I photographed Lola Del Fresno this past Friday. She is a painter and sculptor, mainly making figures of the human body. Lola's talent lies in making the viewer feel the personality of her subjects from a very personal sense. A lot of her paintings make you feel as if you are looking into the soul of her subjects. Here are my portraits of her. Art is always a reflection of the artist. I tried to capture the art work of Lola and her personality with in my photographs.
I showed up at Alexey Steele's studio today and the lighting from the sky lights danced around his warehouse. I felt as if I had transformed back into the 1500's: giant Renaissance paintings hung everywhere with a modern day twist, busts scattered on tables and shelves, a couch for his subject matters, a wall filled with art books, and this was just the tip of the iceberg.
I was introduced to him through a family friend, and when I looked him up, I knew I had to photograph him. He looks like a modern day Leondardo Da Vinci from the images on his website. Alexey travels all around the world painting, he was an honorary guest this week at a city in Macedonia and was suppose to give a speech, but had other work he had to attend to!
Take a look at his art work:
http://www.alexeysteele.com/index.php
Enjoy!
This past weekend I went to Desert Hot Springs with my girlfriend. We went to visit her dad at his desert home that backs up to a mountainous and plateau landscape. The neighborhood is rather fancy, and behind the homes is a long dirt road that can be taken over the mountains into the next town. There is not a lot out at her dad's place besides a golf club, it is a beautiful house, with a pool and hot tub. There is no immediate city right near by. We were there watching her brothers TV premier called Secret Worlds Michael Arbuthnot. It was a 6 hour extravaganza! While the shows were amazing, I needed to take a break from watching the tube.
Sometimes I get antsy, and I need to do something creative if I have not shot in a few days. I was feeling antsy! So, I decided to go on a nature walk and check-out the dramatic desert landscape. I started by shooting the mountain side with the long road going up and over, then I realized I was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the desert was covered in garbage. People come and dump all their crap out in the desert. There was a shopping cart, numerous old tires, clothes, even a car someone left on the hill side. It made me kind of sad so many people use the desert as their own personal dump.
I own a book called Thinker Toys, and it is full of creative exercises. One of the exercises is to pick one color for the day, and only look for that color in your daily routine. If you were to pick red, then you would see the red stop sign, the red lipstick smear on your car seat, the red scab on your elbow... It opens up your mind to new ways of looking. I decided to only photograph the trash I could find on my desert hike. It was a rather interesting exercise. I am unsure how great these photos are, but I like them and I think they are rather poetic. Even on a desert hike where you think you would find very little traces of people, you can't escape traces of mankind, especially his garbage.
I photographed Amy De La Croix this past weekend, she is a model and also competes in pageants. She won the 2010 pageant contest called 'Ms Hell on Wheels.' I have a fascination for people who have a truly unique story to tell. If you were to see Amy walking down the street, she definitely sticks out and has a rather large personality. I decided to photograph her in two ways. As a pageant contestant winner with a lot of make-up and 'glammed-out' and holding a photo of her deceased parents; wearing little make-up and normal clothing attire.
Edith Shain passed away this past Sunday at the age of 93. I was the last photographer to photograph Edith for my book. She truly was the sweetest and most vivacious lady I have ever met. The funny thing about the famous photo of her kissing the sailor, you would think she is 8 feet tall! When I photographed Edith, I was on my knees, and we were about the same height. She must not be taller then 4'8". The point I am trying to make is Edith may have been a short person, but her soul and personality was monumental, and legendary. The photo of the sailor kissing Edith is one of the most famous images of WWII, if not American history.
I photographed Gary Vitti today. He has been the head sports trainer for the Los Angeles Lakers for the last 26 years! During game time he is right there on the bench between the players and coaches, dealing with all the injuries of the Lakers. Vitti is the first to show up and always the last to leave. He works 320 days a year, 7 days a week! I took his photo outside and in his 'Lakers room.' It is filled with championship basketballs signed by legendary Lakers, has a pair of Shaq's size 22 shoes hanging from the wall, and all sorts of other pieces of NBA history.
