Paper Airplanes - 2023
New gallery coming soon!
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LEGO Spacemen - 2021
No one asked, but it’s my opinion that it doesn’t get any better than the classic LEGO Space minifigures. So simple in design, but also so perfect.
We had lots of different types and themes of figures, from knights and castles to pirate ships to city boat police, but these spacemen were always my favorites. It’s been a joy getting the chance to play again with these guys who were always the most sought-after/fought-over figures from when my brother and I would build LEGO moon bases and rocket ships in the early 1980’s.
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Retro Portraits - 2021
This shot is the beginning of a new series of retro-style portrait of retro toys. It’s currently parked in the Odds & Ends gallery until more images are finished, but it’s already shaping up to be a fun collection of familiar faces.
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Girls - 2018
This image has been on the website for a while, but it has been reworked to fit better with the look and mood of the other shots in the gallery. Part of the process for these images, in particular, is to cover multiple lighting options for each shot: fully lit, both side lights, each side light individually, edge light, no fill, only fill, reflections, etc. This way there are many parts and pieces photographed to choose from instead of fabricating light in photoshop.
Now that there is so much time, even though it’s not an ideal situation, it’s nice to be able to look back and see what’s working and what images need help, and to have the time to work on them.
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Lego Flowers - 2016
Another outtake from the Lego flowers shoot rescued from the archives.
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Robots - 2018
Now that I have some free time, I decided to take a look at my old shoots and see if there’s anything that was cut that might be worth keeping.
Here’s to second chances.
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Girls - 2019
Here is an image shot this summer from the Girls / Shoes series.. In what was originally going to be a set of five or six shots started in 2015, this series has continued and expanded, and there’s no real end in sight. It’s a fun project, and I look forward to getting any chance to work on it.
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Grunts - 2019
Technically speaking, this image took 1/250th of a second. Setup, posing, lighting, etc. took a couple of hours, and the series was shot over the course of two days. But really, this image, and all of the images in this series, have taken over fourteen years to create.
Action figures have been my favorite photography subjects, and this project has been (perhaps more than) a minor obsession. This is what it looked like in my mind, as a kid, playing with G.I. Joes in my backyard.
These shots have been a long time coming, and I’m very proud with how they’ve turned out. And I know me, and I know it doesn’t end here, but I’m happy with the start.
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Girls - 2018
This image is a continuation of the original doll shoes series, started in 2015.
It is a fun series to shoot, and I’m very happy with the shots I’ve gotten, but I’m hoping to transition these shots into a new series, hopefully to shoot next summer, that will feel similar in some ways, but also different enough to stand on its own. With any luck, I’ll have some time to build some little, tiny sets, and experiment with mixed lighting, smoke effects, and creating an environment.
But who knows?
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Girls - 2018
In what is becoming a recurring theme in my work, this image came, more or less, as an accident.
This series, a collection of silhouettes of female figures, is the result of spending several hours on each shot, making minute changes to the posing and lighting to find the best possible angles, lines, shapes, etc. It is so tedious, I’m convinced I can only make these images using dolls, because there is no way a real person would put up with how long it takes to get a single image.
But there are worse ways to spend the day.
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Intimate Balloons - 2013
This is the premier shot in an ongoing planned series featuring the most juvenile way to photograph lingerie.
Starting as a joke between shots on an actual paid commercial shoot, this series was the first professional collaboration with my good friend, Tyler Matson. As talented a photographer as Tyler is, it really is a shame to drag him down to this level, but the truth is, I couldn’t have done this image on my own, certainly not without his help and skills. See more of his work at his website https://tylermatson.com.
Keep an eye out for future developments in this series. It’s silly and childish, but it’s fun, and it makes me laugh, and I can’t wait to continue making this nonsense.
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Lego Flowers - 2016
This image is from the same shoot as the fields of Lego flowers.
On a technical note, this series was my first use of the Rollei extension bellows which allows for extreme closeup and macro photography. With the rail fully extended and two addition extension rings, there was a good eight to nine inches between the lens and the camera. Paired with an 80-megapixel digital back, the flower petals, which are less than half an inch in real life, are more than thirteen inches in width in the image.
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Letters & Numbers - 2016
Sometimes it's just the simple things that tickle my fancy. This series was inspired in the aftermath of giving my kids bubble baths. More often than not, the bathtub plug would be left in after pulling out the kids, and the toys would float and intermingle with the remnants of the soapy bubbles.
A lot of my other series are, not necessarily dark, but I like to think they have a little edge or black humor to them, and it was fun to shoot something that was just a study of textures, shapes, and colors.
The series also includes a few words and the entire alphabet was shot in this manner, in case I ever got the itch to start spelling out messages. So far, not so much; I'm just happy with the random compositions and colors.
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Toy Soldiers - 2007
This image came from my first photoshoot after moving to New York.
Shot over a weekend in my boss's studio, I brought a bag of figures and accessories, miniature barbed wire, wheat grass palettes, bottle of stage blood, and a only vague idea of a plan. Other images from the shoot included overly elaborate POV shots of soldiers fighting, mixed lighting between a Speedotron strobe and a Zippo lighter bought from the closest Duane Reade (that nearly melted the face off one of the figures), and a sprawling post-battle scene with wounded soldiers intended to be cut out digitally and placed into a woodland scene, yet to be photographed. And none of them really worked. This shot was the last setup of the day, and was discovered more or less by accident.
In keeping with my favorite photography creedo (KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid), one of the things I've always liked about this one is its simplicity. Since this shoot, I've always tried to stay aware of overlighting and getting the story across without being bogged down by production tricks.
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Robots - 2018
This is a continuation of the Robots series that was started in 2009. The original series was first put on hold until an opening in the schedule would allow for a follow up shoot, and then it was put on hold indefinitely after my first daughter was born/destroyed the large bronze robot toy. Similar to the Wild West series, this is turned into a two-day shoot with nine years between.
This is a really fun series to shoot, and I'm looking forward to at least a couple more shoots with these wacky guys.
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Girls - 2015
During my time at Brooks Institute of Photography, one assignment started my interest and fascination with photographing poseable action figures. The most common and accessible were army figures with interchangeable uniforms and accessories, and if I remember correctly, I found them at the local department store. An online search for similar toys lead to the world of the 1/6 scale hobby, and my eyes were opened to the possibilities.
What I discovered was that not only is there an extensive range of military-themed figures, there is just about anything you'd want in miniature. After several years of collecting pieces and planning shots based on decidedly masculine subjects, such as military and mafia themes, some manufacturers started focusing on female figures. The moment I saw the tiny high heels, I knew it would be a fun project to try to photograph them using the same techniques used for life-size objects and accessories.
This was the first shot in the ongoing Girls series, and it remains the standard by which I measure my doll images.
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Wild West - 2018
This image, taken in 2018, is part of a series shot over two days spanning five years.
Started in 2013 as a project to photograph colorful and fun subjects, I shot the cowboys first on an open studio day, always intending to get around to shooting the Indians. I kept the figures with me or in my equipment case in a baggie, ready to shoot, just waiting for the time to finish up the series. When I finally got the chance for a follow-up shoot, it wasn't until that night, as I was going through the edit, that I noticed the time stamp nearly matched the previous shots, almost to the day, except for the five years difference between the two sets.
It took a while, but I'm very happy with the series, and I believe it was worth the wait.
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Pee Pee Trump - 2017
This is, what I would consider, my first foray into political photography.
The image is an homage to Andres Serrano's 1987 photograph 'Piss Christ' which depicts a crucifix submerged in urine. The bobblehead statue of Donald Trump plays off the rumored 'Pee Pee Tape' that was first mentioned in the Steele Dossier in January 2017, just prior to the beginning of Trump's presidency.
Included below is a behind the scenes photo from the shoot. There's no reason for the massive water tank, aside from it being the only one available. The 'urine' was a mixture of water, apple cider, ginger ale, and bottled tea.
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Robots - 2009
This series began with a fascination of railroad miniatures.
For something so small, there's a lot of expression that comes through in railroad miniatures. They're sculpted to fit all kinds of scenarios, such as waiting for a train, reading the newspaper, crossing the street, to bodybuilding, sunbathing, posing for a portrait, etc. It was always exciting for me to just look at the miniature displays and dioramas; to see these little people in their little world.
I don't remember where I first saw the Stikas figures, but I remember thinking they looked like a lot of fun. And after that, looking back at the railroad miniatures, I noticed that the 'man running for the departing train' looks a lot like 'man running for his life from a giant robot monster' and that was the start.
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Lego Flowers - 2016
This image was inspired by my lifelong love of Lego that was itself reinvigorated by my attempts to instill a lifelong love of Lego in my children.
Looking at an individual Lego flower stem, I thought, 'this is cool, but what if there were lots?', and I set about getting lots. And lots. And lots.
The original idea was to be one massive field of multi-colored flowers, but that evolved instead into fields of single colors: red, yellow, white, and pink. After several weeks of collecting and assembling flowers, this image was the first of the series to be photographed.
