Graphic Novelists Day 14

I spent Sunday morning in the Lower East Side with Miss Lasko-Gross and Kevin Colden.
Miss's portrait is meant to invoke her wonderful book, Escape From Special.
Kevin's portrait is based on his disturbing tale, Fishtown, which is available to read online now, and will be collected as a book in November.





Thanks to Martin for another behind-the-scenes photo, and to Kevin for holding my second flash unit.

Milo Ventimiglia

I had a quick shoot last weekend with actor Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes.
People assume I must love Heroes just because I love comics. I enjoy the show sometimes, but love is a strong word. I love the Tim Sale artwork that appears, but everything else is kinda' hit or miss for me. I appreciate all of the homages like "Kirby Plaza," and the way the subtitles on the screen are arranged like word balloons, etc. But there's something that prevents me from connecting with it in the way that I do with Lost and certainly Battlestar Galactica. The funny thing is, my wife loves the show, and she has little interest in superheroes. I guess the "genius" of the show, and a big reason why it's successful, is that the producers have managed to turn comic book concepts into a network soap opera about people with superpowers. I'll DVR it and watch it when it returns, but personally, I'd rather read comics.
In any case, check out my pensive-looking shot of Milo Ventimiglia-

Graphic Novelists Day 13

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the lovely Sunset Park home of Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. Jessica's book, La Perdida is essential to any comix library, and reading Matt's book, 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style is an incredibly entertaining learning experience. The couple showed me an advance copy of their upcoming textbook, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, and it's a beautifully done guide to everything involved with making comics.

Graphic Novelists Day 12

Back on the project, I met up with Gabrielle Bell in Greenpoint on Monday. Gabrielle's Lucky, is a beautifully simple auto-bio book and is the inspiration for the shot below-

Neil Gaiman

This past weekend I had the opportunity to photograph one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. During college, I became obsessed with his Vertigo series, The Sandman, and later loved his novels Neverwhere, American Gods and others. Meeting up with him deep in the bowels of the Javits Center was a surreal experience, Martin said, and I agree with him. I'm very happy to have this portrait of Mr. Gaiman to add to my body of work. The photo will be used in an ad for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Thanks to Charles Brownstein for making it happen!

Fandom

I spent the entire weekend at the NY Comic-Con, and aside from shooting B-roll for the NYC Graphic Novelist project, I (with Martin's help) managed to create a new series which I'm calling "Fandom." I've long been fascinated by the fans who attend cons in elaborate, home-made costumes and I've finally taken the time to explore it.

Check out a sampling below and to see the entire series, please click HERE.

Graphic Novelists Day 11

After reading and being inspired by Nick Bertozzi's book, The Salon, I knew the location for his portrait had to be a painter's studio. Thanks to artist Keith Mayerson for the use of his Chelsea apartment.

Graphic Novelists Day 10

Had a lovely time in Bed Stuy today with Nikki Cook. Check out her online comix Sack of Puppies and the adults only Dripping Wet.
I look forward to her upcoming book, Dogs Day End with Brian Wood.

Graphic Novelists Day 9

Woke up early today to meet Brian Wood at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, a location used recently in Brian's excellent book DMZ.
This was a tough one to decide on a location for, since DMZ so effectively uses so many real NYC locations. I was originally going to ask Brian to shoot at Great Lakes, the Park Slope bar where Megan worked in Local, (my wife's favorite book) but having just read the 4th DMZ trade, I was inspired by the spot we ultimately used.

Graphic Novelists Day 8

Today the project brought me to Williamsburg to photograph artist Dan Goldman. Check out Dan's book Shooting War and his online comic Kelly.



Thanks for the behind-the-scenes shot, Martin!

Graphic Novelists Day 7

I'm back from vacation and moving forward with the new project. Yesterday's session was with one of my favorite subjects, Molly Crabapple. This was my third time shooting Molly, and I think most successful. Thanks to Joi at Lucky Cheng's for allowing us to use the space. Check out Molly's and John Leavitt's delightful online strip, Backstage.

Many more of shoots coming up in the next few days.

Toren

Last fall, I worked on a long-term project for the Co-Op Branding agency. I was hired to create similar photos to those in The Brooklynites book of select Brooklyn subjects to be used to brand a new downtown Brooklyn development called Toren. Located at 150 Mrytle Avenue, Toren will be 38-story luxury condo with green design.
This was an extremely rewarding experience for me, as I got to work with very creative people on a cutting edge project. It was also very flattering since my book was used as the model for their sales brochure, which is actually a very cool looking, beautifully designed "magazine." I also had the opportunity to shoot a few of my favorite subjects from The Brooklynites again, as well as a few new subjects, who would have certainly been in my book if I had known them then.
Details about the building have been top secret until now, so I can finally show some of the work I've done-


Vahap Funk, co-owner/founder of Brooklyn Industries


Maya Azucena, singer/songwriter


Marisa Farina, publisher of Time Out New York


Karla Calderone, DJ


Grace Bonney, design critic


Dan Pippitone, stockbroker/co-owner Nobeltrading.com


Rob & Deanna Morea, trainer and dancer


John Kriskiewicz & Chris Bianchi


Benjamin Barrud, Christine Lin & Nomi, designers


Donald Capoccia, Joseph Ferrara & Brandon Baron, BFC Partners


Jeff Burke, Roger Duffy & Peter Fajak, Architects/SOM