After the After Party

You drank a keg of Goose Island and ate some 50 turkey wraps. Last nights studio party was a riot! Thanks to all who came down, and to DJ LA* Jesus, JS Graphics, Helix, and the APA. Now don't forget the cheap studio rental deal the party promoted...
To Chicago crew (assistants, stylists, etc.)...You have no longer have a good excuse to not shoot self-promo work. I'm renting my studio to you for a super cheap rate. $250 for 6 hours (m-f).

Plastic bags and Children

The obvious has always held my fascination. It's usually so blatant it requires no explanation...or does it? I made these pictures as a personal project to explore the obvious safety hazards lurking right in your home. Forget the swine flu or bed bugs, plastic bags are just deadly.
Alas, beauty trumps all hazard. Whatever it took to get parents to let me pretend suffocate their children, was worth it.




Make-up: Karen Brody, Set: Brynne Rinderknecht,
Wardrobe: Julie Korman, Producer: Stephanie Foyer,
Assistant: Phil Dembinski.

Pit bulls and their humans

I'm continuing a series of portraits of pit bulls and their owners
with Pit Bull Training Team. We shot on Sunday in my studio with three pairs of human/ animal teams. Departing from the past, this time I focused on individual personalities. I got a lot from spending time with each separately, learning their unique traits.


Anthony and and his dog, Nino

The program provides young people with an alternative to dog fighting. Most of the Pit Bull Training Team's participants live in an environment in which people are desensitized to violence and dog fighting is the norm.
Special thanks to Alan Rovge for photo assisting.

Angel on the rise-Chicago Magazine

Here's a little something I shot with Chicago Magazine's Jennifer Moore at the School of the Art Institute for the May 2009 issue.


Angel Otero, overwhelmed by success in his ten-by ten-foot studio space.


Angel Otero is a rising art star and he's not yet out of graduate school. Look. He's in a magazine! Angel is showing his work at the NEXT art fair in Chicago beginning May 1.

GI Joe and the girls.


Toy section of the Salvation Army. I totally did not set this up.

Like barnacles on a rock.

OK. I started the dish project, and it took like 30 minutes.
I love to see these in the world. I will collect dish pictures forever!


5 dishes


8 dishes


4 dishes

Two things that are alike.





Hateful Parents

"A Domestic disturbance at Little Fat Charlie's 7th Birthday Party", is the title of a play being produced by Collaboraction Theater at their annual Sketchbook Festival of short plays. Read about it on ChicagoReader.com

For their 9th Sketchbook festival, Collaboraction assigned photographers, one each of the festival's 14 plays and asked us to interpret the play. As told on the Sketchbook website, "This piece tells the fateful tale of Little Fat Charlie's parents on his special day. Bringing the audience on stage and into the action, the ensemble will conduct an audience-performed recreation of this terrible event."