Scene-There

The responsibility of dreaming.

2010-01-31T15:53:00.000-08:00

Shirk that responsibility at your own risk.

Hong Kong

2009-08-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

I took a trip to Hong Kong last week to take part in a photojournalist seminar. Long story short, the seminar didn't happen, but I wasn't about to let a 15 hour flight to the most humid spot on earth go to waste, so I hit the streets, mountains, trains, and taxi's to try to photograph this city of soupy air and scenic vistas.

Check out all the photos on scene-there.com

Bodyscape

2009-06-08T16:18:00.001-07:00

Over a year ago I photographed a young woman in a impromptu, artistic nude style that produced some beautiful photographs. Working though my archives a few months ago, I realized that the initial processing, a grainy black and white over-processing did not do the photos justice. I returned to the originals, and started from square one, trying to create a set of photos that gave a sense of mystery and sensuality about the circumstances surrounding them, as well as a sense of confidence on the models part about a part of our lives we censor the most, our bodies.

See all the images at scene-there.com
(NSFW - artistic nudity)

IAMX

2009-06-08T01:02:00.000-07:00

IAMX graced us with a raw, sweat inducing performance at Subterranean last night. While they could have easily sold out larger venues, the choice of SubT and it's notoriously small and bottle necked floor plan work out well for me. I gave the crowd 3 songs to get sufficiently distracted so my apologetic yet forceful swan dive into the sweating mass would go relatively un-noticed. The key is to keep moving, so by the time someone's about to knock you out, your out of reach. I had to make it to stage left front row through 30 feet of angry undulating bodies to take advantage of my remote flash setup, and I have the bruises to prove it.

Anyway, the show rocked sufficiently enough to warrant a 3 song encore. The crowd wanted more, and the only way the band escaped the stage was to sacrafice drumsticks, sweat-towels, and set lists to the teeming masses as a distraction.

Check out the photos on scene-there.com

enjoy.

Vegas Additions

2009-05-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

32mm, 1/200th @ f5.6 ISO 100, flash (monobloc, softbox)

Vegas Additions

2009-05-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

50mm, 1/200th @ f2.5 ISO 200 (natural light)

Vegas Additions

2009-05-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

24mm, 1/200th @ f7.1 ISO 100, flash (monobloc, softbox)

Vegas Hard Rock Hotel Penthouse Shoot

2009-05-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

50mm prime, 1/100th@ f3.2 ISO 320, natural light

From the shoot last week in Vegas. FHM tryout. The Penthouse was amazing, and overlooked the now infamous Sunday night party, (the original) Rehab @ the Hard Rock pool.

The Next Consciousness (Waking Life)

2009-05-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

The Next Consciousness

"If we're looking at the highlights of human development, you have to look at the evolution of the organism and then at the development of its interaction with the environment. Evolution of the organism will begin with the evolution of life perceived through the hominid coming to the evolution of mankind. Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man. Now, interestingly, what you're looking at here are three strings: biological, anthropological — development of the cities — and cultural, which is human expression.

Now, what you've seen here is the evolution of populations, not so much the evolution of individuals. And in addition, if you look at the time scales that are involved here — two billion years for life, six million years for the hominid, 100,000 years for mankind as we know it — you're beginning to see the telescoping nature of the evolutionary paradigm. And then when you get to agricultural, when you get to scientific revolution and industrial revolution, you're looking at 10,000 years, 400 years, 150 years. Uou're seeing a further telescoping of this evolutionary time. What that means is that as we go through the new evolution, it's gonna telescope to the point we should be able to see it manifest itself within our lifetime, within this generation.

The new evolution stems from information, and it stems from two types of information: digital and analog. The digital is artificial intelligence. The analog results from molecular biology, the cloning of the organism. And you knit the two together with neurobiology. Before on the old evolutionary paradigm, one would die and the other would grow and dominate. But under the new paradigm, they would exist as a mutually supportive, noncompetitive grouping. Okay, independent from the external.

And what is interesting here is that evolution now becomes an individually centered process, emanating from the needs and desires of the individual, and not an external process, a passive process where the individual is just at the whim of the collective. So, you produce a neo-human, okay, with a new individuality and a new consciousness. But that's only the beginning of the evolutionary cycle because as the next cycle proceeds, the input is now this new intelligence. As intelligence piles on intelligence, as ability piles on ability, the speed changes. Until what? Until we reach a crescendo in a way could be imagined as an enormous instantaneous fulfillment of human, human and neo-human potential. It could be something totally different. It could be the amplification of the individual, the multiplication of individual existences. Parallel existences now with the individual no longer restricted by time and space.

And the manifestations of this neo-human-type evolution, manifestations could be dramatically counter-intuitive. That's the interesting part. The old evolution is cold. It's sterile. It's efficient, okay? And its manifestations of those social adaptations. We're talking about parasitism, dominance, morality, okay? Uh, war, predation, these would be subject to de-emphasis. These will be subject to de-evolution. The new evolutionary paradigm will give us the human traits of truth, of loyalty, of justice, of freedom. These will be the manifestations of the new evolution. And that is what we would hope to see from this. That would be nice."

We Have Decided Not To Die

2009-04-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Amazing.

Daniel Askill, We Have Decided Not To Die
(via Clayton Cubitt)

2009-04-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Went to Vegas last week for a shoot, and got some cool B-roll images from the trip. Can't post the actual images from the shoot unfortunately, but then, who cares? The house the photographer I'm assisting lives in is Dean Martin's old house out there in Vegas on a gold course. It's a beautiful place, full of crazy art and crazier dogs. I fly back out around the end of the month to do another shoot, and to create a website for said photographer. All in all, a busy month.

(Ohare International Airport at 2am)

(Leaving Los Vegas)

(Dog 1 of 4)

(Bee 1 of 798,554,377)

(2 Ton concrete cornerstone/statuette meant for a skyscraper, now a diving board)
(Cool chandelier from the Dean Martin days)

(Keep Praying)

NYC, March 29, 2009 -Stream of Consciousness Story

2009-03-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago I took caught a quick flight out to NYC for a few days. The city is a living backdrop reflecting each moment grimly as it moves and quakes and breathes. I have been to the city many times, but only ever in the summer months. Winter is not kind to the city. It leaves a raw, sharp edge to catch your breath on, bruising your lungs easily. I started out early in the morning in Times Square, and explored well past 9pm that night. The first photo I tried to take was of a man in full SWAT gear, sub-machine gun at the ready, standing sentry. Orwell would be smug, should he be here today. Big Brother is watching... Around him people flowed like water giving a stone unholy berth, invisible force field not even the rush of the subways crashing waves of people could break. He did not smile.

I walked to and through Central Park, trying to get a sense of the place. Always we see and hear pop-culture references to the park, and in my mind a picture has amalgamated, painting a scene of dark, ominous passageways, creaking, dimply lit pedestrian bridges, rustling in the bushes, and figures in dark sunglasses and Vietnam era army issue jackets huddling in dark groves of trees. Park benches in pools of light framing vulnerable, pretty young women fixing their hair or retying a shoe before jogging on into the darkness, to their fates. Instead, and I believe chiefly because it was mid-morning, the park was far less threatening. In fact, it looked tired. Much work has been done on the paths and playgrounds, bridges and benches, but my truth was less polished and painted. The trees and grass, being winter, were leafless and lifeless respectively. Their silent sentry carried the mood heavily, like a mob man dragging a body, head thumbing dully as is bounced through the cold, spontaneously foul smelling alleyways of Manhattan before being dumped face down in the park, a victim of its own miss-placed hope in the suns warmth.

I made an abrupt exit from the park, and walked north for a block to the subway to take the long journey south to Coney Island. The underground was a damp, chilling cold. The temperature stood in testament to the false warmth of the air above on the sidewalks, and my choice of subway car when it arrived was a poor one, as it too was unheated. I was however, in the unique position afforded me by being in the head subway car, to stand at the very front of the train, looking out the big window, hurtling forward along the dimly lit tracks leading us through the underground of this massive city's underbelly, it's weight supported by Dali-esque crutches of iron and rust. I felt beside myself and buried.

We made the inevitable birth into daylight, jumping up over the cityscape on the now elevated tracks. We were flying above a sea of rooftops awash in graffiti, their night-clad artists nowhere to be seen in this daylight. The steady turnover of passengers was fascinating to watch and I imagined Donnie Darko time-lines emanating from riders chests, guiding them to this little corner of the planet, this particular subway car on this particular track in this particular city... Before each stop, I would try to feel who would get off, and how many people would get on. Then, when the doors slid open, I watched in fascination as timelines peeked around the doorways, followed by weary travelers, or as those exiting the subway car followed their own, impatient timelines out the doorways and off into the world. Then the intercom would vomit a completely un-intelligible announcement, and the doors would slide shut, a whip snapped across the invisible back of a clawed monster that lunged mightily forward, talons tearing at the track. The wheels scream in terror as the subway is dragged off into the darkness.

I followed my own time-line off the train at the Coney Island station, and walked the block and a half to the abandoned fairgrounds. A part of the American Dream was shot execution style here, its blood stained the grounds, and the place washes over you in waves. It feels hallowed, and haunted. In the right light, at the right time of day, and with the right pair of eyes you can still see the bustling thoroughfare all lit up with strings of lights in more colors than the sun. Sparklers and cotton candy men. Then Hunter S. Thompson’s wave broke, and rolled back, leaving here only echo’s and decay. Walking the empty streets between colossal steel skeletons, I photographed sagging buildings cocooned in layers of ancient carnival posters: “Shoot the Freak!” and “Museum of Horrors!” As it always does, the ocean was calling my attention, and I made my way to the beach, and sat. Down by the water a homeless woman soaped a limb at a time, rinsing each off in the ocean’s freezing spray as it sacrificed itself on the breakers. I cupped my hands around the corners of my face, blocking all but the ocean in front of me, and pretended for a moment my back was to an empty ghost city, and the waves were dancing in celebration, here at the end of the world.

-Oliver

Kuroma @ the Metro. March 22, 2009

2009-03-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

The Dark Wave Disco DJ's brought me in to shoot them spinning at the Kuroma/Primal Scream show at the Metro on March 22nd.

Well, being a black hole, I got next to nothing in terms of photos of the DJ's and Primal Scream. The only material that was worth its weight in pixels was the opening act, Kuroma. The lighting engineers decided to be lazy and just bathe the entire stage in red light, which is next to impossible to shoot accurately on digital, but makes for good conversions to black and white. Thus, I did just that, and put together the following images for Kuroma. Check out the full size on scene-there.com

KDM @ RiNo 3-18

2009-03-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

Posted a new gallery from last night's debauchery at the KDM party at RiNo. Click any photo to visit the gallery.

Enjoy.

Manor Rino Kilo Kat Remix

2009-02-07T21:07:00.001-08:00

Enjoy. (click)

Diamonds in the Rough - 2008 Concert Redux

2009-01-23T12:54:00.001-08:00

I started wading through the 500 Gigabytes worth of photos from 2008 last night, and realized I had overlooked a lot of great concert photos, diamonds in the rough so to speak. So, a sufficent distraction from the headhunting at hand being found, I re-processed a lot of old concert work, and am posting it on scene-there.com for your enjoyment.

Unfortunately, I'm so cool I don't remember a few of the bands names that these photo contain, but here's a short list:

-Julien K
-Kill Hannah
-Marilyn Manson
-Ours
-My Chemical Romance
-HIM
-Linkin Park
-Placebo
-Taking Back Sunday
-IAMX

See the whole gallery at Scene-there.com

BK Studio and La Dolce Vita

2008-11-27T14:40:00.000-08:00

Shot La Dolce Vita at Crimson last week. While not many people came, those that did had a blast. The night ended around 5am for me, back at LDV's apartment with some chill people. Got a quick lesson on the decks, so who knows, maybe I'll put the camera down and be a DJ.

(joking)

Got assigned BK Studio's last hurrah here in Bucktown. Badass artists, great music, free booze. Who wouldn't have fun?

Click any photo to visit scene-there.com.

namaste'

Halloween 2008

2008-11-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

Another Halloween has come and gone.

I shot Dark Wave Disco, as many of you know, but what you might not know is that afterwords I had to run over to RiNo to shoot for Tyler (DRD)... There were about 200 people outside, spilling into the street, blocking traffic, being a general mob. I fight my way through, and into the lobby, to be greeted by 10 of Chicago's Finest. The one in white (always the most senior/least sense of humor) was screaming in his best "I AM GOD" tone at everyone within earshot that he wanted to see the manager. Apparently RiNo got a little overzealous and let everyone, their brother, sister, best friend, and 3rd cousin in. I guess I should be thankful that they proceeded to kick out about 75% of the crowd, it gave me room to move around. Pretty funny though, waiting in the lobby, watching unsuspecting drunk people's reaction to the welcoming committee waiting to escort them outsite. No coats, no "grab my purse!", no "settle my tab!", no "but my friends are inside!". Out.

Palms were greased, and at about 3 the police left, (after citing RiNo for overcrowding and some fire hazard ordinance).

Anyway. Good times. Halloween is always a nightlife photographers wet dream, but damn.

Check out the Dark Wave Disco photo's on scene-there.com

...

2008-09-25T01:51:00.000-07:00

Hey.

You a dreamer?

Yeah.

Haven't seen too many around lately. Things have been tough lately for dreamers. They say dreaming's dead, that no one does it anymore. It's not dead, it's just been forgotten. Removed from our language. No one teaches it so no one knows it exists. The dreamer is banished to obscurity. Well I'm trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it's ever faced. Ever. So whatever you do, don't be bored. This is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting.

CSC:Fashion Shoot B-Roll

2008-09-19T15:47:00.001-07:00

Undoubtedly CSC (Chicago Suicide Club) made a giant leap forward last night. Mr. Kevin Malone and Mat Devine of Kill Hannah (among others) pulled off the impossible: getting 40 hipsters to show up on time to an event starting at 7pm, hours before this "hipster" creature tends to roll out of bed. And on a Thursday evening much less. They all showed, and looked amazing one and all thanks to a little hair and makeup.

Tyler of 'demons was head photographer for the fashion shoot, my job was to keep his head from splattering all over the neo-gothic walls of the room we spend 3 hours trying to light. Without lighting. The long and short of our adventure sums up nicely in the following: How do you light 8-40 models in a dark room, without lighting the room up? With 4 flashes modified with cardboard from beer boxes, an industrial sized roll of tin foil, enough gaffer tape to circumvent the globe, 2 soft boxes, ambient reflection... and red bull. Two heads are better than one apparently.

Lighting nightmares aside, I spent my time shooting like I do... clicking the shutter and letting my arm go into convulsions to paint some light in.

And last but most important, we're all very soon going to lose our dear friend Anthony. Apparently New York is cooler than Chicago. He will be sorely missed, and not just because he's an amazing organic gardener either. Enjoy NY man. At least we all have a pad to crash in every time we're in NY now.

namaste'

Check out all the photos on scene-there.com

Long Time No...

2008-09-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

...see.

I wonder vaguely where that phrase came from.

At any rate, and the "rate" around here lately has been that of a snail with a limp, I got about 60% of the redesign of scene-there.com posted. You can't imagine how much work goes into this shit. Tedium. That's a good word for the repetitive review/cull/compile/watermark/import/export (flash gallery)/integrate/debug/REPEAT... process that each gallery takes. I quickly realized that creating new gallery buttons for the main page and new flash galleries for every one of the 200+ galleries on the old scene-there was not going to happen. I've decided to stop at 20, and put a link to the old "archives". On with the new I suppose, although, as many of you have noticed (or not), I've not exactly been out and about shooting like I used to. I've been working for $, a novel idea, I know. Not to mention, being a massage therapist 4 days a week leaves me not in a hurry to be out until 5am in the morning. That being explained, I'll be picking up the pace soon. Had to get over some humps.

So.

Many thanks to Tyler of darkroomdemons.com for his faith in me to cover various assignments for him. We all push each other to be the best nightlife photographers we can be, new heights are constantly being reached, much to YOUR benefit.

Be excited when you see us, seriously. You are part of a work of art, unique in the regard that you are the art, we capture glimpses of your performance.

For anyone who is looking to pick up a good book, check out A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle. The synopsis makes it sound like new-age hippie crap, I promise you the opposite is true. It is not without it's faults, but looking through the authors voice to the underlying message reveals truths that speak to the soul. Anyway, I thought I would throw that out there.

I'll leave on a philosophical note.

"Life is nothing but a dream,
and if we are artists,
then we can create our life with Love,
and our dream becomes
a masterpiece of art."

Namaste'

Check out all the photos on scene-there.com

Lolla Weekend: A study of alternatives...

2008-08-09T03:39:00.000-07:00

So while missing the opportunity to be harassed, herded, and generally abused by overzealous Lollapalooza security, I did get a chance to shoot a few of the other events goin' down in Chicago. Diesel had a grand opening, Antics put on a party featuring Trancid, Mark Ghertz, Chromeo, and Squeak E Clean at 10 Pin, the crazy bowling alley next to the House of Blues. And to top it off, the Manor/Rino Remix from 3 or 4 nights at each, during which I got shots of Danny Masterson tearing it up on the decks, Kenna making a quick appearance, and misc. others.

Check it all out on scene-there.com.

Kaleidoscopic Dreams

2008-07-26T19:39:00.001-07:00

By sheer luck, I happened to run across a stack of those cheap kaleidoscope glasses that ravers wear when peaking on X, you know, to add that extra oomph. Anyway, after about 2 seconds of internal debate, I stuck 'em on the front of my camera, and shot through 'em the whole night. Not gonna lie, made for some pretty cool images.

Check 'em out at scene-there.com

Danity Kane Screamers

2008-06-26T19:19:00.001-07:00

For anyone that cares, (hopefully a very small number of you indeed) I posted the gallery showcasing Danity Kane's visit to Chicago via Lumen. I've never seen girls go gaga over an MTV celebu-creation like that before, nor guys hop up and down screaming like the girls next to them. What a world. MTV was on hand recording all the action, of which there was a lot of. You know, the drinking alcohol, ~~coke~~, and short skirts with no panties. A typical Friday night.

My distain for evil corporations (ie:MTV) aside, the girls were surprisingly nice, I think the (only) cute one touched my arm, but it could have been my imagination. I was too busy trying to interpret whatever it was she was shouting over the music to me.

Click.

1,000,000

2008-06-23T18:21:00.001-07:00

Nine Inch Nails: Live from 1,000,000 Rehearsals
Presented by: Pitchfork.tv

"In this, the first of three exclusive videos filmed during rehearsals for their upcoming tour, we get a private glimpse of Nine Inch Nails as they careen through a live rendition of 1,000,000."

"The second of three exclusive filmed performances by Nine Inch Nails in preview of their upcoming tour. Directed by Rob Sheridan."

"Letting You"

"We present the the third and final clip of Nine Inch Nails rehearsing for their upcoming Lights In The Sky tour. Directed by Rob Sheridan."

"Echoplex"

NIN.com
_Ghosts
_The Slip
_Year Zero

110 Degrees

2008-06-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

In hindsight, it was probably not the smartest decision to do a shoot in mid-day Chicago heat with a hung-over model, an overheated photographer, and... well, theres nothing to say about Sheyssa, she's always in top form.

But fuck the sun said we, and banged out a pretty decent 2 hour shoot in a few locations in the city. Steph looked great, Sheyssa's makeup and wardrobe was spot on. I pushed a little button the camera every now and again while shouting orders about the lighting to poor Sheyssa, who volunteered to be the human light-stand, and voilà. Insta-hot photos...

*contact info for the girls coming...

**Sheyssa - http://www.myspace.com/sheyssa

Many many more photo-shoots are happening this summer, so keep your eyes peeled.

Ki

2008-06-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist... This is Ki. She is 5 weeks old and is the physical embodiment of a psycho-spastic ball of pure fuzz-energy.

Shot for a homework assignment for the amazing photo-group on Flickr called Strobist.

Click the photos for a full size image.

Rehab Turns 21

2008-05-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Seriously now. The site goes down for 2 days and the backlash is quick, violent, and angry. Chill out you crazy scenesters, shits back up and running now, so quick, go get your fix.

Rehab Turns 21 is being posted now, so check it out. Party was a 8 out of 10, not bad for Memorial Day weekend, those of you who didn't come out back to the photo-area we set up missed some rated x debauchery. Learn your lesson. Derek and company don't do this party just for the shits and giggles. Or maybe... eh, either way, come get your photo taken next time.

enjoy.

ps. This is how I will be posting galleries from now on. The web address scene-there.com will bring you here, to the blog, where you can read the latest news. Clicking the big image on the right side of the blog will take you to the scene-there galleries, where all the galleries will continue to be posted. Don't be confused.

If you prefer to skip the blog all-together, the address for the photo galleries directly is nightlife.scene-there.com

*click*

Website Down

2008-05-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, the website (scene-there.com) is down.

Seems my hosting company let my domain name expire, even though I pay for auto-renewal.

So right now I'm dealing with them, their website (which NEVER WORKS), and making 1-800 calls that direct me to the back room of a cafe in India where the operator does the whole "THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUESTION" every time I open my mouth.

So hang tight. Go check out some other photo-sites in the links. I'm getting the site back up as soon as possible.

IHateYourFashion.com

2008-05-23T19:21:00.001-07:00

It's about time someone took over for the power vacuum apparently left behind by the rise of Perez Hilton, and what a better place to start than in our own backyard of Chicago?

Chicago, known for it's geographical isolation, PBR, coke, bad "fashion" shows, and of course, the rise of the Wicker Park Hipster, has earned itself the attention it so unabashedly begs for.

IHateYourFashion.com, run by ??????, has risen to the challenge it seems, and after a shaky start is now faithfully taking pot shots on a regular basis at not just the hipsters/scenesters of our fair city, but the whole shebang: meatheads and their plastic surgery barbie dolls, scary go-go dancers and disturbed middle-aged eddie-murphy impersonators, lycra advocates and wanna-be fashionistas.

So kudos to whoever is behind this latest brand of self-worship on demand. (come on, you know your surfing the site to see if your photo is there) I'm sure it's someone we all know and respect dearly, 'cause obviously whoever it is, they know us all intimately. So pucker up, give the camera your best shot, cause you never know, one day you too may be the laughing stock of Wicker Park, if only for a day. And who doesn't want that?

:-)

enjoy.

ihateyourfashion.com

Dark Wave Disco w/Felix Cartal

2008-05-23T00:58:00.000-07:00

Despite (or maybe because of) smelling like dirty hipsters and being 110 degrees, the latest DWD rocked. Or indie'd, or punked, or acid-rocked, or whatever. Anyone not having fun was probably wearing a polo shirt and cowering in the corner. You know where to find the complete set of images.

Scene-There.com

enjoy.