I was contacted recently by Jacob Covey and Gary Groth from Fantagraphics to photograph cartoonist Gahan Wilson for the back cover of his new book collection, Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons. The collection will feature three books uniquely presented in a slipcase with a plexiglass back cover. The concept was to shoot Gahan with his face pressed up against a big sheet of plexi and using that image on the back cover of the book that faces out of the plexiglass, so it will appear that he is trapped in package and pushing through. See below for an outtake-
Gahan is of course a perfect subject for my GRAPHIC NYC project, so I will be utilizing the photos for that as well. Christopher Irving will be interviewing him next week and we'll post the complete profile soon.
For the year and a half I've posted on this blog, I've pretty much kept things professional, rarely posting items of a personal nature. Today though, I am compelled to share with the world my joy about being a new father. Not to worry, this will not become a blog of baby photos exclusively, but when I do post images of my son, Jackson, they will be ones which I consider to have photographic merit - you'll find no snapshots here.
My wife, Terra laboring at home, before rushing off to the hospital
Terra at the hospital, looking strong between contractions.
The first photo I took of my son. There will be many, many more. This is about 5 minutes after he was born. I was way too emotional to pick up my camera until that moment.
Jackson, a close-up study.
Another close-up. Yep, he looks like me, but with his mom's mouth.
My hand on his tiny head.
His mom holding his feet.
Again, Terra holding our newborn son.
Mother and child.
Jackson Solomon Kushner was born this past Saturday July 4th at 6:31AM, after 11 hours of labor. He came into the world a happy, healthy and beautiful bouncing baby boy. His mom did great, handling it all like a champ, and not only did his dad not pass out, but he helped with the delivery. He weighed 6 pounds and 12.8 ounces and measured 19.5 inches. We celebrated that night by watching fireworks from our hospital room window.
My portraits below of Stan Lee and Paul Budnitz were published a double-page spreads in the current July issue of L'Uomo Vogue magazine in a section titled, "Powerful & Eccentric."
I recently did a shoot for the band, Return To Earth for their upcoming album titled, Automata. I was told it was about robots, the merging of man and machine, and the end of the world. See below for how I translated those concept visually. The band consists of Ron Scalzo, (who also records as Q*Ball) Chris Pennie (of Dillinger Escape Plan and Coheed and Cambria) and Brett Aveni (of The Substance).
I often post about my various projects here, but there is one which I have remained mum on - until now. Working with and befriending all of the amazing comic book creators on my GRAPHIC NYC project has encouraged me to pursue my life-long dream of creating my own comics work. For several years, I've been writing a manuscript called SCHMUCK, and that is the title of my proposed 200-page graphic novel. It's a very personal story for me. It's based upon a period of my own life when I was dumped by my girlfriend and went on a personal journey of blind dates, Internet connections, break-ups, etc., all in hopes of finding the then abstract concept of my one true love. Along the way, I endured many painful, comical, tragic and comically tragic situations, and it's those on which the book will mainly focus. Though it falls under the category of "memoir," the names have been changes to protect the innocent, and the guilty.
While SCHMUCK tells a universal and relatable story, I feel it is told from a fresh perspective through both my words and the visuals of the wonderful artist who will be illustrating my tale - Kevin Coldon. Kevin won a Xeric award for his acclaimed webcomic Fishtown, which was released as a graphic novel by IDW Publishing in November 2008 and has been nominated for an Eisner Award. Kevin's sensibility, style and ability to tell a story in a way that feels both fresh and natural make him the ideal collaborator.
Adding to the uniqueness of the package, I will be weaving flashback sequences throughout the narrative which will done photographically in a fumetti style, blurring the lines between art and reality, fact and fiction. Since the main character is a photographer, it only makes sense to have portions of the story illustrated photographically.
At the moment, Kevin and I have 23 completed pages. It is those pages which our agent is current pitching around. It is our hope that we will find the right publisher to take on our project and then we will embark on finishing the rest of the book. Here is a preview of some of the work-
A detail of a page that shows a transition between Kevin's illustration and my photography.
An example of how Kevin breaks up a panel to create a design that helps the story to flow. Also, Kevin managed to draw the characters based upon my friends amazingly accurate from my written descriptions only.
Kevin uses text creatively to draw the reader's eye across the page.
Thanks to Renee and Greg for acting out scenes based on moments from my schmucky past. It's an odd experience for me as a photographer/storyteller to recreate these moments.
A panel from the first page and one of my favorites from the project so far. I love the detail and dynamic angel.
It feels great to finally share this. I hope Kevin and I will have the opportunity to finish the story and that it will one day be available for purchase at finer comic and book stores. That's all for now.
I recently did a portrait of my friend, NY designer and trend forecaster Shayna Kulik. Shayna brings her unique perspective to clients including Bumble and Bumble, CScout, Marc Ecko, MTV and Virgin Brands through her design and trend forecasting studio, Pixel Rumor located in New York’s West Village. Shayna also founded the wonderful Patternpulp, a web forum devoted to tracking ideas and emerging trends that expose, celebrate, share and connect pattern design across all creative platforms.
For her portrait, I wanted to create a clean, beautifully lit and whimsical piece where her personality can shine and of course use color and pattern to bring together the subject and what she does.
Friday afternoon brought Christopher Irving and me to the midtown home of Continuity Studios to interview and photograph Neal Adams. Neal's perhaps best known for the dynamic pencils and realistic anatomy he brought to DC ComicsDeadman in the late 60's on Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman in the 70's with writer Denny O' Neil. Most importantly though, throughout his career he has been a tireless advocate for creator's rights and was instrumental in helping Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Currently Neal's studio is doing work in commercial advertising, comics, and working on state-of-the-art motion comics. As for the photo, when my subject is primarily known as a superhero artist, and an iconic one such as Neal, it's difficult for me to resist using a cityscape with water towers. I can so easily picture Neal's Batman or Green Arrow bounding across the background behind him in the photo.
I spent yesterday afternoon working with cartoonist Josh Neufeld on his author photo to go along with the release of his upcoming book, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. We took a break from shooting the headshots to make the photo below of Josh's reflection in his reference mirror, above his drafting table. The photo on the left is of Josh as kid dressed as Superman.
Last week I was assigned by L'Uomo Vogue Magazine in Italy to photograph Kid Robot founder, Paul Budnitz. This was my third time shooting Paul, so I already knew he was a great subject and that their office space was amazing, so those elements mixed with impeccable styling by Deborah Afshani, made for a great recipe for success. See out-takes below
This past week, I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing French cartoonist Emmanuel Guibert. Over lunch at a Chelsea bistro, I got to know Guibert a bit, as we spoke about a myriad of topics, including his relationships with the subjects of his books, Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope and the just released, The Photographer. Guibert even demonstrated his art technique on my copy of The Photographer - see below. The portrait is not part of my GRAPHIC NYC series, but perhaps will be used in some future project. Thanks to Mark Siegel and Gina Gagliano of First Second Books for getting me together with Guibert.
I returned to Gowanus last night to the building that houses the studios, Deep6 and XOXO, home to comics creator Joe Infurnari. Joe's amazing THE TRANSMIGRATION OF ULTRA-LAD! can be seen on Act-I-Vate. Also great is THE PROCESS, which can be seen on Joe's own site. Currently he's working with writer Mark Waid on back-up stories for the comic, JERSEY GODS, and on a story for UNCANNY X-MEN: FIRST CLASS GIANT-SIZE SPECIAL #1. For the photo, Joe wanted to do something different, and after 51 cartoonist portraits, so did I. He had the concept to use projection and together we worked out how to project his work onto a rain soaked Gowanus street.
Today Chris Irving and I had coffee with our latest legendary subject, Carmine Infantino. At 83 years old, Carmine moves much slower than his creation, The Flash, (Barry Allen) but his mind moved speedily as he regaled us with his stories from the golden and silver ages of comics. Aside from being one of comic's best artists, Carmine was an art director at DC Comics, then editorial director and finally publisher.
I'm proud to present the latest music video directed by me and Carlos Molina-
HOW I PLEAD Performed by Rezen My House Musiq Video Directed by Seth Kushner and Carlos Molina
For those who have been asking for the revival of the REAL Hip-Hop artist, they most certainly got their wish with Brooklyn's new gunner, Rezen (pronounced Reason).
At Twenty-seven years old, Rezen feels that time is everything and with his new video it’s evident that's exactly his mindset. Rezen, a completely self-sufficient independent artist, records and mixes in-house with no outside assistance. It’s this autonomy that gives him his edge and musical prowess. In HOW I PLEAD, his debut video, he offers a lyrical and visual pitch towards Eminem, founder of Shady Records and Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment.
“My vision was to show a driven artist rushing through the gate. I challenge any artist to show they can distribute better than this. If I had to label this project I would say this video is the first Hip-Hop Thriller. I smashed this one out the yard and the directing of Seth Kushner and Carlos Molina helped me push it to the bleachers. Collectively, we gave a blueprint on how to get signed. We had a Dope director, Dope editor, and a Dope lyricist. With all that running on the same engine, this collaboration can never fail. This is the realest vision I could portray. This is not my prediction, it’s my prophecy. Special Thanks to Kara Criscitiello and Zach Kalatsky awesome job!!”
Rezen describes himself as a Hip-Hop artist from a fans view. In his adolescent years a career in music was never his goal. If asked as a child where he would be in the future, he would have named a totally different competitive field - the NFL. When asked why his initial dream expired he stated, "I didn't try hard enough, and since then I vowed to never go less than one-twenty. Reaching now for stardom, I will definitely do everything in my power to make it happen, because for me, it's not beyond REASON!”
HOW I PLEAD is the latest music video collaboration by the directing team of Kushner+Molina. Seth Kushner (www.sethkushner.com) is an award-winning photographer whose work has been featured in many publications and in exhibitions around the world. His first book The Brooklynites was published by powerHouse Books in 2007. He directed his first music video, GET IT TOGETHER by recording artist Maya Azucena, earlier this year.
For his second directorial effort, JOHN HUGHES by Q*Ball, Kushner teamed with photographer/filmmaker Carlos Molina, under the banner of Culture Pop Productions (www.culturepopproductions.com). The team then produced and directed their first interview-based documentary, on artist/comic book creator, Paul Pope.
For their third collaboration, Kushner and Molina have collaborated with artist Rezen to create a rap video using the conventions of the horror/thriller film genre to create an original piece sure to send chills up the spines of viewers.
I've been posting photos all week from the Chiller Theater event I attended last weekend. I think to close out the week I'll post a few images I shot at the previous event I attended a year and a half ago, when this current series really started. I'm hoping to go to more of such events in the future and create a large body of work which I plan to someday publish.
