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| zoe,nyc feb 2011. |
| Jean-Philippe Boucicaut |
| untitled sky ,2010 |
| Charlie, London 2010 |
| Harvey. |
| Jazz Jamieson, East London |
| NYC Jan 2011 |
| Hudson River,NYC July 2011 |
| Moby,NYC Jan 2011. |
| NYC Hawk 2011 |
| Anna Lisa,2009. |
| Canyon Dan, Topanga CA,June 2009. |
| David,Topanga CA Aug 2009 |
| Jason 2009. |
| Thomas Hetherington-Mint Model Mgmt |
| I take pictures because it’s fun. There was no grand plan for it, no expensive art school degrees or strategy. People have always been fascinating to me and I started drawing faces at seven years old, mainly copied from magazines and Richard Avedon photo books until I developed enough of a technique to do my own stuff. Painting I see as solitary and as a source of meditation. Shooting brings me right into the physical present and conscious interaction with my environment. Watching for which moment to capture. I love both expressions and they feed each other. |
| Two years ago , I bought a little Canon G9 to catalogue my artwork and to take pictures to use as source material for paintings. I shot some pictures for a commissioned portrait and realized that I loved the process of shooting someone’s picture. So I started taking the camera with me everywhere I went and my life opened up. I have had the priveledge of photographing some amazing , , inspiring ,cool people and situations in such a short time with such an informal camera that I know I’m being led by some magical hand |
| My dad makes documentary films and my mom was a model and painter so I’ve always been attracted to the intimate , raw minimal image but with a painterly composition and glamour. No big photo crews, massive lights or huge productions. Just me, the subject, natural light and my curiosity; learning something about them , life, love , art and myself every single time. Isn’t that what it’s all about? |
| I was born in New York City into a family of artists. My father , Jean is an Emmy winning documentary film maker , mother Chantal is a painter and both my grandfathers were photographers. There are also classical musicians, chefs that have cooked for US Presidents, writers, and dad’s cousin was the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. Drawing began at seven years old and painting began at the age of eleven. Donna Karan gave me my first professional creative gig when she created a position for me at her Menswear Collection as a junior designer. It was a job that consisted of vintage clothing sourcing , sketching , creating seasonal inspiration boards, assisting with fashion show casting and production , and photographing street trends. It was during this two year period that creation of the photographic portrait image , from clothing, to texture ,to light ,to composition, to subject matter, began to subconsciously seep into my brain. It was here that I was featured in some DKNY promotional videos , photographed for DKNY’s ad campaign and began to realize that the artists life was never a straight line. I left DK Menswear , as clothing design was never my passion , and armed with Donna’s blessing , a cool wardrobe and a headshot by master fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh , off I went to study acting and film . After a pretty successful couple of years doing TV commercials , I found that all of my down time , and there is way too much of that as an actor , was spent drawing , taking pictures and painting portraits. It was another chapter where what I was learning and absorbing and truly connecting with, was indirect. Three or four days of work acting in commercials covered all my expenses for a year. Out of all of this free time came the creation of my first solo show of paintings , and the real beginning of my life as an artist under my own terms. I certainly didn’t become an overnight art star , but as a result of that show ,I began mentoring child artists in risky inner city neighborhoods in and around NYC . More shows, private collectors and commissions soon followed , many of them film and fashion world players. The turning point came when I was commissioned to paint the three sons of “Twilight” producer Wyck Godfrey in Los Angeles and I needed to photograph them first. I had never photographed complete strangers before and everything I knew as visual artist , and learned as an actor , fell right into place. My eye for composition, atmosphere, color, light, clothing , grooming ,and as importantly, my actor’s ability to quickly and authentically connect with a subject, turned out some good photographic source material for those paintings. The pictures caught the eye of a fashion model friend who needed photos . Her agent loved the pictures and I haven’t looked back. I have since photographed new faces for several modeling agencies in NY and London, shot a large series of fine art yoga portraits for Jivamukti Yoga NYC, the City Lights Ballet of Boston, behind the scenes photographs on film sets as well as many celebrity private sittings . I live in New York ,but the world is my studio. |
| Bella Oledan NYC 2011 |