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Welcoming in a New Year

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

from In Memorium
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

South Wacker Drive New Years Eve 2010
The last image I made in 2010

It seems to be becoming a ritual for me to go out just before the New Year and make a few images and this year, just like last, I found myself in Chicago doing just that.

What I was trying to capture with this image was the sense of duality on Wacker Drive. Lower Wacker Drive has always fascinated me and has shown up in several of my other images in various forms, but as I was crossing this bridge I noticed the opening that allowed me to see both lower and upper Wacker Drive, so I composed this image which shows a night scene above ground with colorful incandescent lighting and the city lights reflecting off the fast moving clouds above, and the even warmer sodium vapor light spilling out the opening below.

There is an obvious juxtaposition at that opening also, where the trees and grass are fenced off from the concrete cavern.

From Wacker Drive I drove up north to have drinks and toast the new year with some friends, and on my way home I decided to make my first image of 2011 at the Water Tower on Michigan Ave. for no other reason than I thought it somehow a fitting beginning to a year that holds a lot of hope for so many.

Chicago Water Tower on Michigan Ave
My first image of 2011

Friday Night Lights, Guangzhou, China

Guangzhou is a big city in southern China just a few hours drive north of Hong Kong. Because I had to wait for my Chinese visa to be issued in HK I had a very limited amount of time in Guangzhou, but the thing that is really striking about the city is the way it is lit up, as though the entire city takes part in a celebration of light when the sun goes down.

I’ve been told that Guangzhou is very a-typical for Chinese cities and that it is a very new city, in fact the part I was photographing was less than a decade old and partly still under construction. Perhaps this is a testament to China’s relatively new foray into capitalism and they want to shine a beacon on it.

In the very short time I was in Guangzhou, I learned very little about the city or the Chinese people. But one fact was unmistakeable: the road between Hong Kong and Guangzhou is about 170 km (105 miles) and what I thought might at least partly be a ride through Chinese countryside was one solid mass of humanity. A megalopolis of manufacturing, mid-rise offices and tenements stretching from one huge city to the next.

Hong Kong Saturday Night

This is only my second time to Hong Kong but I love this city. It has a heartbeat like no other I’ve been to: it’s an electric, 60 cycle hum. You can feel it through your feet as you walk on the streets or in your hands as you lean on a railing looking out at Victoria Harbor.

The Funicular railroad that takes you to the peak that overlooks the island is an interesting ride, at one point accelerating while climbing at a 45 degree angle, trundling past the buildings alongside the railroad. Being Saturday evening, the cars were packed and standing in the aisle can be challenging at best. Most people in Hong Kong know this so as soon as the doors open, getting into the train is a free-for-all that is mostly elbows and attitude. But once you get to the top you know that whatever it took to get there was worth it.

Hong Kong at Night from the Peak
Hong Kong at Night from the Peak

The road to Delhi

I spent 48 hours in Delhi India which is a world of contradictions. Overcrowded and loud, traffic zips by you at breakneck speed, or is at a complete standstill. Driving seems tactile: all flashing headlights and blaring horns mixed in with a little dare-devil-may-care attitude. Brand new, high tech architecture rises out of dirty, broken-down streets. And yet there are moments of complete serenity.

Red Sari and Blue Door
Woman in red sari and blue door

Monterey Auto Week and Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

Monterey Auto Week has got to be one of the finest collections of rolling art on the planet and the pinnacle of the entire week is the Concours d’Elegance where 175 of the finest collector cars in the world roll onto the legendary 18th fairway at Pebble Beach.

I was there this past week to shoot some 3D car footage with the guys from 21st Century 3D, but managed to get a few stills of my own during a frantic week of chasing cars all over the peninsula.

My Image honored in 4th Photography Masters Cup

One of my photos from the Derby Dolls collection has been honored with Nominee status by the International Color Awards’ Photography Masters Cup.

Derby Dolls starting line
Click to enlarge

This is an enormous honor for me as my image has been selected by some of the greatest names in photography, publishing and advertising from National Geographic, Phaidon and Esquire to Christies of New York. As a Nominee my image will be featured in a film presented by World Photographic Arts Films, and may be chosen for publication in The Photo Paper magazine.

This image comes from a series shot during one match between the Sirens and the Tough Cookies of the LA Derby Dolls roller derby league. You can see the entire series here. My focus for this collection was to capture motion through still photography, but I also managed to capture some nice intimate moments. None of the moving images have been photoshopped beyond normal tone adjustments as has been suggested: they are simple “old school” in-camera effects achieved using a flash and dragging the shutter.

Photography Masters Cup

Carroll Shelby’s Wife drives a mini van

Last week I was working on a project being produced by 21st Century 3D which will ultimately be a 3D Imax film about legendary car builder Carroll Shelby. As much an American Icon as his cars are, Shelby is a true original who, over the course of the past nine decades has been everything from fighter pilot to chicken farmer to race car champion and Philanthropist. Without an engineering background he designed and created cars that crushed then world dominating Ferrari race cars and has gone on to develop some of America’s greatest automobiles. So it was rather humorous, as we shot in his Gardena plant, to see his wife drive up in a generic mini van.

I’ve always been a huge fan of his work and had a rare opportunity to grab a couple stills of the cars in his collection.

The film will likely be in production for some time, but keep a look out for it. I’ve been a big fan of Shelby for a long time and after meeting him, and though he is well into his eighties, he is absolutely a larger-than-life character whose story you won’t want to miss in 3D.