Claude 2007 versus Clint Eastwood 2008
posted December 31st, 2009categorized under Hollywood, portfolio outtakes
|
I’ve known Claude for years. She has been on and off the road as a messenger for a while now and has also worked with the boys at Le Grand Cycle. Back in May of 2007, after talking for years of doing some kind of portrait shoot, we met up after one of her shifts at the bike shop and cranked out some shots around the neighborhood. I don’t think any of those ever made it into my portfolio. They were cool shots, but didn’t strike me as We eventually made our way into a neat abandoned building on Sherbrooke near St-Hubert. On top of being a kick ass cyclist, Claude is also a rock climber. I liked the broken lightbulb hanging from the wire in the background and saw a rock on the ground. I basically instructed her to pick up the rock like she was gonna smash somebody’s head in. Yeah, I’m that kind of creative director… Over a year and a half later, I started seeing posters for Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino movie. The body language and angles and even lighting are eerily similar. And to top if all off, the movie poster is not even a conceptualized photograph, it is a conceptualized graphic montage based on a screensave from the movie. Check out the original shot of Eastwood here. I’ve got a sizable dossier of freaky coincidences like this. It’s basically a huge compliment to realize that (1) great minds think alike and (2) I produce images with a budget of zero that are on par with mega-budget commercial projects. I’ll release a few of these online in the upcoming days… |
||
 |
||
 |
|
 |
Minor / wear a suit on the road day
posted October 31st, 2009categorized under portfolio outtakes
Tonight involved hanging out under the zapping heaters at Foufs under the somewhat chilly rain, catching up with Montreal friends I love after not seeing most of them since Tokyo. Foufs is another home away from home with another tribe that is my family – you all know who you are.
Minor was rocking an Angus Young outfit for the road and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot him. I love shooting in the rain, the streets get shiny and reflect all the lights. Mad props to my queen Kathleen for helping me with some remote kick flash and managing traffic for us. Bonus shout out and gracias to mister JC for hooking me up with some nice gear to shoot with.
Indeed, tonight was another great night to ride and shoot with friends.
I’ll see y’all at the race tomorrow afternoon.
Course Des Morts 2009 Montreal
posted October 30th, 2009categorized under Course Des Morts, portfolio outtakes
So… it’s already Halloween and that means La Course Des Morts!!
Thanks to Minor for organizing the race and to all checkpoint volunteers. I dug out an old shot I took of Caro two years ago, not only does she have the best skull make up I’ve ever seen on a messenger for a Halloween race, but she is Miss Belleville and Belleville hooked up lots of the sponsors… so I thought that these two images go rather well together.
It’s not going to be as bone-cold as last year, but it will be wet… I’ll see everybody at Foufs tonight and during the race/afterparty tomorrow.
 |
|
|
Lukas & Eden
posted August 19th, 2009categorized under portfolio outtakes
This weekend, my long-time homeboy Lukas Zpira, French master of the blade, was in town with Eden Berlin for a super quick two-day visit.
I’ve known Lukas for ten years, we catch up every now and then in Montreal, Toronto or New York when he’s on this side of the planet. This time we hadn’t even talked about shooting, I was honestly more concerned with hanging out – sometimes photography feels like work to all of us and we just want to chill. In the end, I brought my old camera along with me, just in case.
One thing led to another and we drove out for a totally improvised and impromptu photoshoot under the train tracks. This is just a teaser of what was going on when the cops showed up… I’ll release more in a future portfolio…
benoit / tomoe
posted May 12th, 2009categorized under portfolio outtakes
I shot Benoit on a really nice snowy day in December. He was walking out of an office building on de Maisonneuve, saw me with my camera and jumped into a snowbank. I wasn’t expecting him to do that and my sequence was blurry. As he was walking away, I shot this instead.
Tomoe and I shot skateboard stunts during the Christmas holidays – it seems that was the only time that worked in our respective schedules. It was fucking cold and the streets were covered in salt. I asked him to ride handstands on his skateboard downhill against one-way traffic in the middle of Berri street – the light was nicer that way.
Photographers are nothing without the amazing participation of those they shoot.
 |
|
|
