Shayna Swanson
Nich Galzin
Duo Rose
Helena Reynolds
Dizzy Lizzy Delicious
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.
Last month I shot a lighting test at my studio with the talented and alluring Ruth Barabe (of the band Bastardgeist, which you might remember from this post). Here are a couple shots from the session.
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.
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 shot this portrait of Chicago blues musician Al Harris in 2002, with a Kodak Stereo camera, on loan from my dad.
Chicago South Siders Olive, Nat, Michelle, and Rose.
