Category
Portraits
-
08.17.10Bilaal Rajan for Toronto Life MagazineLast month, I photographed wonder kid Bilaal Rajan for Toronto Life magazine. Bilaal began fund-raising when he was four years old. He now goes shoeless for a week or so every year to raise awareness of people living in poverty. Here's how the portrait was laid-out in the magazine: I love seeing my portraits used in such a strong, graphic layout. Makes me fall in love with mag's all over again. Bilaal's incredible story can be seen in this month's Toronto Life magazine, which is on newsstands now.
-
06.04.10Teriano Lesancha, Massai Student for World Vision.Back in March, I had the pleasure of photographing Teriano Lesancha, a Massai student from Kenya, for World Vision's new magazine Child View. As a independent, semi-nomadic people, the Massai have never embraced religion or education, let alone world travel, so it was a very special treat to meet Teriano. My friend Michelle, who helped with Hair & Make-up, and I asked her an endless stream of questions (paraphrased below), which she was very kind to answer: Us: How old are you? Teriano: I don't know. Maybe 25. The Massai don't really keep track of their age. My father claims to be ...
-
06.02.10Portrait of John Jones for Esquire Magazine.Back in April, I got a call from Michael Norseng, Photo Director at Esquire, asking if I'd be interested in shooting a piece for their upcoming "How to Be a Man" issue, profiling a grief counselor nicknamed Dr. Death. Where do I sign-up? An interesting turn to this assignment was that the writer of the piece is the son of Dr. Death (whose name is John Jones). I never really get to shoot with or collaborate with writers, so I was pretty excited to work with both son/writer, father/subject. I was equally excited when I found out that the writer was Chris ...
-
05.27.10Hockeyland for The Walrus MagazineIdeally, this image for the Walrus magazine feature by David MacFarlane would have been shot on location. The article is about the writer attending hockey games in America’s sunbelt, and realizes the consequences of the NHL’s expansion south. I would like to have attended the games with the writer, or at least retrace some of his steps, stalking the sunbelt for his array of visual metaphors and observations (the piece is so well written and honest to the core). But, the production time line was tight, and the budget wouldn't allow for such a trip. So the Walrus creative team and I ...
-
05.20.10Roots of Empathy for Time MagazineI had the pleasure of shooting for Time Magazine a few weeks back, documenting a ground breaking program called Roots of Empathy, which is based here in Canada. From their website, Roots of Empathy is: "an evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression among schoolchildren by raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy." It's an incredible program that utilizes a neighborhood infant and their parent, who visit a classroom every three weeks over a school year with the aid of a Roots of Empathy Instructor. The infant is in fact the "teacher", and helps children ...
-
03.12.10Fortune Magazine shoot[caption id="attachment_1181" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="How awesome is that content little cat in the lower right?"][/caption] Tucked into the rural countryside of Ontario's Prince Edward County is Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, an award winning artisinal dairy mixed into several up and coming wineries. Lauren Winfield, Associate Photo Editor at Fortune Magazine, asked if I'd be interested in profiling their CEO, Petra Cooper, for their front of the book section featuring 'Second Acts'. The section features CEO's who have switched careers in a big way (Petra used to be President of McGraw-Hill Ryerson Higher Education). We started at her HQ and cheese caves, profiling ...
-
03.01.10Big Hair & Big GuitarsBack in October, the fine folks behind Supercreative, a contest that grants photographers with a hard working collective of capture, prop, location, and production specialists, awarded me one of their production extravaganzas. My winning creative pitch was based on recreating a night with a lousy 80's rock band, which stemmed from my high school days in rural Ontario. Yes I was in a band in high school, and no, I never wore a cut-off mesh tank top. We booked ourselves into the legendary 80's rock club 'The Big Bop', which served as our principal location for the day, and we utilized ...
-
02.26.10Happy Holidays…now fight!Back in October, I got a call from my friends Geoff Teehan & Jon Lax, Creative Partners of the energetic Toronto agency teehan+lax, asking if I'd be interested in shooting their Holiday card again. Absolutely. Last year we had a lot of fun shooting this little gem: As for 2009, they were hoping to raise the bar. So I got thinking over the top, and what immediately came to mind, for some reason, were Karate Dojo's. Have you seen the size and quantity of Karate trophies at your local Karate Dojo? Biggest trophies, ever. So I thought about putting Geoff & Jon in a ...
-
02.04.10Hey, nice crop…It's not often that I crop my work. I like to shoot full frame, and utilize everything that the lens has to offer. I think I could trace this back to some of the printing snobbery I'd run across at my local printers, back when I was starting out. A lot of the big gun shooters would include the rebates in their prints, and editors really ate it up. It was around that time that I really fell for those two little teeth marks in my Hasselblad contact sheets & film, and started noticing full frame appreciation in magazines like ...
-
10.05.09Drawn to Develop ’09 & SLIDELUCK POTSHOW Montréal[caption id="attachment_744" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption=" "Here are two friends, next to a clock so they can tell time. I have to tell the time before I go to school. I want to work in an office, any kind. You can see there is water and cups and a toilet in the inside." - 14 year old Martha Bakura who lives in Sierra Leone"][/caption] I'm very happy to announce that I'll be participating in this years Drawn to Develop in Toronto. This year promises to be a fun night, with a lot of great entertainment, ...
