Behind The Scenes

Four Rugby Fans Walk Into A Bar… Finish the joke and I’ll buy you a drink. Place your joke in the comment box. Don’t forget to leave your email address.

Client: Bombay Gin

art director – glen snowden
copywriter – roseanne azarian

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This Summer from July 5- 11, I’ll be teaching a master workshop course at the CT Photo Workshops being held at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, CT. For more information please view the links below.

http://tunxis.commnet.edu/ctphoto/index/courses/id,Behind-the-Scenes-the-Making-of-a-Portrait/

http://tunxis.commnet.edu/ctphoto/index/masters/id,Frank-Marchese

It’s fun to throw in a little humor and get you thinking about that next meal of yours the next time you’re out at a restaurant. Along with a friend, I started the Naked Motel t-shirt line. See: Naked Motel. Now we get to play client. No rules – just shoot and have a blast. One never really knows what goes on back there in the kitchen, but Gina makes a strong case that sweating over chopped peppers can look pretty inviting. Sorry art directors. Wish you were there.

I could tell the moment they walked into the studio that these sisters had a special bond for each other. Their body language showed it. Their voices spoke it. Their playfulness confirmed it. All I had to do was get it on film. I felt confident that it would become a certainty once I realized that all the shots of them had to show them being as physically close to each other as possible.

As they laughed heartedly of childhood memories, their bodies never ceased in finding that comfortable familiar space they once shared as kids. They found it again for it seemed it had never had left them. And so in their relaxed state, the quietness of this portrait is stronger for it too.

Who wants to see another beach shot of a model with an horizon line of water and sky? Doesn’t stock photography have this market cornered? In America we might have piers and boardwalks and amusement rides sharing our beaches, but here in this scenic resort town in the region of Liguria, they have graphic posters. Something different, yes. Yet more importantly, this unique background reveals a sense of place.

On this day as topless girls basked in the sun just off camera, we just happened to draw a crowd of young Italian boys eager to be as close as possible to the lovely modela. After all this young Gina Lollobrigida type is beautiful and also very American. Just one of the many reasons making her attractive to them. She did a great job holding it together for me while the boys did everything possible to find a way onto film, which I happily encouraged in my limited Italian. You never know what you’ll get in a set-up like this, yet that is the beauty of a lifestyle shoot where you let things play themselves out. And in this case, letting the boys have their fun was not lost on my model.

So why this image? It comes down to her playfulness. She makes it feel real to me.

My inspiration of this sepia toned photo of Rasta Man comes from a photographer by the name of Edward S. Curtis who captured the strength of the North American Indian around the early part of the 20th century. His beautiful photogravure formal portraits always seemed to showcase strong faced men wearing their custom dress along with decorative head wear. Regardless if his subjects were starring back to the camera or in profile, this historic body of work of the American Indian will move you. If you are not aware of Edward S. Curtis, I urge you to see for yourself what some scholars view as an historic documentation of a vanishing race.