PORTRAITS

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: MATTHEW ROLSTON

Los Angeles-based photographer and director Matthew Rolston has created some of the most iconic imagery of the inhabitants of the celebrity world. He sculptures the who's who of Hollywood and beyond with lighting techniques that are both classic and cutting edge.

SEE THE ARTICLE HERE
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

http://www.amazon.com/beautyLight-Matthew-Rolston/dp/3832792554

Spanning a spectrum from vampish intrigue to retro glamour, celebrity and beauty photographer Matthew Rolston offers us a unique series of photographic portraits. With painterly skill, Warhol's protégé combines elements of style, staging, light and color to create indelible impressions of some of the world's most scintillating and talented people, such as Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Drew Barrymore and Salma Hayek. Rolston's photographs build a stage for his characters, imbuing them with the iconic power of vintage Hollywood at its peak. His distinctive work has been featured in such leading publications as Interview, Harper's Bazaar and Rolling Stone, among many others.

SOME AUTUMN IMAGES...

PORTRAIT BY JEAN DEER

A long time ago, when I was in my early 20's a friend of mine said, “Make sure that at least one time in your life, you have a really excellent portrait taken of yourself…” 

This photograph of me is certainly the one.

The year was 1983, and I was graduating college.  Since I disliked how much my yearbook photo came out, I decided to commission a local photographer whom I heard very good things about.

His name, Jean Deer, with a small studio in Westwood NJ. 

I remember the day fondly.  I went to his studio with a copy of Andy Warhol’s INTERVIEW magazine, known for its stunning photos by artists such as Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber.  There was a great black and white layout of actor Timothy Hutton by Matthew Rolston, and it was totally the look I wanted for my photo. 

When Jean and I met, I expressed the look I was after and I remember saying that I always felt that I come out “fat in the face”!   He laughed, assured me that he’d keep that in mind and shot about 50 images with his Hasselblad portrait camera.

When I went back the following week to see my proofs, I was very excited with the results.  I thought, if I could only look like this all the time!

In hopes of getting a copy struck from the original negative, I found in searching the internet, that this talented man had suffered a stroke over twelve years ago, making it necessary to leave his then profession.

Please see his website to read about his courage.  I hope to meet up with this artist again sometime in the future…

Jean Deer Website

http://adleraphasiacenter.org/

ERIKA DEER WEBSITE

OLYMPUS PEN EES-2

Today I just got some monochrome film developed from my “new” old OLYMPUS PEN EES-2 camera.  I found it in Las Vegas at a great store called LOST VEGAS ANTIQUES.  It is right down the street from the GOLD & SILVER Pawn Shop made famous by the TV show PAWN STARS.  If you are in Vegas, check out the famous shop, but then spend some $$$ at Lost Vegas.  What a great find, as was the cool Olympus Pen from 1968 (a great buy at $27!). 

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, if anything but maybe a roll of black film, and  I didn’t really know what a HALF FORMAT camera was until I had the roll developed, The bottom line is that 2 images that are on 1 frame separated by a black line.  Very COOL!

I was happy with my results, but I need to experiment a whole lot more.

THE SET ON FLICKR

Check out this very cool almost panoramic series of shots that I found on the web. 

AMAZING!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEKEND!

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.

It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's trick-or-treat tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

NEW ORLEANS, OCTOBER 2010

New Orleans has to be one of most favorite cities.  How lucky am I to have an office there and get to go on business?  Damn lucky.  My boss Ed loves it there as well and chose this location to have our department's annual meeting!

We flew in Monday night, 10/18, and after checking in to the hotel, we hit  Bourbon St. for some live music and a beer. 

The first day of our conference we had some guest speakers lined up, which continued into the first half of the next day.  Interesting as well as informative on all counts!

That night, after a great dinner at ACME OYSTER, we went on a ghost tour.  Highly recommended!  www.hauntedhistorytours.com

The second day of the conference ended with a "Team Building" exercise which was a scavenger hunt in the famous French Quarter.  The staff was divided into two teams, whichever photographed the most items on the list (100 items!) won a comp day off.  My team was victorious with just under 70 items!

It all ended with a fantastic dinner at Brennen's Red Fish Grill.

Can't wait for the next reason to hit The Big Easy!