I photographed Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy for the March issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
portraits
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
The New York Times published a fascinating, heart-wrenching feature yesterday, called The Lives They Loved. They asked readers to send a photograph of a loved one who died last year; I submitted a picture of my close friend Diane Izzo.
I shot this self-assigned portrait at my studio last week. The lunar inhabitants pictured are aerialists Laura Left and Helena Right of the duo Ambidextrous. (here’s an earlier post with a shot of them in the air at a lower altitude). The set was painted by the masterful artist Ray Borchers.
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 photographed Jason Polan in New York a few weeks ago, and it looks like he drew me as well. He’s on a mission to draw every person in New York; he also once drew all the people in People.
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.
Ariele Ebacher
Amanda Crockett
Ambidextrous
Zoppé Circus (photographed in 2008)
Mike Reed, the man behind the curtain.
Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusements happens this weekend at Eckhart Park, and from all indications it promises to be fooking righteous. Here you can read about the multitude of attractions available to all comers.
The amazing women featured in the top three photos will perform at the show with El Circo Cheapo Cabaret. I shot those portraits recently for a project I’m working on involving acrobats, aerialist, and other circus artists. Also appearing this weekend will be the incredible Zoppé Circus. The suave dude in the bottom picture waiting for a drink is composer, drummer, and culture kingpin Mike Reed, who created BCPA. You might remember him from this post or if not that one, maybe it was this one.
(All photos by Jim Newberry.)
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).
Next week I begin a self-assigned project to photograph aerialists, acrobats, and other performers involved with El Circo Cheapo Cabaret, Aloft, and Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusements. I shot the ECCC show last weekend to see the dextorous artists in action before I shoot their portraits.
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.
Here’s a portrait of my friend Katie Stimpson, shot a couple weeks ago in Humboldt Park.
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.
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