Vampire Weekend, Phoenix and Grizzly Bear shot for the Hot Bands issue of Q. Each picture had to feature fire. It is tricky to get permits around New York for this kind of production, so I decided to imagine the flames while shooting the bands, then later had fun with it at my farm upstate where I could freely burn anything I wanted without getting arrested. Gasoline, rubber cement and lighter in one hand, camera in the other, I shot all the flames I needed for making these shots work.
On their last issue ESPN did a double cover, the front cover with a hand holding up tickets and the question: Who is the No 1 franchise in American sports? The hand in German (mine), but the two fingers are Mexican (Rene's). The sky and tickets are all genuinely American
when you peeled the first cover with the hand and tickets you get to the 2nd cover, and the winner is...the Angels. In this group portrait are the owner of the team Arte Moreno, 4 top players, the manager, administrators, vendors, groundskeepers, parking attendants, etc. We were shooting on the grass at the stadium in Anaheim and got permission from Arte himself.
I shot Google CEO Eric Schmidt in London for the UK edition of Wired Magazine. Apparently he was hanging with Prince Charles before he came to the shoot.
Hugh Laurie shot for Parade in the studio in LA. The pictures ties to explain why Hugh is so cool.
I shot the ads for a new show on Fox called Glee at a high school in Long Beach
Pitchmen for free credit report, oxy clean, the swivel sweeper and shamvow as exhibits at a museum of natural history, shot in Miami on a set build by myself, Rene and Jamie. Shamvow Vince Offer got arrested the night after the shoot for hiring a hooker for $1000 and beating her face in. The story was put on ice. Three weeks later the king of infomercials Billy Mays bumps his head on a plane and dies the same day in his sleep. The story was killed.
