Work for Post Quarterly, The NewStatesman and guest speaking at SVA

I'll be photographing artist Keltie Ferris for Post Quarterly in the coming days.

Tomorrow I'll be traveling to Washington D.C. to photograph Dalia Mogahed (pictured above) for The NewStatesman In April 2009, Dalia Mogahed was appointed by President Obama to serve on the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In this position, Ms. Mogahed advises the President about the opinions, values, perceptions, attitudes, and desires of more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide. She's quoted as saying, "Rather than letting vocal extremists define the discourse, we should listen to the voices of ordinary people and thus let facts, not fear, shape our global engagement. Continued terrorist violence is not proof that Muslims tolerate it. Indeed, they are its primary victims" She's the first female veiled Islamist presidential appointee in American history. Read the NewStatesman interview with Dalia here.

On Tuesday, I was asked to speak at The School of Visual Arts in New York. The discussion mainly touched upon the current state of the editorial photography world, its future and how to adapt to these changes by shifting your mindset and business practices. I basically talked for an hour and a half about the importance of simply being nice and authentic to people.

Upcoming work for The Wire, D2, Post Quarterly, ARS and others

I'll be photographing artist Marina Rosenfeld (pictured above right) for The Wire Magazine. We'll be taking pictures in the New York Armory building.

In the coming days, I'll also be photographing artists Kara Walker (pictured above left) and Ghada Amer for the new Madrid based art publication, ARS.

The Norwegian publication D2 has asked me to photograph Luxor Tavella, the former stylist to people like Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards. She's had a sort of revival of late. You can watch of bit of her here. She seems like she'll be an interesting person to get to know.

I'm cofounder of a new publication called Post Quarterly. We're in the process of creating content for our first publication. There will be more information about this soon along with some other upcoming assignments and projects.

Goodbye I.D.

After 55 years, America's foremost design publication has folded. Over the past 4 years, I've done a great deal of work for I.D. Magazine and will miss the opportunity to do more. Thank you to Thomas Porostocky, Jeffrey Docherty, Maayan Pearl, Jill Singer, Monica Khemsurov and Julie Lasky for the work over the years.

Seymour Hersh for The NewStatesman

Last week, I traveled down to Washington D.C. to photograph legendary investigative journalist (sadly one of the only left), Seymour Hersh for The NewStatesman, a London based publication with a notable history as a voice of the British left wing. The shoot was quite an experience, a brief one. You can read the article (interview) here.

For Better, For Worse: Trip 4

I just returned from a week of driving around Southeastern Wyoming and Western Nebraska continuing to work on my ongoing project, For Better, For Worse. New imagery from this trip will be added here in the coming weeks. The image on the left above was taken near Guernsey, Wyoming along the North Platte River. This waterway was not only a crucial source of water for the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail, but also served as a major navigational guide on their journey west. This image was taken on the evening of a full moon and the exposure was 10 minutes long. As the exposure began, I heard coyotes howling and the sound of a nearby cow making intense guttural noises. I was in the middle of absolutely nowhere and I could physically feel it. Halfway through the exposure, I began to hear a noise. It became faster and louder, obviously headed in my direction. The noise seemed familiar, but in that setting, I couldn't place what it was. Out of nowhere and under the moonlight, a white horse emerged from the woods to drink from the river. It was that rare situation in nature where I could see it, but it hadn't yet seen me. Under the light of the moon and in that setting, It might as well have been a unicorn. I know that sounds lame, but It was remarkable. Finally, the horse heard my movement and was so startled it began to hiss and buck and started running in circles in the nearby field. I could see it faintly white circling as it made a commotion. In short order, there were many horses along side the white one. In a line, they all stared at me and I stared at them for what seemed to be a long time. My exposure was done and I packed my camera up and drove away. I love that something like this can happen as light is slowly hitting the surface of the film.

Legs

My best friend Greg and his new company Legs were featured in a publication called Shots and they asked me to take the photos. Legs is a film/video production team made up of Greg Brunkalla, Adam Joseph, Georgie Greville and Geremy Jasper. They've done some really great work recently for The New York Times, Shipley and Halmos, Diet Coke and Diesel. Learn more about them here.

D2 Magazine: Mario Batali

I was recently asked to photograph chef Mario Batali for the Norwegian publication D2. There were some pretty hefty constraints for the shoot. I was only able to photograph him in a small corner of one of his restaurants, couldn't use any lights and only had about six minutes of his time. It was a challenge and challenges are good. The image above was the select from the magazine. I'll soon post my select from the shoot.

For Better, For Worse: Trip 3

I've added two images to my current project, For Better, For Worse. These are from a trip I took to Missouri and Kansas in late June, partly to continue work on the project and partly to meet my family in Missouri, to have a long overdue memorial for my father, who passed away in 2006. He spent a great deal of his childhood visiting his grandparents and extended family in Dalton, Missouri, an extremely rural farming town with a total population of 27 people. We placed a memorial marker and I spread some of his ashes on our family plot in one of the prettiest and most serene cemeteries, nestled high above the sprawling farmland, surrounded by dense forest. The photo on the left above was taken on the morning of his memorial.

DWELL Magazine: Yum Yum Farm, Iowa

The brand new issue of Dwell has my photographs of Joanna and Geoff Mouming's Iowa farmhouse in it. They call their property, 'Yum Yum Farm.' This name is very appropriate, as Joanna is an amazing cook, creating wonderful, yet simple seasonal dishes. While there, she cooked us breakfast, lunch and dinner and it was superb. Their house was designed by Seattle based architect John DeForest.

Pantone Factory

I was asked to photograph the Pantone factory for the Norweigen magazine, D2. The shoot took place in 2008, but it's just getting around the making it on my website. More imagery will be posted soon.