BOOK
CLICK “Add to Cart” TO BUY BOOK!
.
.
SCROLL DOWN FOR PAGE SAMPLES !
.
.
.
TAYLOR SWIFT / musician / country singer / songwriter CD: “Taylor Swift” (self Titled) Taylor Swift was born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania in 1989. She had musical influences in her life from an early age, as her maternal grandmother was a professional opera singer and was one of her key inspirations in her musical career. At the age of ten, Swift began to perform around her hometown, singing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs. Her first exposure to the music business consisted of recording demo tapes at a studio. When Swift was eleven, she sang the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers game. At twelve, she gained interest in the guitar and began to write songs. During this time she also took trips with her family to Nashville, Tennessee, to perform her music. When she was thirteen she wrote one song per day. In Nashville she wrote songs with local songwriters. The family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb. This helped accelerate Swift’s career. Today, Taylor Swift is very grateful for all her success in the country music industry. When she performed at a local restaurant called the Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta. Scott, who wanted to put her on his new label, Big Machine Records. The song, “Tim McGraw” helped to make Swift into a teenage country music star, along the lines of Brenda Lee, Tanya Tucker, Marie Osmond, and LeAnn Rimes. Since her success, she has appeared on “Good Morning America” and at the 2006 Academy of Country Music Awards. Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of “GAC Short Cuts”, a part-documentary, part-music video series airing since the summer of 2006 on the country music channel Great American Country. I’ve been photographing Taylor since she was 4 years old while visiting my parents in the Reading area. They introduced me to Taylor’s mother Andrea who wanted to get photos for both her children on a Christmas card. Soon after agreeing to snap some shots, I realized the little starlet she was, and destined to become. Without hesitation, I continued through the years taking pictures of her at their home in Reading, and more recently in Tennessee. Now, many years later, Taylor proved my hunch correct and the rest is country music history. Most recently, I photographed her latest record release as well as much of her pr shots seen on her website and in the media. I’m very proud of the work we’ve accomplished and of her success in the music industry. Taylor is truly a star… Some trivia: Is from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. The love interest in her song, “Tim McGraw”, is named Johnny This photograph is from a series of shots we took for her debut record in Nashville, Tenn. 2006
SANDRA OH / actor Arli$$ / Greys Anatomy / Under the Tuscan Sun / Sideways Born to Korean parents, she began her career as a ballet dancer and eventually studied drama at the National Theatre School in Montreal. She then starred in a London (Ontario) stage production of David Mamet’s “Oleanna” and appeared as the title character in the Canadian television production The Diary of Evelyn Lau (1993) (TV), beating out over 1,000 applicants. Her list of awards includes the FIPA d’Or for Best Actress at the 1994 Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels at Cannes, France, two Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscar), a Cable Ace Award, a Theatre World Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2003, she married writer-director Alexander Payne and their first film together was the Oscar- winning Sideways (2004). At the 2005 SAG awards, Sandra Oh presented the Actor for actress in a TV comedy – Teri Hatcher won the award. A year later at the 2006 Golden Globes, Hatcher presented the award for best supporting actress on TV – Oh won that award and later said it was good to see her again! I was happy to photograph her during her series on Arliss. She’s really a funny gal I have to say. I almost wondered why she wasn’t doing stand-up cause her sense of humor was intoxicating. After becoming cozier with each other, I asked if she would communicate an engaging physical action. Without much ado, she flopped on the couch in a sensuous manner, reached out with her arms and my camera just began shooting effortlessly, as if she were in control of the trigger. Sometimes, depending on the subject, I shoot without thinking or doing anything and it seems for a moment all time just stands still. Moments after this series of shots, we broke out laughing at our serious “takes”. Some trivia: In Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), her girlfriend was portrayed by Kate Walsh, who went on to costar with her in “Grey’s Anatomy” (2005). Coincidentally, Kate also played a doctor in the film. Personal Quote: “You just don’t care about what people think. But it’s hard to do because people tell you what they think all the time. It’s sort of nuts. We actors, we’re a fragile bunch, and yet we need to be strong because 90% of our lives is rejection. You have to figure out what really is important.” This photo was taken in 2000 at my Wilshire studio.
NICK STAHL / actor Disturbing Behavior / The Thin Red Line / Terminator 3/ Man Without A Face Stahl was born in Harlingen, Texas to William Kent Stahl and Donna Lynn Reed. He was raised in Dallas and currently lives in Los Angeles. Notable and recent works include performances in Bully, Sin City, In the Bedroom, the HBO series Carnivàle, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, in which he took over the role of John Connor, originally played by Edward Furlong. His debut film, The Man Without a Face, co-starring Mel Gibson, helped boost his career at the age of 13. His first professional casting was in Stranger at My Door, although he had been acting in children’s plays since he was four years old. He has five films yet to be released Ferris Wheel (2007), How to Rob a Bank (2007), Quid Pro Quo (2007), and The Speed of Thought (2007). Only a few months after the release of The Thin Red Line and Disturbing Behavior, Nick was in the thick of the Hollywood limelight and paparazzi followed. He was sent to me for an early morning shoot that I normally didn’t like doing but he had a schedule to keep and I had to go with the flow. He’s not a real talkative type of guy but once we established how I wanted to capture him, he casually committed to acting out an adventurous physical nuance that I was excited to see. Aside from the normal portrait / editorial pictures, necessary to satisfy this entertainment magazine, we again “engaged” the moment with the reach of hands and embracing the lens of the audience. I was thrilled to have Nick shooting the close-up shots while his hands framed his face and eyes. It was a clever embrace at the moment and lent itself nicely to the “finding the actor in the artist philosophy”, that there’s always a window of time, even for a split second, even in early morning, the performer is found. Personal Quotes: “I was an escapist, the guy who wanted to get out of school and out of the suburbs…Acting saved me.” We photographed this at 8:00 am in my Wilshire studio in 1999.
LENA HEADEY / actor The Brothers Grimm / The Jungle Book / Mrs. Dalloway Lena Headey is a British actress of theatre and film who is best known for her appearances in The Brothers Grimm (2005), Possession (2002), The Jungle Book (1994) and The Remains of the Day (1993). Headey is starring as Queen Gorgo, heroic Spartan woman in the period drama 300 (2006), by director ‘Zack Snyder’. Now a veteran actress of both stage and screen, Lena has moved her career into the upper echelons of Hollywood’s “who’s who” while topping the charts as one of the “10 most beautiful actresses” in 2007. When I was slated to photograph her, she had just wrapped 2 major motion pictures and an Indy film that left her exhausted but anxious to reveal her real life personality. The day I shot this picture she was in good spirits and excited to have fun, which inspired me to laugh kiddingly along with her and enjoy our time on set. She ended up rolling around on the white seem-less floor while I continued to snap feverishly one frame after another. She definitely is one the most natural beauties I’ve ever photographed with her tropical blue eyes and infectious smile. I really enjoyed shooting her for her gentle yet feminine approach to the drama usually associated with a photo-session. It’s not as easy as it looks for actors to come off grueling hours of filming then going right into pr photo sessions and look together. However, she pulled it off. Personal Quotes: “We’ve all had that moment where you look into someone’s eyes and there’s some kind of recognition there, whether you act on it or not.” Some trivia: She has several tattoos, including one on her right upper arm saying “Jason” in Thai (for actor Jason Flemyng). The couple met on the 1994 film The Jungle Book and dated until 2001. The tattoos have since been changed into butterflies (which you see here), a star on the inside of each of her lower arms, and a large lotus flower on her upper back. These were all concealed during the movie “300”. This photograph was taken soon after she rolled to the floor and said, “ready for my close-up cause this is the real me”. Shot in my Wilshire studio, 2000.
DANE COOK / actor / comedian Employee of the Month / Mr. Brooks Observational comedy mixed with dark humor and comedic violence. Excitable, high-energy, Dane Cook is engaging millions of comic watchers across the nation with his stage presence and comic wit. Dane seems to be one of the hardest working comedians in America and has proved his worth too. You can see him nearly every other week (when he’s not on tour) at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. He rarely repeats old material while performing at all of the newest hot spots across the continent. He’s been seen on practically every hit show from Carson Daily, David Letterman to Jimmy Kimmel and even hosted Saturday night Live. When in La., he frequents a radio program called “Hand Held Comedy” that I frequently shoot for and had a chance to take a few rolls during one of his appearances. We really didn’t have too much time to exchange stories but he did let his hair down a bit while I got busy behind my lens. His trademark pose, (w/3 fingers) is one of his signature statements he enjoys showing when shooting pictures but I thought it was a great visual for my exhibit and seemed to place perfectly with all the rest. This shoot took place inside the radio station after his show and only lasted 30 minutes or so. Personal Quote: “You know you’re drunk when you think that the cab fare is the time.” This was photographed in Burbank, Ca. in early 2006.
CHEECH MARIN / actor / comedian Tin Cup / Spy Kids / Up in Smoke / Nash Bridges / Grindhouse Biography in: “Who’s Who in Comedy” by Ronald L. Smith. New York: Facts on File, 1992. His stage persona is that of a stereotypical Mexican American, or an uneducated urban Chicano. Fleeing from the US draft during the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, Marin settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he met future comedic partner Tommy Chong. As a part of the duo Cheech and Chong he participated in a number of comedy albums and feature film comedies. After he and Tommy went their separate ways, he starred in a number of films as a solo actor, most notably Born in East L.A., Tin Cup and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. The great thing about Cheech is he’s “real”. We were in San Francisco’s Union Square shooting around Christmas time for clothing editorials with Banana Republic and the idea was to shoot as many shirts, sweaters and pants we could in 5 hrs. It was a challenge but he was up for it and made those 5 hrs smooth sailing. As u can see, Cheech had some fun too. He’s got an incredible character-type face we photographers love to shoot and a personality that would make anyone’s day an adventure to experience. We ended up becoming friends and talking about art, which is his greatest pastime. He loves collecting important pieces all over the world and exhibiting small pieces for special friends. After hanging out, shooting and making jokes like re-enacting some bits from the days of Cheech and Chong, I knew I’d have great shots from the day. I really had a great time that day. Some trivia: He is among the top collectors of Mexican and Mexican-American art, having put together at least one book on the subject and supported the development of Chicano art on the West Coast. Has worked with director Robert Rodriguez seven times starting with Desperado (1995), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Spy Kids (2001) , Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) , Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) , Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) and Grindhouse (2007). The shoot took place at the Westin Hotel in San Francisco’s Union Square in 2000.
CATHERINE KEENER / actor Capote / Being John Malkovitch / 40 yr. Old Virgin / Friends with money / Death to Smoochy / Your Friends and Neighbors / 8MM Keener officially broke into films with one line in About Last Night (1986). She then guest-starred as an artist on an episode of Seinfeld called “The Letter”. She played Jerry’s girlfriend, an artist who painted the infamous portrait of Kramer. Keener then earned her first starring role in Johnny Suede with the then unknown, Brad Pitt. Her performance gained critical acclaim and earned her her first Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. She later went on to work with director Tom Dicillo, again, in Living in Oblivion (1995). Through another two years of movies she again was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Walking and Talking, an independent cult-comedy film. Critics fell in love with Keener’s ability to act so naturally on the screen. Some shoots are long and some short. This one winded up being short. (3 hrs.) Catherine came in with some friends and I realized I was at the mercy of what would happen,.would happen. Most of her attention was taken after her friends Brad Pitt, supermodel Elaine Irwin and husband Dermot Mulroney decided to have a little fun at the make-up table. The jokes continued and we all really just were having a lot of fun. The shot I’m exposing happened during a series of frames I took while she was dramatically over-acting on purpose in front of her fun loving friends and my camera. We eventually got the portrait / editorial shots needed for the magazine, while I got what I was looking for too. Catherine continues to make notable films, and in 2007, she will play Jan Burres in the movie adaption of the book, “Into the Wild,” directed by Sean Penn. Some trivia: Has been close friends with Brad Pitt since they both starred in 1991’s Johnny Suede (1991) together, and they often attend each other’s movie premieres. [On her harshest rejection]: “One director said I just wasn’t sexy. It was hard, really hard. I left town for two months with my tail between my legs. But you have to kind of go, okay, maybe I’m not their idea of [sexy], but hell, I can have sex!” (On staring roles); “Well, for one thing, I like being a supporting actress. I like to come and go in the film. The interesting characters are very few if you want to be the lead, and they depend on you being beautiful. Since I’m not interested in those parts, the pressure’s off, in a way. I’m not cast for my physicality. I find that playing so many characters in so many films is a way to be in the moment.” This afternoon happened at my studio in the summer of 1999.
