I photographed Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy for the March issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
assignments
Theater Oobleck‘s new show, The Hunchback Variations Opera, opens tonight at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater. I haven’t seen it yet, but from all indications it’s outstanding. The libretto’s by brilliant playwright Mickle Maher, and music by the lovely and talented Mark Messing, bandleader of Mucca Pazza and one of the geniuses behind Opera-Matic (he’s second from the left in this photo). Info about tickets, etc here. I shot promo photos for the show, here are a couple.
I shot portraits of Charles Coleman, Christy LeMaster, Mike Reed, Fred Sasaki, and Weed Wolf for this week’s Reader–the inaugural People Issue. Thanks to photo editor Andrea Bauer for the plum of an assignment. The bottom two shots are outtakes.
Fred Sasaki
Charles Coleman
Weed Wolf
Last October I spent a good part of an afternoon near Chinatown, photographing local wurkstep duo Sich Mang for the Reader. The top shot is an outtake, the bottom one was published. Their Tumblr is an exercise in subtlety and restraint; here’s their Soundcloud page.
I stopped by Bobby Conn headquarters recently, where I found him in the basement, mixing his new record. The track I heard sounds fantastic, and smells like a chart-topper. I shot his portrait for this week’s Artist on Artist feature in the Reader, where he interviews Bryan Ferry. Above is an outtake, a slight variation on the shot the Reader published. Yes, that is a Lehman Brothers necklace–glad you asked. Here are a couple other portraits I shot of Bobby, from two earlier photo sessions.
I shot this portrait of Material Issue frontman Jim Ellison at his Chicago home, in 1993, three years before his tragic suicide. The recently formed Material re-Issue–original crack rhythm section Ted Ansani and Mike Zelenko, along with consummate guitarist and singer Phil Angotti–plays a show this Saturday at Lincoln Hall.
Long live print! The new issue (Sept/Oct) of Design Bureau is out, which features an article on the brilliant architect James Goettsch with a portrait I shot. Those round windows at the Goettsch Partners office were really fun to work with. Put your iPad down for a sec and pick up a copy of this sumptuously printed, handsomely designed magazine.
Beer-spewing, shaggy-haired, self-lacerating, leather-skirt-wearing air-guitar maniac Nordic Thunder (aka Justin Howard), who I had the privilege to photograph for this week’s Reader (see my previous post), has made every single American–and particularly Chicagoans–proud to be a member of the same (or similar) species. Congratulations Nordic, YTMND.
It was an honor to be in the presence of U.S. air guitar champion Mr. Nordic Thunder. I photographed him last weekend for the Reader (shot above the Reader cover is an outtake from the session).
I photographed violence interrupters Ameena Matthews and Cobe Williams for the cover of last Sunday’s London Observer, which also ran in its sister paper The Guardian. Steve James directed a documentary film about the Interrupters which has just recently debuted. You can watch it this month at the Gene Siskel Film Center. (UPDATE: here’s a list of upcoming screenings around the world. The film’s been getting rave reviews.)
Thanks to the friendly staff at CeaseFire for helping coordinate the photo sessions, and to the awesome people I photographed for the story: Ameena, Cobe, Tio, Dee, and Marcus.
I shot a couple assignments for the summer 2011 issue of CS Interiors magazine, including this one with the talented designer Steven Haulenbeek. The bottom picture shows the portrait that the magazine used, and the top shot is an outtake featuring one of Haulenbeek’s brilliant creations, the Photo Paddle. As far as I know gorillas play no part in Steven’s work, but as luck would have it there happened to be one of the primates walking by during our photo shoot so I recruited her to hold the paddle.
The New York Times published a portrait of mine in today’s paper, of the great vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz. I took the shot at the Pritzker Pavillion during a rehearsal for a concert by Mike Reed‘s Loose Assembly (here’s a portrait of Reed I shot earlier this year.) Way to go Shevitz!
Below is a screenshot from the article. And below that is a portrait of Adasiewicz I shot last April in his attic, where he practices.
Pitchfork Music Festival begins today, and I’ll be shooting video again with my friends Miss Mia and Ratso, hosts of the incredible public access television kids dance show, Chic-a-go-go. When I say incredible I’m not resorting to hyperbole; take a look at this list of past musical guests. I shot the picture above at the ’09 festival, right before (I’ve gotta be honest with you, it may have been after) Mia and Ratso interviewed art rock Baltimoreans Ponytail (that’s Ratso with the corrugated feet; Mia to his right, and the other three are Ponytail).
And for you counter-cultural types, you can get your weird-on at the anti-Pitchfork festival, Bitchpork.
A few weeks ago I spent the afternoon photographing Evanston author and musician Conor Madigan. Here he is in his backyard with an antique mechanical device–called a “typewriter”–that was used in olden times for writing, before the iPad was invented LOL WTF.
I’m excited that a photograph of mine has been selected by the Communication Arts 2011 jury to appear in their Photography Annual 52. The picture is of Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, the frontmen of Christian horrorcore rappers Insane Clown Posse, shot for a Jon Ronson story in The Guardian Weekend Magazine. You can see a behind the scenes shot from that session in the archives, here. Below are pics of the Annual, and also a shot I’ve never shown before, of ICP fans outside the Eagle/Rave after the concert they played the night I photographed them.
Above are three recent tearsheets: At The Movies co-host Ignatiy Vishnevetsky photographed at one of the Music Box projection booths for CS Magazine; furniture designer and photographer Bladon Conner shot at his studio for Luxe Magazine; and recording artist Dexter Tortoriello captured at my studio for the Reader.
Last month I shot Ameya Pawar for an inspiring Reader cover story written by indispensable investigative reporter Ben Joravsky, who explained:
Ameya Pawar, the 30-year-old rookie candidate, pulled off the upset of upsets in (the 47th) ward…A month or so ago, most folks in the ward didn’t even know his name; many of them still don’t know how to pronounce it…as the days drew closer to the February 22 election, it was like an ocean wave rising for him. He won 50.8 percent of the vote, just enough to avoid an April 5 runoff.
Below is an outtake and the final cover (March 3, 2011). Zeus blessed us with a breathtaking magic hour sky.
Last Wednesday I photographed Chicago Symphony Orchestra‘s music director and conductor, Riccardo Muti, in his dressing room at Orchestra Hall during an interview with Dennis Polkow, for New City.
Muti is returning to work after an accident last February (he fainted at the podium during a rehearsal, resulting in facial fractures). The maestro will conduct Verdi’s Otello tomorrow–April 7th–and also on April 9th and 12th. More info on the concerts here.
One of my favorite people to photograph, Bobby Conn, is playing this Thursday at Chicago’s awesomest music venue, the Hideout. I shot the top picture last September, in Conn’s front yard; I took the bottom one in 2006 on the set of a Bobby Conn music video directed by Usama Alshaibi.
At Metro last Saturday night I shot The Dismemberment Plan for the Reader. Below are a couple outtakes: top pic is JC Brooks (& the Uptown Sound); bottom is Dismemberment Plan’s lead guitarist.
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