This past week Altpick.com featured illustrators Kent Barton, Owen Brozman, John Holcroft and photographer Steve Williams. Here’s a little sample of their work. Enjoy!
Copyright by Illustrator Kent Barton
Copyright by Owen Brozman
Copyright by John Holcroft
Copyright by Steve Williams Photo
The Russian Federation will host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games for the first time since the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Games in Moscow in 1980. Building towards a successful event, the Russian Olympic motto translated (as seen on the poster above) is “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. Scott Council had the pleasure of photographing 89 athletes in 7 days at Smashbox Studio in Hollywood. The ad campaign will help raise funds to support the athletes in their training, traveling and living expenses.
Scott had 20 minutes with each athlete to capture them on both a white backdrop and on a set. Scott managed to do a great job completing the assignment without any hitches.
“The US Olympic teams represent the precise cross-section of the American stratum like nothing else i have ever seen. You have 50/50 men and women, you have the rich and poor and all nationalities. What other event or organization do you have people who lived in their cars when they were kids along side Harvard grads who have had a lot of advantages. What they are and where they come from doesn’t matter they are all united with this love and pride of being on the American team and united in their hard work and determination to be great. In so many ways they represent what makes all human beings great. The idea that hard work, perseverance, and skill are available and attainable to everyone is core to how i see the world. I am an existentialist all the way. I really believe we make our luck and we make our selves great or not great. It really is true that just making it to the Olympics makes you a Champion.” — Scott Council
To see more of Scott Council’s work go to his website
www.scottcouncil.com and his Altpick page.
by Robert Luessen
Some photos can be years in the making — even if we don’t realize it at the time. Would you believe that our latest conceptual portrait started in 2008, only to be finished five years later in 2013? This image took two separate trips to Illinois as well as a costume fashion shoot to finally bring Chris’s vision to life. We wouldn’t necessarily believe it either, but sometimes the truth behind our photos can be stranger than fiction.
So how did this all happen? In a way, it all started with a bow hunter. Shot in 2008 for Field and Stream, Chris traveled to Illinois to spend a few days photographing with outfitter and hunter Tom Ware. Not only did this shoot result in some awesome portraits, but it afforded Chris the opportunity to shoot a few landscape images.
The hero of these landscapes was this image – “Big Tree” as we called it in the studio. A personal favorite of ours, we’ve kept this photo on Chris’s website and in his portfolios through many redesigns and shuffling of our work.
Big Tree was always an excellent landscape, but Chris couldn’t help feeling that the photo needed something more, it needed a story to tell, more of an emotion to convey.
Jump forward to early 2013 to Helen Uffner Vintage Clothing, a large, crowded costume rental warehouse in NYC. Not on assignment, but collaborating with famous company owner and curator Helen Uffner and stylist Gabrielle Rosenberg, Chris and our team found ourselves shooting close to a dozen fashion models in rare and beautiful authentic vintage clothing.
Inspired by the beauty of our talent and the uniqueness of the perfectly curated and styled wardrobe, ideas began to percolate and images started coming to mind. One of these images that we couldn’t escape was the thought of ‘Big Tree’ — this time re-imagined as an enviornmental portrait.
There was only one problem – one distinct problem. Our landscape from 2008 was not quite right. Both technically inferior (shot with a 1Ds Mk II) and compositionally problematic, we knew that a reshoot was in order. A handful of phone calls and reassurances (yes, the tree was still there) later, Chris hopped on a plane to Illinois and found himself retracing his footsteps from 2008, slowly working his way down dirt roads in search of the tree.
Unknowingly years in the making, we’ve arrived at our latest conceptual environmental portrait through the power of collaboration and collective inspiration. We owe an increadibly big thank you to everyone who helped bring this image together: Helen Uffner Vintage, wardrobe stylist Gabrielle Rosenberg, hair & makeup stylist George Kyriakos, makeup artist Gregg Hubbard, makeup artist Michelle Coursey, and producer & casting agent Desiree Kennedy. Last but certainly not least, the owner of “Big Tree” and the surrounding land, David Myers.
To see more of Chris Crisman’s photography go to his website and Altpick page.
by Matthew Bowie
I recently traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida to attend the USS St. Lo & Task Unit 77.4.3 (Taffy III’s) annual reunion. The reunion is to pay tribute to and remember the men of Taffy III that were killed in the Battle off Samar, one of four engagements in the larger Leyte Gulf campaign during World War II. This sea battle was the greatest naval struggle in the history of the United States Navy.
The attacking Japanese combatants, including the Yamato, the largest battleship in the world, outnumbered the US Naval task unit by 23 to 13 and outweighed Taffy by a factor of 6 to 1. But, by shear gallantry, guts and gumption the U.S. held off the Japanese fleet, after 2 1/2 hours of heavy attack and became the protector and savior of General McArthur’s famous promise to the Philippine people – -“I shall return”.
The USS St. Lo had received no significant damage from the battle and seemed unscathed. However, just after the fighting had stopped a single Japanese kamikaze fighter plane crashed into the ships flight deck, resulting in subsequent explosions of St.Lo’s armaments, which eventually sunk the entire ship.
126 men lost their lives. Robert Schueler, who is my grandfather, was the only individual attending the Reunion from the USS St. Lo among the few remaining survivors still living. This trip allowed me to learn a great deal about my grandfather and the men that fought in WWII. I also got to meet one other Taffy III attendee, Fred Graziano, off the destroyer escort USS Dennis, which had also been very instrumental in the battle.
I naturally planned on bringing my camera to document the reunion and my other family members that attended the event. The images I captured are an overview snapshot of my trip involving my family, grandfather and the events of the reunion.
I find it interesting that my mother, aunts, cousins and myself would not exist had my grandfather been killed on the USS St. Lo on October 25, 1944, when he was just 19. I am so grateful for all the men that fought in WWII.
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Photographer Matthew Bowie’s career began as a photojournalist and now spends more time producing images for advertising and editorial work. “I love working collaboratively to create an image that captures the authenticity of a person or place. The reality of a person, place or idea is what motivates my images.”, says Bowie.
Illustrator Carson Ellis created ICON8’s
beautiful art for one of the sides’ of the poster (the other side is by Paul Buckley). Captures the essence of the conference’s location in Portland, Oregon. Carson, who lives in the Portland, will grace the ICON stage as one of their speakers. You may know Carson from her best-selling children’s book collaborations with Lemony Snicket and Colin Meloy or her work with the Decemberists and Weezer. Check out some of these amazing books.
ICON8 is scheduled for July 10-July 12, 2014 at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. To register at the early rate, click here.
Recent Blog Posts:
It’s October…World Series Time!
Check out baseball illustrations by CF Payne, Rudy Gutierrez, Maria Corte Maidagan, Gary Kelly, Mark Summers, James Bennett, Mark T Smith, Bill Sanderson, Guy Stauber, Tim Bower, Ricardo Martinez, Paul Cox, Thomas Ehretsmann, Douglas Smith, Ted Wright, and Gregory Manchess and some famous baseball quotes. See all of the images here.
Christoph Martin Schmid’s “Trouble in Paradise”
A true globalist, Christoph’s passion for conceptual storytelling and carefully crafted imagery led to the unique visual style that characterizes his work in this book. Read the interview here.
ICON8 ‘Work & Play” Poster – 
Vice President and Creative Director at Penguin Books, Paul Buckley is no stranger to the ICON Conference. He designed this spectacular alternative poster for ICON8, which will take place in Portland, OR next year. Look deep into the eight and you will discover amazing things. To register and get more information, click here.
Why do these people smile? – Scott Lowden photographed the folks at a notorious apartment building, 1050 Ponce De Leon Place, in Atlanta GA, surprisingly, Scott was able to capture the genuine reason why these people are always smiling. Read Scott’s post here.
Chris Crisman’s ‘Dia De Los Muertos’ Portraits
Dia de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico and in other cultures around the world as a way to celebrate and remember those who’ve passed. Read more here.
Just in Time for Halloween – John Kuczala photographs the darker side of your desk, Spooky Office! See more here.
See more of the artists’ work on their altpick.com pages.
Dia de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico and in other cultures around the world as a way to celebrate and remember those who’ve passed. As part of photographer Chris Crisman’s ‘Unforgettable San Antonio Tourism Campaign”, Chris spent a day in the studio shooting these made-up marauders.
The ‘Unforgettable San Antonio’ project afforded Chris the unique opportunity to create dozens of characters for the final composite shots — characters that they spent almost two weeks in the studio earlier this year.
Chris knew that the light had to compliment the mysterious nature of their subjects, so they opted for a combination of a gridded octabank and 10 degree gridded flash head to focus on the light to create the dark and deliberate mood.
The incredible artistry of Photographer Chris Crisman and his team including special effects makeup stylist Lawrence Mercado, hair & makeup stylist Alyssa Garcia and wardrobe stylist Bonnie Markel.
The whole day was recorded in a time-lapse. The cameras started rolling early in the AM and kept on rolling until the final wrap and beer at the end of the day.
To see more of Chris Crisman’s work go to his website and Altpick page.
John Kuczala photographs the darker side of your desk, Spooky Office!
See more of John Kuczala’s work on his website and Altpick page.
Illustration by CF Payne “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” — Ted Williams
Illustration by Rudy Gutierrez “The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.” — Jackie Robinson
Illustration by Maria Corte Maidagan “Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.” — Robert Frost
Illustration by Gary Kelley “The strongest thing that baseball has going for it today are its yesterdays.” — Lawrence Ritter
Illustration by Mark Summers “Above anything else, I hate to lose.” — Jackie Robinson
Illustration by James Bennett “A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.” — Earl Wilson
Illustration by Mark T Smith “I could have played another year, but I would have been playing for the money, and baseball deserves better than that.” — George Brett
Illustration by Bill Sanderson “Baseball is a fun game. It beats working for a living.” — Phil Linz
Illustration by Guy Stauber “If you go to a game nervous, you make a mistake.” — Miguel Cabrera
Illustration by Tim Bower “There are three types of baseball players: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happens.” — Tommy Lasorda
Illustration by Ricardo Martinez “In baseball, you don’t know nothing.” — Yogi Berra
Illustration by Paul Cox “Baseball is like church. Many attend few understand.” —Leo Durocher
Illustration by Thomas Ehretsmann “How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.” — Jackie Robinson
Illustration by Douglas Smith “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I stare out the windown and wait for spring.” — Rogers Hornsby
Illustration by Ted Wright “Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober elf-esteem.” — Saul Steinberg
Illustration by Gregory Manchess “You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. —Jim Bouton
Originally posted on Richard Solomon’s blog.
A true globalist, Christoph Martin Schmid has worked successfully in film and photography all over the world. His passion for conceptual storytelling and carefully crafted imagery led to the unique visual style that characterises his work. Now with his new book out, “Trouble in Paradise”, Christoph gives Altpick a little insight on his fascination with human nature and storytelling.
AP: Christoph, how did “Trouble in Paradise” come about? Are any of the photos based on real life experiences?
CMS: I specialize in conceptual photographic storytelling and I am fascinated by human nature in all it’s comic absurdity. I do not sketch my stories from direct observation but draw from memories which I rearrange and put into new contexts to come up with the scenarios. So I guess you can say it is based on real life experiences.
AP: How do you begin the process of coming up with the idea for each image? Did you sketch it out first, brainstorm on the idea with a team or did you start with a simple idea that evolved on set or in post production?
CMS: I work in conceptual series which set a theme for the images to be created. Once this theme is defined I think up the scenarios. I usually work on my own in this phase of sketching out the images. Sometimes I bounce some of the ideas with friends, but usually that just results in people declaring me being mad, so it doesn’t help much to discuss the ideas before the shoot. But in post production I work closely with my post producer and we discuss how to design the image in a way that the message can be universally perceived.
AP: Where do you call home? Is it your ideal choice and why? Do you feel a city inspires your creativity?
CMS: I lead a somewhat nomadic lifestyle. The last couple of winters I have spent in Cape Town, which offers fantastic locations and production facilities. During summer I divide my time between New York and Berlin. This moving around between different worlds inspires my creativity. The ideas for the stories in the Trouble In Paradise book originated when my Berlin and New York influenced mindset collided with the locations and the postmodern Anglo-Saxon society present in Cape Town.
AP: Your images sometimes are humorous, does that tie into your personality? How would you describe yourself?
CMS: I am always up for a good laugh, rather looking at the bright side of life. But regarding the humor in my work: maybe humor is simply a funny way of being serious.
AP: I always love to ask people what is their favorite food, but more precisely what is their favorite food ingredient? I happen to like anything with garlic.
CMS: I like freshly ground black pepper and a really good and tasty olive oil as my favourite ingredients.
In the three conceptual chapters of Trouble in Paradise, Christoph presents his impressions of our postmodern society, dominated by the paradox of the self. The individual striving for perfection in an imperfect world. Christoph staged situations showing the subject engaging in ambitious endeavours, which Christoph manages to capture the emotional tension in his work while maintaining a sense of lightheartedness and ease. Trouble in Paradise is now available on Amazon.
To see more of Christoph Martin Schmid’s work go to his website and Altpick page.
