2013 PDN The Look Contest, People’s Choice Award.

Earlier this year I entered the 2013 PDN The Look Contest, which is a yearly contest that focuses on a blend of fashion and fine art. I ended up winning the People’s Choice Award. I entered a series of photographs that I shot in Beverly Hills when my friend, and awesome fashion shooter Benjo invited me down to shoot some of my large format antique processes during an editorial shoot. I packed up my 8×10 Calumet Orbit C1 and had a blast shooting Noora L of Brand Model Management, Finland along side Benjo and his team. Here are those images, and a video that Nick Korompilas shot behind the scenes of us for. It was a fun day, especially getting to set up my mobile darkroom tent and processing the images right there on set, something I hadn’t done before. A big thanks to Benjo and the team for the invite, without that I wouldn’t have been able to create these images. The gallery of winning image can be seen here, and  my new listing on PDN’s PhotoServe is here. It’s not first place, but there is always next year!

Credits:

Photographer: Joseph M. Berhosky

Model: Noora Lappi

Styling: Jordan Anthony Swain

Styling Assistant: Esther Kang

Makeup and Hair: Berenice Gallegos

Very Special Thanks to: Benjo Arwas, Sidney Kraemer, and Nick Korompilas.

All images shot on paper negatives in an 8×10 Calumet Orbit C1 camera and processed on site.

Michael Hussar, White: A Decade, book signing and party.

This past weekend I got the opportunity to photograph artist Michael Hussar’s book signing for “White: A Decade” at the awesome Studio Servitu in Los Angeles, California. The event was great, and being an admirer of Michael’s work for some years now, it was amazing to finally get a chance to come face to face with his work, and the man behind it. What struck me first, aside from how beautiful these pieces are, was the size, these were somewhere in the neighborhood of around 4-8ft by 6-10ft in size, definitely awe inspiring. The party and reception was a blast, with a good number of great guests, including Kat Von D, and members from a good number of bands, including Vampires Everywhere. One of the highlights of the night was Michael’s live painting demonstration, in which he created a portrait of the beautiful Miss Crash. To top it off, after the guests had left for the evening, I got to have a drink and a talk with Michael himself, which was a great way to end the night. A special thanks to Michael, Jane, Crash and the ladies and gents of Studio Servitu for a wonderful and inspiring evening, hope to do it again soon! And, if you haven’t yet, be sure to check out Michael’s work, and his new book.

If you are looking for pictures from the photo booth and event, the gallery can be found here: http://t.co/QeILwLI

-Joe

Michael Hussar Live Painting.

Playing with the past.

Although I absolutely love what I do for a living, I am a strong believer in having an escape from the grind to help keep yourself fresh for working. Nearly all of my business related photography is based in digital capture. When I have time to shoot for myself, I tend to gravitate more towards analog imagery. That being said, I found and fell in love immediately with the Wet Plate Collodion process. This post is to show you guys a little about the process, and a few of my recent pieces, I’m still learning as I go, but I am very happy with where I am right now!

The Wet Plate Collodion process is a photographic process developed in the 1800s and introduced in 1851 by Fredrick Scott Archer, replacing the earlier Daguerreotype process. It is termed Wet Plate due to the need for the plate to remain wet through the entire photographic process. In the process, glass plates are hand cut to size, edges filed and cleaned, then hand coated in collodion. After a soak in Silver Nitrate the plates are placed in a plate carrier and the photograph is made using a large format camera. Exposure times vary, from a few seconds to over a minute. While still wet the plate is removed, immediately developed by hand in a darkroom, fixed, and washed. After drying out the plate is then coated with a protective varnish, baked on over the open flame of an alcohol lamp. The entire process from start to finish can take around an hour to complete one image.

In today’s photographic world many are obsessed with perfection in imagery. Hours are spent in programs like Photoshop to perfect people, products, and scenes to a point that was impossible until now. Though this perfection has a place in photography, I had developed a desire for something more hands on, something with imperfections that are a part of the beauty of it, something that has a magical feeling to the process. Wet Plate Collodion offers all of those, and more. There is something you feel that is hard to describe, as you watch an image form out of nothing during development on a once clear sheet of glass. The little tears, bubbles, and imperfections are unique to every image created. The hands on aspect, and satisfaction from the process is far different from pressing a button and having an image pop up on a digital screen. And to quote a friend, “art is in its best form when safety equipment is a necessity.”

-Joe