the center for a double page spread with a gutter in the print version of their annual report.

Takenobu Igarashi: Design and Fine Art

GRAPHIS PRESS recently commissioned me to photograph the renowned Japanese graphic designer and artist, Takenobu Igarashi, for his new book, “Takenobu Igarashi: The creative journey of a Japanese Master”.  I flew to Sapporo to meet the artist, scout, and plan a three day portrait and documentary film.

My favorite portrait of the artist and the one chosen by Graphis for his book. This location was also used for his video interview in my short documentary

Photographing Igarashi at the Kazenobi atalier+gallery in front of one of his terra cotta sculptures.

Sakura Nomiyama, Design Historian for the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Takenobu Igarashi visit the artist's Dragon Spine sculpture in Hokkaido.

Photographing Igarashi from within one of many sculptures exhibited in the Kazenobi atelier+gallery (dedicated solely to Takenobu Igarashi’s art) in Hokkaido, Japan. Thousands of shapes cut freehand by the artist make up this enormous painted wooden sculpture.

One of seven portrait situations that Igarashi sat for during my three days in Hokkaido.

Sapporo, Japan stairwell with graphics designed by Takenobu Igarashi.

New Jersey Resources Portraits

New Jersey Resources recently commissioned me to do the photography for their annual report.   They wanted to emphasize the contributions of their employees this year and I ended up photographing about 200 people over four days for the cover and inside gatefold. 

The front cover revealed twelve of those portraits through a die cut hole and the rest of my studio portraits were shown on the inside gatefold. 

View fullsize

We had a very ambitious schedule photographing someone every 6 minutes over the course of 4 days. The pace was challenging but I actually enjoyed being forced to get a great reaction from my subjects in such a short time.

View fullsize

We used 7 different pastel colored seamless backgrounds and coordinated those colors with whatever the subjects were wearing. My assistants and I had to work extremely fast and efficiently, changing the backdrops between each subject while customizing the lighting to work perfectly with their faces and hair.

View fullsize

Island Beach State Park with its pristine beaches made a perfect setting for a sunrise portrait. Start of day from Manhattan: 3:30 am

Inside the annual report NJR featured five of my environmental portraits. Those lifestyle photos depicted their employees enjoying life after hours. Although each background was drastically different strong backlit sunlit scenes tied together the visual theme.

View fullsize

Continuing with that sunny theme, I photographed one of NJR’s employees indulging his favorite hobby at a local racetrack.

View fullsize

The most challenging part of this photo was having to stand in the middle of a somewhat busy street with my camera and tripod. 

View fullsize

Mother and daughter at sunset. Photographing young children with their mothers is often more challenging than photographing a child by themselves. My favorite photo came moments before sunset and was one of the last shots out of hundreds.

View fullsize

A mother/daughter portrait in the woods. We had to push our publication deadline a little while waiting to shoot during peak fall colors.

Wonder Women

The AIGA recently commissioned me to shoot a group portrait of their Women Lead committee for the Design Leader Interview Series. That fit in nicely with my ongoing portrait series of noted graphic designers and it was the first group portrait that I’ve photographed for my series.

We came together for the shoot at the School of Visual Arts, just down the hall from the recording studio where I photographed Debbie Millman in her Louboutins last year. My assistants and I brought in a few hundred pounds of camera and lighting gear and spent a several hours setting up some fairly complex lighting around a painted canvas backdrop, a couple of SVA’s stools, and some well worn apple boxes. 

This lovely and talented group of women are former and current members of AIGA’s Women Lead committees. Top row, left to right: Cheryl Heller, Debbie Millman, Jada Britto, Heather Stern. Seated from left to right: Lynda Decker, Deborah Adler.

Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt, who won more games than any other Division One college coach, died today at 64. I was fortunate enough to photograph Pat for the cover of her Random House best selling book “Reach for the Summitt” in 1998. After letting our hair and makeup artist do a little touchup in the bleachers, Pat graciously agreed to ascend a huge, precarious stack of apple boxes in her high heels. To this day I know nothing about team sports but I remember well spending that time with a woman determined to give her best to everything she did.

Lucille Tenazas

Lucille Tenazas is the latest subject for my graphic designer series. She is an AIGA Medalist, designer, and educator. This portrait was commissioned by the AIGA and was taken at Lucille’s office at Parsons New School of Design in Manhattan. 

I scouted her office a few days before and was happy to see that it was filled with a plethora of beautiful artwork and books. 

Those objects hinted at Lucille’s creative accomplishments and influences but I wanted to separate her from that busy background in order to bring more attention to her face. With a little help from a sheet of handmade paper carefully placed behind her head, I was able to do just that.

Happy to see that the AIGA's new headquarters in the Woolworth building has decided to display my Medalists portraits in their reception area and will be commissioning me to shoot more of their Medalists going forward.

Photographing Muhammed Ali

Not wanting to be the last photographer in the world to reminisce about shooting “The Greatest” I’ll recount the time US Magazine assigned me to photograph Ali in 1991. The setting was his parents’ home in Louisville, KY - a tidy, nondescript house decorated with vinyl covered furniture.  With the exception of the two Rolls Royces parked in the driveway, the place blended in perfectly with their middle class neighborhood.

Ali’s parents and sister greeted my assistant and me at the door and I still remember that all three were incredibly tall people who towered over the two of us.  Ali's Parkinson’s symptoms were obvious that day but his famous spark of intelligence, pride, and humor came through when he introduced himself by saying “Hi, I’m Joe Frazier.”

He was known for the practical jokes that he liked to play on people - and we were no exception. When my assistant asked to use the bathroom Ali escorted him there, waited for him to close the door and then gleefully motioned everyone else to come near while he turned a lock on the door handle which had purposefully been installed backwards, with the lock outside the door. A couple of minutes later we were all trying hard to hold back our laughter while my assistant’s attempts to escape the bathroom grew ever more frantic. Eventually, Ali quietly unlocked the door, releasing my sheepishly grinning, red-faced assistant who couldn’t complain about being Ali’s latest victim.    

Massimo Vignelli's Exquisite Memorial

Massimo Vignelli passed away two years ago today and Anne Quito with Quartz has just published a beautiful tribute to that storied designer with a kind mention of my still popular short documentary “Massimo Vignelli”. This is a portrait from one of my sessions with Massimo. He’s standing in his design studio in front of a Lichtenstein mural and bust of Goethe.

The Man Who Designed Manhattan

Full disclosure, my photograph has been significantly altered in Photoshop by superimposing the design from the right wall onto the left wall. It may not be journalistically accurate but I do feel its a much stronger image.

View fullsize

Michael in the SVA gallery as it actually appeared that day.

Last Fall The School of Visual Arts Chelsea Gallery in New York had an exhibition of Michael Bierut's design work.

A glowing review in The New York Times T Magazine went so far as to title its article: “The Man Who Designed Manhattan” with praise for the show as well as Michael’s new book “How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World.” 

Just a few weeks before Michael’s show opened, my film editor and I were putting the finishing touches on my latest documentary, “DJ Stout: The Man Who Designed Texas”. That title was credited to “The Texas Observer” review of DJ's new book “Variations on a Rectangle”

View fullsize

My first photograph of Michael Bierut in 2010. Scroll down in my blog to see the whole story

DJ Stout: The Man Who Designed Texas

DJ Stout has had a remarkable life and a 35-year career as the award winning art director of Texas Monthly and partner at the internationally acclaimed design firm Pentagram. DJ's origins in a tiny West Texas town continue to inspire and inform his design work.

View fullsize

Sunrise shoot in Marathon, Texas. John photographing the portrait of DJ used for the film’s promotion and opening and closing sequences. (Production photos courtesy of James Evans)

When I started work on this film everyone, including DJ, asked me, “Why did you decide to do a film on DJ Stout?” DJ seemed like a natural subject for a documentary. His accomplishments as an art director and designer at Texas Monthly and Pentagram are remarkable but his personal story and his connection to the “Great State of Texas” are what make him unique. 

View fullsize

Matt Campbell, Alpine’s resident master set builder and 2nd unit producer Mike McShane go over assembly details for the pine frame used for DJ’s portrait. The ten foot high frame was designed to match the proportions of Texas Monthly, of which DJ was the art director for more than 15 years before joining Pentagram.

I was drawn to DJ’s story because I have a personal connection to Texas. Having grown up in San Antonio I chose to move to New York City after college to pursue my career in photography.  DJ took a distinctly different path and found great success inspired by his origins in the Lone Star State. I was long aware of the quality of DJ’s award winning professional work. Tim Jarvis, a close friend of mine since college, became DJ’s friend and neighbor in Austin. Over the years, Tim often regaled me with highly amusing stories about his neighbor DJ.

View fullsize

Filming the freight train from the opening sequence from the roof of James Evans’ pickup.

In March of 2015 I contacted DJ with a proposal to film this documentary in May before the heat of the Texas summer set in. He was open to the idea and pointed out the lucky coincidence that his new book, “Variations on a Rectangle” would be released that October at about the same time that I planned to premier my film. This was indeed fortunate timing although our busy schedules prevented us from the start of filming till mid-August when temperatures in Texas were a blistering 110 degrees. 

John Madere and DJ Stout location scouting for the Kokernot Field sequence in the hundred degree heat of August in West Texas.

There was no shortage of creative and talented friends of DJ who wanted to help tell his story. It was tough to keep the film down to 17 minutes. A 30 minute interview often had to be edited down to a few seconds. 

View fullsize

John behind the camera with DJ and Mike McShane just before filming of DJ’s interview at Kokernot Field.

The film was shot over the course of seven days - three days in Austin, three days in West Texas and one day in Pentagram’s New York City offices. It was then up to my ultra-talented film editor, Aaron Wolfe, to artfully distill many hours of footage down to an engaging 17-minute documentary. The film premiered on November 14th Austin at DJ’s book launch event for “Variations on a Rectangle” amidst a weekend of some great parties. Click the image below to see a few scenes from the festivities.

Debbie Millman shoot

This portrait of Debbie Millman was taken as part of my designer series in SVA’s recording studio where she produces her engaging and entertaining “Design Matters” podcast. Debbie’s interviews with design luminaries such as Michael Bierut, Massimo Vignelli, Chip Kidd, Steven Heller, Stefan Sagmeister, and Jessica Walsh keep the design world buzzing. Who knew she was so stylishly dressed behind that microphone?

This is the 15th portrait in my graphic designers series. My assistants and I met Debbie at the SVA recording studio on 21st Street in Manhattan. I had a couple compositions in mind including photographing her through the studio's window. Next step was to move inside that cramped little space, light it up, and let Debbie show off her favorite Louboutins. This frame ended up being my favorite as it seemed to embody the fun loving and playful style of her podcast.

Here are a couple links where you can learn more about Debbie Millman's work:

 http://designobserver.com/profile/debbiemillman/69

 http://debbiemillman.com

Frankfurt Airport

iPhone panoramic shot by Hillary of Christian and I before we departed Frankfurt for London with three trolleys of gear. Our ten cases of equipment and three suitcases with steel toe boots and clothing that included conditions from the tropics to Northern Canada (in February) weighed about 600lbs. It was all meticulously planned and packed to allow for a huge variety of location and studio still photography as well as video interviews and industrial B roll.

Germany: Test track in the countryside

Location scouting from a station wagon at 140mph on some very steep banked turns. Our driver was incredible and so relaxed it felt (and probably was) safer than driving in Manhattan.

All dressed up

The sun sets and our shoot ends but not before our trusty helpers and many curious onlookers posed for a group portrait with a very well dressed bull who appeared in the background of the portrait shot.