Maya Azucena

I've had the pleasuring of photographing Maya Azucena (see below) several times over the past two years. Maya is an incredibly talented and beautiful singer/songwriter who I initially met through The Brooklynites. I've seen Maya perform on a number of occasions, most recently when she graciously did a set at the launch party for my book at the powerHouse Arena last September.

Maya is having a free concert at BAM Café this upcoming Saturday night. Her singing is infectious and her voice is powerful, so I strongly recommend checking her out.

Sat. MARCH 1ST
10pm
BAM Café
30 Lafayette Ave,
Brooklyn NY 11217
(718) 636-4139
Special guest performers: Hassan Salaam, Jay Rodriguez and Chris Rob

Brooklyn Original

I first met Sal Ciprano last fall, when he came to the opening of The Brooklynites exhibition at Brooklyn Industries in Chelsea. Sal, a freelance writer, comic book letterer, cartoonist, photographer, and graphic designer, had just started up a very cool blog called Brooklyn Original. Last month Anthony and I sat down with Sal and had a long discussion about our book, The Brooklynites. See it here.

Molly Crabapple Show

Last week I went to the opening of Molly Crabapple's new show, Demimonde. Molly's an incredibly talented illustrator, as well as a burlesque dancer and model. I originally met her through The Brooklynites when she posed for the book. See on outtake from the shoot below.
Check out Molly's show at Arena Studios at 407 Broome St, st. 7A, through Arpil 4.

Edible Brooklyn

The good folks at Edible Brooklyn magazine used my image of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz from my book on the cover of the new issue-

John D'Apont Design

Check out the work of my good friend, fellow Brooklynite, and designer extraordinaire John D'Aponte-
www.johndaponte.com

Here's a frame of a shoot I did with John showcasing his clothing design-

New website

After months of work and thought, my new website has gone live today. Please have a look-

www.sethkushner.com

When I told my web designer I wanted to redesign my site I mentioned that the most important things were clean design and functionality. I wanted my site to be about showcasing my work, so we did away with anything that would detract. The current trend in web design seems to be keeping it simple, so I have no Flash intro page, and in fact, there's no intro at all - it opens right on the work.


Thanks to David Dawes, web designer extraordinaire, for all of his hard work and creativity. I look forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks for looking.

Ladybug Mecca

I photographed an event the other night where Ladybug (formerly of Digable Planets) performed. Inspired by her set, I politely approached her and asked if I could take her portrait. She was incredibly gracious and accompanied me to the roof and braved the cold and wind to pose for me. The result-

The Brooklynites

Thanks to everyone who supported The Brooklynites last year. Having people actually purchase our book has been an incredible thrill for Anthony and me.

For whoever hasn't already seen it, check out Miana Grafals's very cool behind-the-scenes film-

Happy New Year!

Truthfully, I've always been a guy who's made fun of "Bloggers." But, it's a new year and I'm looking to try new things. The notion here is to create a forum for me to show the newest pieces I'm working on. I do update my main site fairly regularly, but here I can post my newest work informally. Coming off the success of my book, The Brooklynites, I'm going to be embarking on new projects this year and it would be greatly helpful to be able to get feedback instantly.

For now, I'd like to share a portrait I recently shot for my good friend Sami over at YRB Magazine. It's of Paul Budnitz, the creator of Kid Robot, one of my favorite stores in Soho. I love the vinyl doll trend and only wish I could afford to collect them more extensively.