Brad Trent

You Wanna Shoot Where?!!

Note: Click on any image to blow it up REAL big!

Often, getting a corporate mind to put aside the literal and think like I do isn’t always that hard…sometimes you just have to ask…..

In today’s BusinessWeek is the story on David Johnson and Conmed that I went up to Utica to shoot a couple of weeks back. It was one of those jobs where BW photo editor Sarah Morse and I talked about what might make a cool shot, but neither of us had any real idea what was possible or if there were any eye-grabbing visuals strong enough to anchor the story. Conmed manufactures medical and surgical equipment and the story was about in order to streamline production, they went from long assembly lines that cranked out warehouses of product to compact U-shaped workstations that filled orders as-needed. We knew that showing the workstations was a must, but production lines are rarely as groovy as they appear in the movies…still, after getting the tour, Bo and I slapped on our hairnets & bunnysuits and went to work on this…

Now, the workstations were OK and they got us this shot…

…and Dave loved it ‘cuz it showed off their new production facilities and how they used new ideas to solve a manufacturing problem, but for me it was more of a ‘point picture’ and I knew there was more we could do to sell the idea of individual, hand-assembled production. I suggested to Dave that we look at a couple of other locations I had briefly seen on my walk-through that didn’t involve the production facility. I convinced him that we could use one of the production teams showing the final product in a more graphic location and still convey the idea of the story. One location was a bank of ‘windows’ just off the reception area in their plant…

…and that was nice, but still a bit too sterile and corporate. The real winner was down a hallway that linked two parts of the building…an circular elevator bank that was covered is shimmering white tiles surrounded by acid-green walls!

And here is the final spread…..

The combination of the sterile white tiles and scorching green walls just screams medical and the nice balance of the workers blue smocks and Dave’s blue shirt made for a perfect image.

And as usual, to finish things off, I gotta get into the fun!

Song of the Day

PETE DOHERTY
New Love Grows On Trees

DOWNLOAD: New Love Grows On Trees

If you had told me I would ever drop a Pete Doherty song on The List, I probably would have slapped you just on principal…I mean, the guy has turned himself into a tabloid joke and trashed what was not only a great music career but a lucrative and marketable music commodity by not knowing when to put down the damned crack pipe. That said, the junkie can still crank out a damned nice song when he puts his mind to it! He locked himself in the studio with legendary producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, Kaiser Chiefs, The Cranberries) and the result is Grace / Wastelands , due out March 24th. And damn…wouldn’t ya know it…Pete’s got a MySpace page where you can stream a few more cuts off of the album!

Song of the Day

MEN WITHOUT PANTS
My Balloon

DOWNLOAD: My Balloon

I gotta say, I’m pretty surprised with today’s song, ‘cuz when I first told you guys about Men Without Pants last July, they were weeks away from releasing their first album, but being the uber-perfectionists they are, Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Mercury Rev) and Russell Simins (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) trashed the early recordings and started over! And the song that leaked out today is so far on the musical spectrum from that earlier Song of the Day that I hafta wonder how all over the place the rest of the album will be! You need help remembering what I’m talkin’ about? OK…here’s ‘Double Life’, the song I leaked back in July…..

DOWNLOAD: Double Life

Now back then I said ‘Double Life’ was a gritty, dirty, ass-kickin’ bit of straight-up Rock & Roll that “hits you like a mash-up of White Zombie, QOTSA and Stone Temple Pilots”…but ‘My Balloon’, with the gals from Cibo Matto handling the vocals, is all sweet and frilly and full of sweeping strings & pianos and…pretty!!! How in God’s name are these two songs gonna live in harmony on the same album?!! I dunno either, but Naturally drops April 7th (they promise!) and you can stream a few more cuts (with other guest vocalists like Sean Lennon, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Pelle from The Hives) over on their MySpace page in the meantime.

Song of the Day

PETE YORN
Don’t Wanna Cry
[AUDIO https://damnuglyphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/01-dont-wanna-cry.mp3%5D
DOWNLOAD: Don’t Wanna Cry

I still get chills whenever I crank up his debut, musicforthemorningafter, so the news today that Pete Yorn is getting ready to drop his new album, Back And Fourth, has me all goose-bumpy. After that album hit, Yorn was hailed by the critics as the best thing to come out of South Jersey since Bruce Springsteen. To that, I say those critics obviously forgot about the pride of Red Bank, Kevin Smith….but that kinda comparison has gotta weigh on anybody and while his more recent releases have all been solid, getting heard in today’s music scene is tough enough without everybody thinking you’re the Boss’s replacement! His last album, Nightcrawler, basically went unnoticed, so he crawled back into the studio with mega-producer Rick Rubin. And if you think you’re hearing a a bit of early Rod Stewart in the mix, it wasn’t by accident…I’ve always thought his voice paid tribute to Rod, but he has he actually said he wondered what Stewart would sound like singing this song. The new disc is due on June 23rd, but you can head on over to MySpace to stream a few more cuts.

The Ones That Got Away…..

I hafta remain pragmatic about what I do and who I do it for, because while I strive to always photograph my subjects in the most artistic and intelligent ways, I know that often what is best is not necessarily what is right for the job at hand. It’s hardly news that photographers constantly bitch & moan about how their images rarely get shown properly, but the simple fact is that most guys like me (if they’re doin’ their job right) come away with so many great situations on a typical shoot that it’s inevitable that something has to end up on the cutting room floor…well, if there was a cutting room floor any more! And it’ll still tear me up inside, but I understand that due to the restrictions of space and editorial integrity, what sees ink more often than not is not what I would print if I lived in a totally ‘Brad World’. Oh sure…perhaps I should be sticking up for artistic integrity and all that, and if I lived in another time, I might even pitch a fit and go to war over how I feel my photographs deserve to run…Hell, back in the day, Eugene Smith repeatedly quit Life Magazine whenever they would even as much as crop one of his photographs, but last time I checked this wasn’t exactly the Golden Age of Photojournalism…..and even he came back to the fold once he calmed down!

I was thinkin’ of this because of two recent stories I did for Barron’s…the first was the story I did on Stephanie Pomboy…allow me to show you what ran…..

(full-size image here…Stephanie Pomboy)

…and then there is the one that got left behind…

(full-size image here…Stephanie Pomboy…bigger)

Hey…I get it! I absolutely understand how Barron’s might wanna run a photo where she looks ‘pretty’ instead of ‘edgy’, or how the final choice about what is ‘in’ and what is ‘out’ may be decided by seemingly arcane parameters…..but I still hafta hold my fire sometimes. It came up again this week with another Barron’s shoot, this time with the CEO of Bristol-Meyers/Squibb…

What Barron’s ran…

(go here for the full-size image: Barron’s – James Cornelius)

…and my pulled-back select…..

(full-size image: Mr. Trent’s Pick)

Again…I get it…really I do! My select is crying out for a full-page treatment and even though my choice may better fit the dark, somber theme of the story, I know it’s a hard sell to show an image as pulled-back and airy as this when you’ve only got a quarter-page of real estate to plant the photo in…but it still hurts like Hell, and even after all this time, I still complain and fight for more! And even though both of these shoots were for Barron’s, I’m not piling on them…in fact, of all of my clients, they usually are with me 100% when I suggest a select…it just happened that my two most recent examples of this kinda thing fall on them…..but when you get right down to it, my portfolio is littered with photographs that have never been published. I’ve actually shown my book to editors who have assigned the images in the book who ask me who I shot them for! That’s when you really feel the knife twisting between your ribs…when six months after the fact, the guy who didn’t use a shot tells you it’s way better than what actually ran…

And I’ll just keep smilin’…’cuz no matter what…..we still had fun, right?!!

Song of the Day

EAST HUNDRED
Slow Burning Crimes

DOWNLOAD: Slow Burning Crimes

This is one of those indie band stories that kinda shows the length some bands will go to get heard ‘cuz they so believe in their music. East Hundred originally got together back in 2004 in the basement of brothers Brooke and Will Blair who thought they’d start a synth-heavy electro-dance band. After realizing that genre may not be their cup of tea, they invited Brooke’s girlfriend, Beril Guceri, to jump in on vocals. They played around as a trio for a while, releasing a few rough EPs, then in 2007 added childhood friends David Sunderland on bass and Susan Gager on keyboards and began in earnest writing original songs. But of course…you knew it had to happen…Brooke and Beril broke up, which added mucho tension to the mix, but also gave them a whole new path to go down with their songwriting. All that angst and heartache has finally produced their debut album (after five years!) Passenger, dripping with songs of failed love, friendships, anxiety and awkwardness. You should really head over to MySpace and give ’em a look!

Song of the Day

THE XX
Stars

DOWNLOAD: Stars

People ask me all the time where I…

A.) find the time…
and
2.) find the music, for the Song of the Day!

I’ve said it a million times, finding good music ain’t that hard…and honestly, it’s not like I spend major time doin’ it, either! I obviously scan MySpace Music, but I also keep my eyes and ears on a lotta indie record label sites and music blogs…they’re both great sources for incredible music that will probably never be performed by Rihanna, Kanye or Mariah Carey. Just this morning I fell over a post on the Young Turks Records blog announcing this band of four 19-year-olds from South London they just signed & recorded (in a studio the size of my bathroom!) called The XX. The wistful, dreamy, bedroom slo-jam has me swaying in my chair this morning…you can check ’em out further on their MySpace page and if you follow that link to Young Turks you can download another track!

Song of the Day

YOUNG GALAXY
Long Live The Fallen World

PLAY: Long Live The Fallen World

I can’t put my finger on it…and even though I really, really like it…there’s something deeply disturbing about this song. Maybe it’s the way lead singer Catherine McCandless’ trance-like voice sort of begs and pleads the lyric…it’s like she’s transmitting a feeling of doom through the words. And the way the distorted, watery guitars and fuzzed-up keyboards fight to get heard past the thick production just adds to the sense of hurt and pain. I can’t quite imagine what these guys are like live…you can find out if you wanna hit Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg tomorrow, ‘cuz they’re opening for The XYZ Affair and Pete & J…but I figure a few anti-depressants and a beer might help to take the edge off! It’s depressing and dark and sad…and I love it! Their new album, Invisible Republic, doesn’t have a release date quite yet, but you can check ’em out over at MySpace

Song of the Day

DESERT NOISES
New Man

Play: New Man

Provo, Utah is the home to three kids calling themselves Desert Noises and they just dropped their first EP…recorded in all of four days…and I gotta say, after listening to the first couple of cuts I’m pretty impressed! OK…maybe it’s a teeny bit derivative of Band of Horses, or maybe it’s just how lead singer Kyle Henderson’s voice hits the higher register the same way BofH’s Ben Bridwell does…I dunno, but the combination of his vocals and some pretty tight production (check out the open & clear guitar and bass!) makes for a quite appealing listening experience. You can check ’em out over on MySpace

…..Wow!!!

OK…so my new site has been live since February 24th…nine days…and I just discovered how to use the feature that allows me to pull web stats in order to see the traffic that visits the site…..

1728 ‘unique’ visitors…2798 visits…45,608 page views for a total of 48,997 ‘hits’…!!!

Besides here in the States, I’m gettin’ hits from Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Austria and Poland…Poland?!!

All in nine days?!!

Wow!!!

So tell your friends…write your congressman…pass the address along to an art director you know (!)…but let’s keep the hits a comin’…!!!

Brad Trent Dot Com

Song of the Day

ART BRUT
Just Desserts

Play: Just Desserts

It’s Punk Rock Tuesday here on The List and just in time too, ‘cuz I haven’t kicked out the Jams in a long, long time, but to remedy that, Art Brut just leaked a song that will not be on their next album! The Frank Black-produced album, Art Brut Vs. Satan, drops April 20th, but I guess they’ve got so much good stuff to choose from that ‘Just Desserts’ is getting used as a teaser to make you wanna buy the album. Snarly Cockney vocals, grinding guitars and lotsa dessert jokes…yup, that spells PUNK to me!!! I mean honestly…when was the last time you heard the word “patisserie” dropped into a punk song?!! Now that’s inspired songwriting! Check ’em out at MySpace

Bring In The Clouds!

I have always said “Life is good if you love what you do…” and even after all these years (and the occasional bitching and moaning I have been known to do every once and while when things don’t go exactly the way I want) I can still say that I do love what I do. I recently shot a job that could have turned out a lot different if I had simply stuck with the cards that were dealt to me, but instead I pushed a bit and turned a crappy situation into a pretty cool shot.

BusinessWeek SmallBiz hired me to shoot the founders of First Global Shipping…a kind of international messenger service that operates like FedEx, but uses commercial airlines to move their packages. FGX lives up to what SmallBiz is all about…it’s a very small business! When I checked the place out on a scout, I found that they operate their entire operation out of a small, unadorned loft in Chelsea. Nothing glitzy, fancy or even remotely interesting in terms of a photographic setting…so I had to come up with something a bit more showy. I convinced Kathy Moore, my photo editor, that I could pull off a bit of fun, but she would hafta open up the purse…I needed a backdrop and a bunch of airplanes!

When we returned, the only space big enough for our purposes was their ‘light-ops’ area…this is where they log in shipments before they get sent to the local airports for transport. This more or less meant we would be shutting them down for as long as we were setting up and shooting. And of top of everything else, we basically had to push everything in the entire area out of the way and up against the walls in order to make the space usable.

With the background in place, we then had to suspend the toy airplanes…..I hafta admit…this part of the exercise was not thought out as well as it could have been, but I always carry way more stuff than I need and we managed to rig everything…eventually!

Bo & Kaz as stand-ins….notice how Bo never looks at the lens when I fire up the ring light!

The two founders of FGX, James Dowd and Justin Brown, were really into the whole idea…..small business guys are like that…they don’t have a team of p/r guys overthinking every little thing that may or may not happen based on what they do in the public eye. I can guarantee the Chairman of FedEx wouldn’t pose with toy airplanes! But FGX ain’t that kinda company yet. In fact, their communication manager, Chevon Drew, was Twittering the entire time we were shooting and later put the whole thing up on the FGX Blog!

James & Justin lovin’ the business!

The story came out this month in SmallBiz…..you can check it out…HERE!

And this is how it all came together in the end…..

To see the BIG version of the final image, click HERE!

Long day…fun shoot…and I still get off on how I make a buck!

Song of the Day

ASOBI SEKSU
Me & Mary

Me & Mary

It’s been a while since I’ve found any shoegazey stuff that popped my cork, but when I heard Asobi Seksu had just released a new album, I was all over it. The Brooklyn-based duo (sometimes quartet), fronted by Yuki Chikudate, has followed up their previous album, Citrus, with another collection of electronic fuzz & shimmery vocals, reminiscent of The Cocteau Twins, with a bit of amped-up Blonde Redhead and My Bloody Valentine tossed in for good measure. The new songs have a familiar feel to them, but they’re bigger…more complex…than the bands previous work. I love this stuff! Check out Asobi Seksu on their MySpace page.

Song of the Day

I’m heading out on a roadtrip for a few days, but before I go I figured I would give you guys a few of my favorite ‘go-to’ songs that I’ve dropped on The List in the distant past. No real rhyme or reason to how these got picked, they just kinda always end up near the top of my iTunes folder….

JETS OVERHEAD
Shadow Knows

DOWNLOAD: Shadow Knows

THE GLANDS
Sunshine Happiness

DOWNLOAD: Sunshine Happiness

FOLKSONGS FOR THE AFTERLIFE
Did I Let You Down

DOWNLOAD: Did I Let You Down

KATE MILLER-HEIDKE
Space They Cannot Touch

DOWNLOAD: Space They Cannot Touch

THE MENDOZA LINE
It’s A Long Line

DOWNLOAD: It’s A Long Line

Song of the Day

FAUNTS
Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.

DOWNLOAD: Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.

It’s been barely two weeks since I dropped a leak from the new Faunts album on The List, but now that Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. has come out, I really need to push my electro-homeboys from Edmonton a little harder by offering up the title track. I said then that these guys had me thinking of the first Depeche Mode album, Speak & Spell, with the frenetic synthesizers and Tim Batke’s spare, minimalistic vocal, and maybe it’s because they sound a lot like the 80’s electro-pop bands I grew up listening to, but I can’t stop playing this album. I’m sure some of you run in the opposite direction when anything resembling electronica crosses your path, but trust me…this is uncontrived, melodic and well crafted pop that deserves a look. Check out Faunts at MySpace

Damn Ugly Photography • Version 2.0

The new incarnation of my website…IS ALIVE!!!!!

Website - OutKast

After six long months of design…endless procrastination…late-night changes…sweaty palms…and still more design…..

http://www.bradtrent.com

…is now completed, online and ready for your enjoyment.

So please…check it out and let me know what you think!

Song of the Day

LADYTRON
Tomorrow (Great Northern Remix)

DOWNLOAD:Tomorrow (Great Northern Remix)

Just as they kick off their North American tour, Ladytron is releasing a 7-track EP of remixed versions of ‘Tomorrow’ off of last years album, Velocifero. It features some pretty diverse mixmasters doin’ the knob-twiddling…Jim Abbiss, Dirty Vegas, The Vector Lovers…and this one by Los Angelenos, Great Northern. They’ll be on the road April & May (including two nights here in NYC at Webster Hall) and for more info, head over to their MySpace page.

Song of the Day

ANYA MARINA
Move You

DOWNLOAD:Move You

BONUS TRACK:
[AUDIO https://damnuglyphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/lindsay-goes-to-rehab.mp3%5D
DOWNLOAD:Lindsay Goes To Rehab

A perfectly crafted pop song doesn’t need any help convincing you it’s good…it just is…and I got that feeling late last night when I couldn’t sleep, turned on Kimmel and saw Anya Marina perform this song…I just felt it…tight production, catchy pop beats and a sexy vocal purred by a girl who, not for nuthin’, is also pretty damned cute. The Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter first popped up on my radar a couple of years back when she web-released a cobbled-together acoustic number titled ‘Lindsay Goes To Rehab’ (a cry for Ms. Lohan to maybe look into getting some help for her ‘addictive’ personality)…and then again when her song, ‘Miss Halfway’, scored a spot on one of the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ compilation CD’s, a sure sign you’re going places in the Indie Music World…and I was struck by her delicate, jazzy vocals so when I heard her again last night I knew I had to search out ‘Move You’. It’s off of her second album, Slow & Steady Seduction, Phase II…and you can stream more from the album on her MySpace Page

Song of the Day

PROJECT JENNY, PROJECT JAN
Pins & Needles (featuring Fujiya & Miyagi)

DOWNLOAD: Pins & Needles (featuring Fujiya & Miyagi)

I don’t drop nearly as much electronica on The List as I have in the past, but when I heard that Project Jenny, Project Jan are set to drop a new EP (that features a whole mess of other electro-artists, including Adam Matta, Mixel Pixel, One Watt Sun and the amazing knob-twiddlers from Brighton featured on this song, Fujiya & Miyagi), I had to search it out. With it’s fast-paced, jumpy percussion and scatter-shot lyric, this song should fit nicely onto your aerobic workout playlist. The Colors EP is out April 14th, but you can check out the Brooklyn boys right now over on MySpace

Song of the Day

THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR
The Sun Ain’t Shining No More

DOWNLOAD: The Sun Ain’t Shining No More

OK…I would have bet the ranch that when I sent out ‘Around The Bend’ as a SOTD back in October, that would have been the last we would hear from The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. I mean, come on…..as much fun as it was, wasn’t this one of those songs that got tagged to be some background muzak in an iPod commercial and would likely be forgotten five minutes later?!! I even half-joked that they were sure to be ‘the next best thing…”…..

I apologize!

On ‘The Sun Ain’t Shining No More’, the first leak off of their debut album, Mette Lindberg’s slinky, retro-60’s R&B vocal, the lo-fi instrumental arrangements, the decidedly scratchy recording technique and just the perfect amount of oversampling have made me a convert and as I sit here swaying back in forth at my desk, the cool vibe of the song and her cocksure delivery has me picturing an Uma Thurman-esque, Tarantino Superwoman, full-on ready to kick your ass if you don’t see things her way! I truly love all of the 60’s-inspired music comin’ outta Europe lately…and this girl’s got a lotta soul! Their album, Fruit, is set to drop in May, but until then you can head on over to their MySpace page and stream a few more songs.