Looking back at September 1993, Bruce Lehman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, at his swearing in ceremony. He was the first openly gay man to be confirmed by the US senate.
Looking back at September 1993, Bruce Lehman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, at his swearing in ceremony. He was the first openly gay man to be confirmed by the US senate.
I appreciate the subtle and quiet pauses. I took this picture 13 years ago. Unwound was playing the Great American Music Hall in support of their latest and last record, Leaves Turn Inside You. I was on assignment to photograph them for Magnet Magazine.
12 years later I posted a photo on Instagram from the portrait session, a phone camera shot of a contact sheet. I hash tagged it #unwound. Justin Trosper, lead singer and guitarist of the band, saw it and asked if I had more. I sent a few and they chose this image of him setting up his gear. Now its the cover of their box set, Empire. The last of a reissue series of their complete recordings put out by Numero Group and all designed by Henry Owings.
Mission Creek Festival promo photo 2002 – variation #1
Mission Creek Festival promo photo 2002 – variation #2
Larry Ellison and Norbert Bajurin at the Golden Gate Yacht Club, SF 2002
In 2002, Ellen Zaslow hired me to photograph Larry Ellison and Norbert Bajurin, the commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club. Julian Guthrie had written a profile about Oracle Racing’s move from the grand St. Francis Yacht Club to the blue-collar Golden Gate Yacht Club down the street. She developed the story further into a book titled, The Billionaire and The Mechanic (Bajurin runs a radiator shop).
When making a portrait, its easy to get stuck on a desired result, to get overly concerned with making your subject look good. The problem with that is you can miss the sublime moments that occur while waiting to capture that garden-variety smile.
Terry Riley, photographed on the UC Berkeley Campus before a performance with Hamza El Din at Zellerbach Hall, 2001.
My cousin’s grandmother at her home in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines 2001
Lola – holding a group photo of her 13 children!
DJ Nobody – Geary Street, San Francisco 2005
Bart Davenport and Marc Capelle, Cafe Trieste, North Beach, SF 2008
Click to see this image bigger
I just saw a news item about Jim Sanborn. 20 years ago the CIA asked artists to submit proposals for artwork to be installed in the New Headquarters Building. His sculpture has a secret code text cut in four copper panels. To this day the whole thing has not been decoded. NPR reported that Mr. Sanborn is submitting a clue to help those hoping to crack the code.
Link to NPR story is here
One of my first assignments was to photograph Mr. Sanborn with one of his pieces at The Phillips Collection. When I was going through my archive I discovered it in my very first portfolio!