Dan: artexchange

This past July, I almost met Dan at a party.

But I didn't. A week or so after, he emailed me and asked me if I'd been there. I replied yes and we started chatting. Through the course of the conversation it came out that he was an artist, and I was really amazed by his work, so when he asked me to sit for him, I jumped at the chance.

We set a date in early August and everything was good to go, except he had to postpone, and we failed to reschedule right away, and then we lost touch for a bit. So it goes. Until December when we started chatting again, quite regularly, getting to know one another and firing off messages like old friends. So it was natural that we decided to reschedule, and Dan liked the symbolic gesture of starting out the new year with me as his subject. I did too, and I came up with a new idea: though the thrust of our meeting would be for him to use my image in his artwork, maybe I should take some pictures of him at the same time, as a counterbalance. Dan liked the idea, and this is the result.

Butter made a guest appearance.


Dan is exactly three weeks older than I am and to date, the only person born in the same year as me that I have photographed.

All these photos were taken Jan 13, 2010.
In case you missed it, Dan's website: http://danhalm.com/

Andrew / Studio

I shot Andrew a few weeks ago, in his apartment, as with Antonio, making the best of the situation handed to me. I hoped to get Drew into the studio, and this past week, I did.

Andrew expressed a concern, after the shoot was over, that he hadn't "given" me enough. I had to really disagree. I directed him some, as I do, but he also volunteered a number of poses that created some of the more memorable shots from the session.

The introduction of the pear, however, was my idea, a random bit of prop inspiration. I may explore this imagery more.

All these pictures were taken Jan 11, 2011.

Necessity: Invention

Antonio was practically on his way to the studio for our shoot when it occurred to me: he's driving here, and it's a day and a half after a monstrosity of a blizzard, and the streets are mostly unplowed, and there is absolutely no way he'll be able to park anywhere near here. So I decided to take a gamble and bring my light to his place, aware of the risk of shooting in an unfamiliar space. He was open to the idea of coming to get me (saving me the trouble of carrying the light there) so that was what we did.

I think it worked out. I still have a lot to learn about lighting in unfamiliar spaces, but for a purely improvisational shoot, I'm pleased with the results. They have a graininess to them that adds to the moodiness of the shots I set up, or at least that's how I'm viewing them.


I expect to shoot Antonio again, in my studio this time now that the streets are cleared, hopefully this week.

These photos were taken Dec. 28, 2010.

Simone's Hands

Possibly because Simone is a fan of my work in a way that many of the people I've shot are not, he is aware of my fascination with hands, or possibly because he simply is a very expressive person, he used his hands in very creative ways for the benefit of my camera. I couldn't be happier.

These photos were all taken on Dec 21, 2010

Simone, in character

My second time shooting Simone, this time in the studio. When we shot the first time it was always meant to be an introductory thing, with the idea that we would shoot again soon. It took three months, but we finally did.

Simone is, by his own admission, a big kid. He came with a million ideas and we ended up trying most of them. He is probably the most facially expressive person I've shot to date, so the photos run the gamut from silly to sexy. Accounting for that and the multiple costume changes, it isn't surprising that there's much more variety in the outcome than I normally produce in a single session.


It was a lot of fun. Simone IS goofy, and so am I, so we work very well together. But he's also very sexy, which does not hurt one bit.

These photos were taken on Dec 21, 2010.