I first learned about photographer Brian Pineda in this Adbase.com testimonial:
Pineda said about this assignment: “all I remember hearing was ‘are you available to shoot a travel story for us in Buenos Aires, Argentina’”. That’s what New York City editorial photographer Brian Pineda recalls about a recent gig he got for a travel magazine in South America. So something is going on here, to make an editor call out of the blue and send him around the world. I asked him what gives!
Background: can you tell me how you got into photography?
I started out taking pictures when I was 15 and in high school. I fell in love with it, but also fell in love with music at the same time. I spent my first year in art school taking pictures and painting, but wanted more. I left college to play with my band for a year and had an amazing time. It was a real learning experience for me, I was always trying to promote ourselves for more gigs. For whatever reasons we ended up splitting and from there I went back into art school and fell back in love with photography (again). And I have been taking pictures ever since.
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Today I shot gays in Palm Springs for The Advocate magazine, a job I got via a news organization in New York. I set up a background on the street and pulled passers by in for a survey which was written by the magazine’s people, then did a mug shot of each of them. Thanks Mary for the logistical help.
Terms on the agreement with the company I shot for were interesting, and read in part:
(c) DISCLOSURE OF RISKS. Assigments may involve travel to locales which may present hazards to life and limb including but not limited to:
i. TERRORISM. Individuals on Assignments must investigate local conditions and be advised that groups throughout the world may attempt to influence political or social policies through violence.
ii. KIDNAPPINGS. Individuals on Assignments must make themselves award of local medical resources and prepare accordingly.
iii. NATURAL DISASTERS. Individuals on Assignents must be aware that natural disasters abroad such as earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural phenomena may occur without warning…
Good times!
This lens is a Leica Apo-Telyt-R 1:5.6/1600mm. It’s on sale for US$2,064,489. At that price, get two!
The two coolest photos made at the Presidential inauguration you may not have seen, because they were too high res to appreciate in a publication, or were shaped in a weird format (like a vertical long and skinny panorama).
One of the photos was shot by David Bergman and is a 1400 meg plus behemoth that you can zoom in and in and in on using your browser. The interactive photo is online here, check it out.
The other photo from the inauguration that scores intersting-ness points was shot from space, a satellite photo of DC. It shows the throngs of people. It’s ridiculous and deserves a look. You can see that photo on this page. (Picture number three). The other photos on this page are nice too.
Big as in camera size…. While most editorial photographers use digital cameras and record moments at a rate of up to 10 frames per second, there’s one guy out there doing it in a completely different manner. Greg Miller is a large format editorial photographer. He shoots for magazines with a huge 8×10 film camera on a tripod – not posed studio stuff, Miller is out on the street, recording moments as they happen with everyday people, with his one frame per minute (or so) camera. How does he do it? Read on:
I recently saw your pictures in Time (voters in Missouri) with your byline. I googled the name (yours), and found gregorymillerphotography, who’s stuff I also really liked. Do people get you two confused sometime?
Yeah, he’s good and his children are adorable. Its hard having such a common name. There are about five Greg Miller photographers that I can find. There’s me, Greg in Atlanta (www.gregorymillerphotography.com), another one in upstate NY that does nature and nudes (www.gregmillerphotography.com), another one in Columbus, OH (www.gregmillerphoto.com) and a wedding photographer in Australia (www.gregmillerphotography.com.au). Incidentally, there is also a locksmith and Elvis impersonator, all named Greg Miller. Oh, and don’t forget the Dodger’s relief pitcher… We should all get together for a drink sometime… Then I think, you could have a unique name like Ted Kaczynski and think you are the only one until one day you turn on the news… (read more on next page)
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New York Times Magazine has the best layout, design and photography around…. if you haven’t seen it yet, the current issue of the magazine features portraits by Nadav Kander of Obama’s “people” – aides, assistants, etc. They are clean portraits all shot against a white backgound. Check out the online gallery of portraits here.
Kander is the guy who got recognition a few months back for his portraits of naked Olympic athletes.
For the lighting junkies, Kander seems to have shot with a Hasselblad digital medium format tethered to a monitor where editors poured over the images as he shot them. Light came from two Broncolor heads diffused by shoot through umbrellas on each side of the subject. There’s also a small beauty dish main light up above and high. Looks like some light was thrown on the background, which was hidden behind two stand up black panels. I love behind the scenes photos!
Yesterday on inauguration day I shot in Los Angeles for Aurora Images. Aurora did a special inauguration day photo event where they had more than a dozen of their photographers across the nation cover events that were important in the election (the border, healthcare, financial crisis, housing, etc). My assignment was to go up to LA and cover an organization called Amer-I-Can, an anti-gang community group that goes into jails and the community to rehabilitate gangsters.
Did some portraits of ex gang members, most of who did hard time for many years. Then we went into the hood of West LA, the lair of some crip gangs, for some documentary type photography. Good times!
You can see the entire Aurora project here.
