Photography

Help Nick Get To Afghanistan

My ex-assistant and good friend Nick Cardillicchio will soon be heading off to Afghanistan to shoot a portrait essay on the men and women in the Marines who are deployed in that country. He came up with the idea to coincide with ten-year anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks and pitched it to the US Marine Corp, but he hadn’t expected them to get back to him so quickly…and now he’s faced with having to fund the entire project himself or lose his opportunity. He has set up an IndieGoGo campaign funding account where anyone can donate any amount to help him reach his goal. Besides his photography and travel expenses, the USMC requires that he purchase his own safety equipment including bullet proof vest, helmet, flak jacket and eye and ear protection. Kevlar underpants are expensive folks….so please head on over to United States Marines At Work and see if you can show Nick some love?!! I know he would appreciate anything you could toss his way.

So Mikhail Baryshnikov Says To Me…

Click on Any Image for Full-Size
______________________________


______________________________

That’s right…Baryshinkov! I can’t help but love my job, but when I get to meet some of the people I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with, even I hafta to step back from time to time and ask myself…really?!!

I’ve done a few gigs lately for the London Sunday Times, so when photo editor Sean McKillop called and asked if I wanted to shoot Mikhail Baryshnikov and his wife Lisa Rinehart up at their country house for the weekend ‘Home’ magazine, I didn’t skip a beat before saying yes. The couple was selling the centuries-old converted barn they’ve lived in since 1981 and I was there to not only get a few portraits of them, but also as many views of the house as possible. The only problem…Misha’s schedule was extremely limited and I would have no more than half an hour with the two of them. Of course, the Times wanted ‘four or five’ portrait situations, never mind that on the day we were to shoot it was about 38 degrees and pouring rain!

After a whirlwind tour of the house, we started by lighting what would be the cover image of the two of them at the front door to the house…

…..then very quickly set up two additional portraits in the sunroom (bathed in clouds)…

…and in front of a fireplace in the original part of the house…

With his part of the performance over, Misha bid us good day and I then got off a photo of Lisa relaxing with one of the many cats that share the house with them…

With the portraits out of the way, we then went about shooting as many detail shots as possible…

Thanks to Sean for the gig and thank you Misha & Lisa for allowing me the opportunity to spend a bit of time with you…

Azim Premji in the Time 100

My portrait of Azim Premji…the Bangalore-based gazzilionaire who owns Wipro, the third-largest Indian IT company…was featured this week in ‘The Time 100’, the magazine’s annual list of the most influential people in the world. And if that wasn’t cool enough, the story was written by none other than Bill Gates.

I’m havin’ kind of a good week!

premji_vishnu

OK…Since Nobody Else Is Asking…

I find it awfully strange that the photo community…not usually known for keeping their innermost thoughts to themselves…is so tight-lipped about the recent job-swap at New York Magazine…Jennifer Miller is out and Jody Quon is back as Director of Photography. About a month ago I noticed Miller’s name was not up at the top of the masthead…then the editorial masthead disappeared completely in the past few weeks…and now the current issue has Jody Quon, fresh from her recent gig as Creative Director at W Magazine, listed once again as Photography Director.

And the Photo World hasn’t noticed…..?!!