I met Jesse while working on the St Jude carnival posters while at Target. We became good friends and I drove down to Chicago to see one of his shows... We shot this before the opening.
Showing posts with label my photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my photography. Show all posts
I met Jesse while working on the St Jude carnival posters while at Target. We became good friends and I drove down to Chicago to see one of his shows... We shot this before the opening.
Working with my copywriter, Steve Chirhart, we came up with the idea to feature storytellers. We also wanted to extend Dream in Color into a holistic diversity program encompassing Black History Month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and Hispanic Heritage Month.
For Black History Month our idea was to showcase slam poets. Then we found we had a connection to Maya Angelou.
Since she's one of the greatest storytellers we jumped on the chance to work with her and tweaked the concept a bit.
The campaign included photography for print and promotions as well as video for broadcast. We also had Dr. Angelou write out a poem that we reprinted as a gift for VIP friends of Target.
The photo shoot was amazing. It took place in her house. Our photographer was Kwaku Alston. His name came to mind because he was a college friend of a friend of mine in Chicago. I always kept his name in mind in case I had a project that was right for him.
The night before the shoot we took a look at location shots of Dr. Angelou's house. One of those shots was of her piano...on that piano was a photo that Kwaku took of Dr. Angelou a few years back for an Oprah Legends photo shoot.
When we arrived at Dr. Angelou's house her niece invited us in. We set up while Dr. Angelou got ready. When she came out I was surprised, she is a tall woman. For some reason I was expecting someone shorter.
In the first 5 minutes of chatting with her I was blown away...everything she says is poetry. During the actual shoot she was a riot...she even told me she like my hair (a guess you'd call it a messy faux-hawk.)
After the shoot we ate with her and got to chat more. She recounted stories of her life. I had read some years ago but I had forgotten. To hear them from her was amazing.
The black and white image above is one of my most cherished photos. To capture her in a great moment being photographed by an amazing photographer was so cool for me.
The printed piece is a spread from a booklet that was in Esquire magazine and in a educational piece mailed to schools. Little & Company helped with the layout for that piece.
my involvement: creative direction, photo direction, art direction and design (at Target)
the team: Agency – Little and Co., Photographer – Kwaku Alston
If my last post was old this one is vintage...probably 1993.
As soon as I discovered 3200 speed I fell in love with the grain and the ability to get shots at low light...but I wasn't always content with 3200...I often pushed to 12800.
I was in college when I took these shot and my friends had no jobs...so shooting at night was easy. Some of us went to the Cleveland Botanical Garden and we did a photo shoot. The only light around was the moon and one garden light.
I often show the mirror shot with the others although it's from another shoot...same model and same mood. This was shot on a trip to Jamaica and it was impromptu...this is why it's good to always have a camera handy.
As soon as I discovered 3200 speed I fell in love with the grain and the ability to get shots at low light...but I wasn't always content with 3200...I often pushed to 12800.
I was in college when I took these shot and my friends had no jobs...so shooting at night was easy. Some of us went to the Cleveland Botanical Garden and we did a photo shoot. The only light around was the moon and one garden light.
I often show the mirror shot with the others although it's from another shoot...same model and same mood. This was shot on a trip to Jamaica and it was impromptu...this is why it's good to always have a camera handy.
This collection is quite old. I'm guessing from 1998. I had the opportunity to shoot a fashion show by the Chicago store Phoebe 45 for a free paper called New City.
When I got to the venue I looked at how many photographers were there...a lot...and we all had basically the same cameras and film. I didn't want to do the same shots as everyone else so I took a second to think.
I still had an hour before the show so I hopped in my car, ran home and grabbed my crappy Minolta x-700 (a camera I still love to this day) and a bunch of 3200 speed film.
Headed back to the show and photographed it. That would never happen now...people all shoot the same cameras, it's all digital so you can mess with a lot, however given the choice I'd dial the ISO up if I found myself in this sort of situation again...I feel it's so much cooler than color with flash.
The photos were well received and many were bought by Phoebe 45 for their store merchandising.
When I got to the venue I looked at how many photographers were there...a lot...and we all had basically the same cameras and film. I didn't want to do the same shots as everyone else so I took a second to think.
I still had an hour before the show so I hopped in my car, ran home and grabbed my crappy Minolta x-700 (a camera I still love to this day) and a bunch of 3200 speed film.
Headed back to the show and photographed it. That would never happen now...people all shoot the same cameras, it's all digital so you can mess with a lot, however given the choice I'd dial the ISO up if I found myself in this sort of situation again...I feel it's so much cooler than color with flash.
The photos were well received and many were bought by Phoebe 45 for their store merchandising.
The previous post included work from the 2008 diversity campaign worked on while at Target.
Here are some of the photos I took while on set for the still shots.
Here are some of the photos I took while on set for the still shots.
Debbie Allen
Debbie Allen
Holly Robinson-Peete and family, Kwaku Alston and crew
John Legend
John Legend, Kwaku Alston and crew
In honor of Shaun winning gold in the Olympics and having an amazing victory lap I thought I'd upload a portrait I shot on the top of the Roosevelt Hotel at the 2007 Summer X Games.
I'll post more shots from the shoot sometime during Summer X this year.
I'll post more shots from the shoot sometime during Summer X this year.
In 2007 when I was working at Target I had the fortune to go to the Winter X-games to grab some behind the scenes shots of the Target Chalet. A few of the action sports athletes that Target sponsors stayed at the chalet while others just came to crash, hang out or rock out at night.
I started my career as a photographer but I got that start in the late 80's when I attended Woodward Camp. I was there for biking and loved it, but on the first day of the second week I re-injured my separated shoulder...no more riding that second week...so I took the photo class they offered.
While at these X Games I got to meet Gary Ream the head of Woodward. I let him know that without his camp I wouldn't have gotten into my career even though it moved from photography to creative direction. It was a great moment as we reminisced about the camp then and he told me how it had grown.
Another great part was that I got to hang out with Mat Hoffman. He's one of the biggest riders in BMX freestyle and I was a fan of him in the mid 80's when I was riding. It was awesome hanging out with him. Later that year I got to go to his house for a quick shoot.
I also got to head to the Summer X Games that year for some formal portraits of Shaun White...but you're going to have to wait until this summer to check them out.
I started my career as a photographer but I got that start in the late 80's when I attended Woodward Camp. I was there for biking and loved it, but on the first day of the second week I re-injured my separated shoulder...no more riding that second week...so I took the photo class they offered.
While at these X Games I got to meet Gary Ream the head of Woodward. I let him know that without his camp I wouldn't have gotten into my career even though it moved from photography to creative direction. It was a great moment as we reminisced about the camp then and he told me how it had grown.
Another great part was that I got to hang out with Mat Hoffman. He's one of the biggest riders in BMX freestyle and I was a fan of him in the mid 80's when I was riding. It was awesome hanging out with him. Later that year I got to go to his house for a quick shoot.
Mat Hoffman
Shaun White
Polaroids from the weekend
Not sure who this is but I love the color and reflection in the her goggles
I also got to head to the Summer X Games that year for some formal portraits of Shaun White...but you're going to have to wait until this summer to check them out.
