“It just hasn’t set in yet.”
- John Dubeau, firefighter, Boston, Ma.

“It’s just so big in there. There’s a lot of anger amongst the firefighters, after losing so many.”
- Sean Summers, nurse, Foxbro, Ma.

“It’s very depressing. I’ve lost thirty-four of my friends i work with.”
- Paul Mazzilli, firefighter, Brooklyn

Ryan Reynolds & Jason Bateman shot for Empire magazine

Last month we did a fun shoot with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the golf course, obviously! I have to say she was great to work with and quite malleable. I use that expression in terms of how open a subject is to ideas. Sometimes, with high profile people, you just never know. It can go either way. But i think after having been doing this for twenty years or so, that’s where the experience comes in. Knowing when and how to open your big mouth. This is in itself the art of portrait photography if you ask me. Anyway, the other personally gratifying aspect of this shoot, is that i was in effect backing up a personal photo- hero of mine, none other than the great Walter Iooss jr, who i believe was originally slated for this shoot. It feels great to be in such good company. You can read the full article here: http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2011-06/condoleeza-rice-interview

I spent a couple of days in New Orleans hanging with and shooting Greg Dulli, former frontman of the Afghan Whigs, and currently of The Twilight Singers. Let me tell you, these guys can play. And drink. And eat. But then again, what would you expect in New Orleans. Also Greg is the owner of the uber-cool hangout ‘The R Bar’, where much of our shoot took place. If you find yourself down in N’arleans, you gotta go check it out. Monday’s special is $10 for a shot and a haircut! Seriously. There’s even an old- school barber chair at the bar.

We just shot this cool little piece at the end of the L.A. Marathon this past weekend. It’s not very often you get these kinds of raw shooting conditions here in L.A., so we wanted to be sure to capture the runners experience as much as possible. After two monitor break- downs, multiple zip lock rain covers, repairing gear in a ‘port-a-loo’ and two complete sets of ruined clothes, the torrential pouring rain finally got the better of us. But the conditions certainly made for a very authentic cast of characters. Couldn’t have wished for better conditions really!

I’m pleased to announce our first collaboration with an online- only magazine, Wavelines from Nomad Editions, clearly signalling the ipad-ization of the publishing industry. I may be an idealist, but i’m also a pragmatic realist, and the ipad-istic magazine is the future my friends, whether you like it or not. Me, personally, yeah i love print, nothing is better than holding your published work in your hands. But let’s face it, the future is the digital press. To me there’s no question about it, and you just have to run the numbers yourself to figure it out. The other bonus of this project is i got to work with photo- editing rockstar Laurie Kratochvil, who surprised with an out of the blue call while checking into my hotel in New Orleans last week (where ironically enough, i was sans-wifi to view said online magazine).
The only problem with this format is over the past twenty years i’ve painstakingly managed to build an archive of most of the magazines my work has been published in ( the ones i know of at least), but how the heck do you archive a website?

Here’s a great post blog post from my rep Wonderful Machine on our recent adventure-filled shoot with John Mellencamp.

Thursday November 11th, 2010

Robert Gallagher has risked his life for rock n’ roll. The LA-based WM photographer recently had a potentially jarring experience involving famed rock star John Mellencamp and a three-foot blade pulled from the top of a walking cane. According to the profile in Q Magazine, Mellencamp started the photo session by “swishing about” said blade, declaring, “alright, you’ve got 30 f***ing minutes!”

Mellencamp, apparently, is not fond of photo shoots. But where a lesser photographer may have faltered, Robert, undeterred, rose to the occasion. “That pretty much set the tone for the afternoon,” Robert told me. “But to be perfectly honest, it didn’t bother me. I didn’t feel he was really trying to threaten or scare me.” Though Robert wasn’t scared, the article describes Mellencamp delivering a knockout punch to a previous photographer, who invaded the temperamental rocker’s personal space to make adjustments. Nevertheless, Robert had a strategy:

“I was confident that if I just focused on my thing, to capture the devil-may-care artist, then he’d get it and be on board with me creatively. And that’s pretty much what happened. In fact, the 30 minutes turned into 50, which his manager pointed out never happens, with a quick jaunt around the area in his little bone-jarring ATV to shoot some artworks he’s collected.”

I caught up with Q photo editor Russ O’Connell to hear a little bit about why Robert was such a good fit for this assignment. “I knew that I could depend on Robert to shoot him in his natural environment, his home,” Russ explained. “We were lucky to have unrestricted access to John at his home and Robert’s work fits perfectly with the type of images I was looking for, nice raw uncomplicated portraiture. He’s also great at that important reportage angle that I needed for the feature… what you see is what you get with his work, and that’s down to his skill in camera.”

Robert is “particularly proud” of this shoot. First of all, he admires Mellencamp for “his political beliefs, despite the negative attention he draws. He is someone I greatly respect for standing up and being counted.” The wider reason is that he sees Mellencamp as an “outspoken cultural icon, a driven creative spirit, and someone whose sounds represented the freedom of the American spirit, which we’d crank full blast out of a convertible Triumph Spitfire back in our college days in North East England.”

-Asad

Everyone’s favourite vampire Robert Pattinson is our first cover in china. It’s actually a pretty nice looking magazine, i have to say i’m impressed. http://emag.bundpic.com/

The writer Bret Easton Ellis, shot at his home in West Hollywood. He challenged me “I’m so bored with all the photo shoots done in this house, every conceivable angle has been shot to death. I defy you to shoot an original picture”. Allrighty then! I think it works quite well, particularly the shape of the legs in the frame.

from a shoot with author Daniel Suarez. I highly recommend his book ‘Daemon’, kind of like Matrix meets The Social Network meets War Games. very topical for these web dominated times.