Collaborations « Winokur Photography

Collaborations

Meet Velcro and Zero.

This might be the cutest thing you’ve ever seen: Here is Mr. Fox Takes A Nap:

Introducing the adorable Zero and rambunctious Velcro: I had the great fortune to be the first photographer to work with two brand new talents in the industry. Zero, a beautiful Arctic Fox and Velcro the wide-eyed Ring-Tailed Lemur. I’ve been working on an Animal Portrait portfolio for years, I just had the amazing opportunity to photograph an 18-foot Reticulated Python named Lemondrop for California Academy of Sciences. I love making portraits of animals so I’m actively looking for new subjects and clients who share my interest.

The Fantastic Mr. Zero

Velcro the ring-tailed lemur

I found out on Facebook that Bowwow Productions were here in town working with my friends Jennifer Bullock and Tom Hood, they were doing a shoot with a big adorable St. Barnard, but they were traveling with two fresh young faces who had never been in a real shoot before. It was an opportunity for me not only to photograph two of the cutest animals, but to meet and work with Stephanie and Judy from Bowwow. I’m so happy it worked out, it was great fun for everyone and I’m very happy with these new additions to my collection of animal portraits. Check out Winokur Photography to see more photos of Zero and Velcro.

Zero is an Arctic Fox - Vulpes lagopus

There is something about a studio-portrait of an animal that I find endlessly fascinating. The thing is, and this is true for much of my work, by removing every element except the subject and the relationship between the viewer and the subject, we create an image that allows us to believe in a personal connecting with the sitter. An introduction if you will. Photographs of these animals in the wild can certainly be beautiful and fascinating, but by photographing them in a neutral setting we have the opportunity to focus on their eyes, expression and body language. These are character studies just like the portraits of people I make.

I knew it would be huge fun to have a fox and a lemur in my studio, so I recruited my brother, Stephan, to shoot some video while we worked. I edited his footage and put together this 2 minute video showing us working with Stephanie and Judy of Bowwow Productions:

Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Editorial / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 2 Comments
9
Aug 11

New client and new friends

I wanted to work with Yoga Journal from the time I started my own yoga practice. As soon as I was introduced to Yoga I became creatively inspired by the strength, beauty and grace of the practice. I began seeking out yogis to photograph. Like dancers yogis have an awareness of their bodies that makes them a pleasure to photograph. Last December, after pestering Creative Director, Charli Ornett and Art Director, Ron Escobar for some time I was given my first assignment for the magazine.

Since December we have worked together regularly – except a brief hiatus after my knee surgery. It should be no surprise that the team from a magazine like Yoga Journal is an absolute pleasure to work with and have in the studio. The shoots are busy and we have a lot to produce each day but it feels more like having friends visit then a busy production day. Since December we’ve worked on projects for the section Home Practice, two feature stories and a video.

This video, an interview with yoga instructor, Kia Miller was a last minute request from the magazine. I had worked on several video projects but hadn’t shot lip-synch sound before. Since I didn’t trust the 5d for audio I ran around and pulled together a mixer and wireless mic in time for the shoot. Any photographer who considers film-making of interest should begin paying close attention to sound in film and take sound as seriously as pictures in their motion projects. Audio mixing is one of the next things on my self-education to-do list.

Most of the time I am looking for the moment. Dancing with a subject finding the best way to express an idea. Because YJ wants to show perfect yoga poses the methodology of their shoots is unique. We have to show the perfect expression of each pose. Conceptually, It’s as if our whole team is doing the pose together breathing into it, finding the right depth and angle. The picture is that moment when we were all in tune on that same breath.

Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Filmmaking / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 3 Comments
4
Aug 11

Producing Small Pleasures

Small Stuff:

“Enjoy the simple things.” It’s a cliché. The kind of unwanted advice you get when you’re fighting with the big things. However once you realize that something small gives you a tickle of pleasure, like a warm welcome home from your cat or dog, it can be amazingly satisfying to pay that little moment an undue amount of attention. This concept grew into the film project I’m debuting here. No spoilers, but this is the first in a series of shorts called Life’s Small Pleasures. It’s about one of the little things we enjoy in our home. Please take 2 minutes to watch, we had a great time making this and learned a lot on the way. If you like it I hope you’ll share this link with your friends.

For me making new work isn’t just a small pleasure. It’s where my energy and happiness come from. As a result I’m always looking for my next project. Life’s Small Pleasures came to me one day while I was watching the structure of broadcast commercials. Isn’t that a great way of saying I was “working” when I was really watching TV? From that moment I started figuring out how to execute it. Like most photographers I’m always pushing myself creatively and technically. Lately that means exploring motion and learning the tools and techniques of that media.

This short film was a personal project. I was the producer, director, editor and chief instigator but I didn’t do it alone.

Film-making requires a team. We keep our crew small, tight and nimble. For this project I had help from the start from my friends at Artist Untied. Artist Representative Samantha Sommatino and I talked about the idea and she suggested stylists I could work with. Then CEO and Creative Director Jon Lucca got involved, he provided invaluable support. Artist Untied put Ken Baldwin on the project, he not only worked on props and wardrobe but he took the lead on casting. Renee Rael provided hair and makeup styling. I brought in my usual crew including Mike Blumenfeld (gaffer / assistant) and Chrysta Giffen (retoucher / colorist). This is partly because I love working with them and also because I want my motion production to run hand in hand with my still productions. I want my crew to be as comfortable changing production hats as I am.

The shoot:

By the time we had the video production moving forward and knew what location and talent would be required it was clear that we would be well-served to combine a still lifestyle project with the film production. This is what clients are requesting so why not do the same for ourselves. What we didn’t do was try to shoot still and video at the same time. Each art-form has its own creative and technical needs. By breaking the shoot into two distinct days we allowed each its own physical and mental space. Though camera and lighting tools are merging in ways that allow still and motion to come from the same teams and the same equipment each has a different kind of storytelling and directing needs.

We only had one day for the motion project and one for the lifestyle shoot, everyone worked exceptionally hard the results speak for their professionalism and talent.



	
	
		
			[Show as slideshow]

Creating a film and body of images out of a single stream-lined production exemplifies what I love to do for clients. We are already working on the next “Small Pleasure”

Stay tuned.

Collaborations / Editorial / Winokur Photography — No Comments
27
Apr 11

Honored to be part of this winning team:

My portraits of Concorde Memorabilia collector Nathan Shedroff were in the opening spreads of COLORS ISSUE N° 79 “COLLECTOR” here We learned today that the issue won the Silver Cube at ADC. Here is the release:

COLORS ISSUE N° 79 “COLLECTOR” WINNER OF THE SILVER CUBE at THE ADC 90TH ANNUAL AWARD

Treviso, April 27th, 2011. The Art Directors Club (www.adcglobal.org), the premier organization for creatives in integrated media and the first global creative collective of its kind, announced yesterday the winners of its prestigious ADC 90th Annual Awards.

COLORS “Collector”, the magazine‟s Winter 2010/2011 issue, has obtained the Silver Cube in the Editorial Design Category.

COLORS 79 “Collector” is dedicated to those who amass, categorise and catalogue objects of the same type. They may be collectors of nature, works of art or, in most cases, everyday objects which, because they are rare, distinctive or represent something special, become extraordinary cult objects, steeped in memories that feed passions and obsessions.

True to its tradition as a „magazine that talks about the rest of the world‟, “Collector” seeks to celebrate the diversity of local cultures and of creativity, casting a contemporary eye on tradition and crossing the boundaries between ordinary and extraordinary, between reality and representation. These objects of desire, refined, coveted and exchanged, thus become the pretext for a journey into the history of design, graphics and industrial production, and at the same time, into the habits, interests and needs of human beings.

COLORS 79 “Collector” is edited by French designer Sam Baron, in collaboration with the design department at FABRICA, which he directs.

COLORS is a quarterly magazine read by young adults across the world. Established in 1991, under the editorship of Oliviero Toscani and Tibor Kalman, with the premise that diversity is positive but that all cultures have equal value, it is sold in over 40 countries and published in four bilingual editions (English + Italian, French, Spanish and Korean).

Pictures are, above all else, COLORS’ expressive medium: a method that is universal and reaches the greatest number of people with a strong, immediate impact. Using this visual language, COLORS’ themes alternate between the challengingly serious, such as ecology, wars around the world, the fight against aids, and the frankly frivolous such as shopping, fashion, and toys.
www.colorsmagazine.com

The Art Directors Club (www.adcglobal.org) is the premier organization for integrated media and the first international creative collective of its kind. Founded in New York in 1920, the ADC is a self-funded, not-for-profit global membership organization serving as a hub for a broad range of creatives including creative directors, art directors, graphic designers, digital designers, environmental designers, copywriters, illustrators, photographers and others. The club‟s mission is to connect creative communications professionals around the globe, and to provoke and elevate world-changing ideas. It focuses on the highest standards of excellence in communications for the industry, and encourages students and young professionals entering the field. ADC provides a forum for creatives in Advertising, Design, Interactive Media and Communications to explore the direction of these rapidly converging industries.

– Congratulations Fabrica!

-Michael

Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Portraiture / Winokur Photography — No Comments
21
Jan 11

Volunteering making portraits …

Volunteering making portraits of designers for AIGA #cpm11

Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Portraiture / Winokur Photography — 2 Comments
29
Jul 10

AAA Case Study Real People for an honest brand.

Over the last two years I have been working with AAA’s creative director to build a body of portraits of employees, members and executives that tell the “who” of the AAA brand. The images have been used in annual reports, billboards, direct mail, employee facing and outbound collateral. AAA’s goal is to differentiate itself from competitors who are using generic lifestyle images in their collateral. This summer when AAA was working with their agency Eleven on a billboard campaign they presented my portraits of customers as an option for the campaign. This is the work you’ve been seeing around Northern California, Nevada and Utah this month.

AAA_case_study04

What’s real and authentic is what matters.

AAA_case_study06

An authentic company brings real value to the world, and makes the right choices—choices that support the community and the customers that make their success possible. Authentic is honest, and honest is what today’s customer demands.

Real people aren’t models who look like customers—real people are customers. They’re also employees, and executives. They’re the dads, doctors, and kids customers see as the people in their community and themselves. Real people are your most authentic and powerful marketing resource—let them help you tell the brand’s story.

AAA_case_study10

Next I expect to see AAA using employees, like this ERS drive, in internal and external communications.

AAA_case_study11 The portrait photography took place with studios set up in small offices at a casting agency and a recording studio. We were working with AAA members as they were coming in to meet with Eleven to be considered for TV and Radio spots.

AAA_case_study12

These images of employees were for AAA’s annual report, one of the first projects I did for them.

AAA_case_study13

More Versions of the billboard campaign, here in S.F.

and on Rte. 80 in Vallejo

_WIN2332

Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Personal Work and New Images / type 55 — 1 Comment
26
Aug 09

Beijing Street series

A few months ago we had the time and opportunity to visit our cousin Andrey in Beijing. Since I don’t truly understand the concept of a vacation I arranged a ‘fixer’ so I could do a couple days of street portraiture while we were in town. Since my work is all about real people, any pictures I would make there would require a translator, one who understood the culture, languages, photography and production. That’s what a fixer does, more on this later.

It’s hard as an American not to have wildly inaccurate preconceptions about China, most of understand that they make our stuff, own our debt and have some challenges on the human rights front. All I can really report from our brief time in Beijing is, whatever you expect to find there you will be surprised. At this moment ~~progress~~ change in Beijing is, and has been, so fast that even the locals can’t find there way around. Seriously, some of the roads are so new the cabbies don’t know where they go.

The result of all the new building (they’ve had the best architects in the world working overtime) and the rapid cultural and economic development is a duality between new and old that seems present in every aspect of life. This uneasy and very rapid mix of the new into a very old place manifests itself physically in the streets and buildings, culturally in the art, politics and clothes and psychologically in the outlook of young and older generations

Heading to Beijing I knew my ability to make images in China would be limited, I was traveling light I had two days to shoot maybe a half day to scout and no special access. Given those limitations I feel that this shoot was a successful effort for two reasons. I know what I do and we’ve done this kind of street portrait project before. So my scope was narrow. I immediately found one thing about Beijing, the mix of old and new, to be interested in. So that was the assignment I gave myself: Real Beijingers showing elements of new and old China. Does it sound too simple? I think one of the biggest challenges photographers run into with their personal projects is they bite off more then they can shoot. If you assign yourself to photograph “Cultural Change in Neocapitalist China” you best have some time to commit. Finding something you can do well with the resources available is just as important as finding the ideal project.

The other critical element for this shoot was the ‘fixer’ Lin Jing. We really got lucky finding her. She was amazing. Her tireless energy and willingness to approach strangers on our behalf really made the shoot work. I ended up finding her through my old college friend Kay Chin Tay in Singapore who knew a guy named Tobie Openshaw who was in Beijing who knew Noah Weinzweig a Canadian ex-pat and producer extraordinaire who hired Lin Jing for us. If you need a Red camera in China, Noah is the guy to call. Noah also produced for Edward Burtynsky. When he told me this I was honestly a little skeptical. There are lots of people who will tell you about how they assisted for Nat. Geo or whatever. Well I just saw the documentary on Burtynsky, “Manufactured Landscapes” and there’s Noah translating, rallying people and loading 4×5 – he is the real deal.

Well the work is finally online here: winokurphotography.com I hope you will take a look. One last step for us, sending prints to everyone we photographed. As always a BIG big up to my crew on this project: Iana Simeonov, Lin Jing and Chrysta Geffin.

-Michael