We chatted with Chris about his process and background:

So the assignment was pretty straightforward – we knew a bunch of the incoming congressmen were going to be attending a conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School on Nov 30th and Dec 1st, and we hoped to shoot as many single portraits of them as possible. For inspiration, I loosely looked to Avedon’s Portraits of Power and Nadav Kandar’s Obama’s People. The plan was pretty loose – set up in one location and grab folks to shoot as they had coffee breaks between sessions. The members were all told on Nov 30th that we’d be there shooting the next day, but otherwise we had no idea what to expect (didn’t know if people would be into having their photo shot or not – we half expected to come away with nothing).

What we got was pretty amazing. Since the conference was fairly casual we got a good variety of looks from each of the subjects (not just blue suits and red ties). And as a result of the whole tea-party situation, many of the congressmen had no previous political experience, and thus were not guarded or at all concerned about their appearance. Most of the folks we shot had never had a proper portrait made of them. The result, at least in my completely biased opinion, was that we were able to get some pretty candid, honest moments out of folks who will, if their careers continue, become increasingly difficult to access in that manner.

As for technical stuff, I wanted a pretty even light that would work on a number of different types of clothing and skin color. I ended up using just one light – a Profoto head/7A into that huge Elinchrome octabank. I had the light coming straight on at the subject, basically a little above eye level. I shot the whole thing on a Canon 5DII, using the 50mm 1.2 and the 24-70 2.8. That’s basically it – I’m into super simple set ups.

As for me, I’ve been on staff here at Washingtonian for 2+ years now. This job was a total career change for me – before here, I was working at the State Department doing really boring/confusing/classified things. However, my father is a photographer, so I grew up shooting and surrounded by photography and kept it up through college. 3 or 4 years ago I got my first digital camera and learned how to make a digital photograph. My wife is a writer at Washingtonian and clued me on to their photography internship, so I quit the State Department and have been here ever since. And since, I’ve felt like the luckiest person in the world. Being on staff is great, because you have a constant stream of work and all types of different work – its been a great way for me to learn how to be a photographer. One minute I’m shooting food for the website, the next I’m stumbling my way through a fashion story, and then I’m in Boston shooting congressmen. It really has been a great way for me to gain experience in super fast forward.

Here are some favorites:

Terri Sewell, 46, Alabama Democrat

Rob Woodall, 40, Georgia Republican

Lou Barletta, 54, Pennsylvania Republican

Frank Guinta, 40, New Hampshire Republican

Chuck Fleischmann, 48, Tennessee Republican (ED. NOTE: WE LOVE CHUCK THE MOST)

Blake Farenthold, 49, Texas Republican

Billy Long, 55, Missouri Republican

Tie your shoe, Billy Long!

Ann Marie Burkle, 59, New York Republican

Dan Benishek, 58, Michigan Republican

See more from the shoot, here.

See more from Chris Leaman.

See more of the Washingtonian.

PS: right??

You ever see a picture in a magazine and think, “wow, now that’s a tricky assignment”. Me too. I had that x 100 when I saw Timothy Devine‘s image for New York Magazine’s “Come Here Often?” column last week.

The wrangling for this thing alone would leave me in tears.

But Mr. Devine didn’t cry. I asked him how he stayed sane and got the shot. Here’s what he said:

“The people in the photo were all actual clubgoers at Lavo — the idea was to get real patrons interacting in a real scene. I showed up before the club opened on a busy Thursday night and spent the time setting up lights so that when the doors opened, I’d be ready to go. I hard lit the booths from the front with five or six grid spots and then used a couple of custom-built pencil lights to light the back alcove. We sectioned off a corner of the place where I set up my camera and equipment and tweaked the lighting using the waitstaff as stand-ins. With the help of the writer and a few interns from the magazine, we wrangled patrons of the club. I staged them and gave them direction within the scene.

The shoot was challenge after challenge. As soon as the doors opened, the club got packed. The management were really tolerant, but they wanted the shoot to happen quickly because they were having celebrities come in later in the evening who wouldn’t want cameras around. The music was deafening and made communicating really hard. My assistant was standing right next to me and couldn’t hear a word I was saying. So I kept having to run back and forth between my camera and the people in the shot to speak with them. It was pretty insane. Thank goodness for alcohol, it definitely helped to lubricate all the subjects.”

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Thank goodness for alcohol, indeed. I hope you got a nightcap, Tim. Here’s the image with the copy the mag ran.

The Place: The latest Cristal-pouring, Vegas-channeling subterranean ultralounge from the guys behind Marquee and Avenue.
The Time: Thursday, 11:42 p.m.
The Mission: Chat up every reveler in sight.

1. TANYA CAMBURN
32, hairstylist
“I know one of the managers, so he invited me to host a table. Basically, they pay you to bring 30 or 40 people, and you’re just there to make the party look cute. I don’t usually go places like this—it’s a little mainstream, but it’s beautiful.”

2. BENEDICT PEREZ
45, banker
“Fifty-Eighth Street used to be a pretty hoppin’ place, then a grimier crowd came in, so this is good. Barnaby works across the street and said, ‘Let’s have one drink after work.’ But it’s never just one drink.”

3. BARNABY HALL
29, banker
“This is a very impromptu night, and pretty innocuous to begin with. I have a girlfriend, but she’s not here. No flirting—I’m just enjoying the company. I’ve had a couple martinis.”

4. JESSICA CATALANO
25, PR specialist
“There were a lot of people outside, but my friends are friends with some of the managers, who let us in. I’ve been going to Marquee and Avenue for a while, and I usually cut the line because they remember me.”

5. ALLIE MINTZ
22, fashion-sales rep
“I live on the Upper East Side, and instead of spending $20 on a cab home from downtown, you spend $6 from here. It’s pretty early, so I’ll assume the crowd will get better as the night goes on. Right now, it’s a little old for me.”

6. JENNA DRIGGERS
24, marketing manager
“I’m out with like ten of my girlfriends. We had dinner at a friend’s place at the Plaza and were dancing there, and then we kept on dancing here. It’s good exercise, especially in heels—a way to save money on the gym.”

7. ALONA KRUGLAK
“ageless,” entrepreneur
“I’m at the age where I don’t want to be surrounded by 20-year-olds, and this is an age-appropriate, older-money crowd. I’m currently single, and it’s like a candy store of good-looking, successful men.”

8. ANDRÉA EMRICK
38, real-estate project manager
“This crowd is very eclectic, which I like. If I feel like going after a young guy, there’s a young guy; if I feel like going after an older guy, there’s an older guy. It’s always a goal to find one of each.”

9. LEDA BELUCHE
30, talent manager
“Before this, we went to dinner at Tao, and we walked outside and saw all these fashionable people across the street. And we were like, ‘Those are the elite crowd, and we’re the elite crowd, so let’s go join them.’ ”

See the full piece at NYMag. See more of Timothy Devine’s work.

I asked her to share a shot of herself in action, and she sent over this pic from a recent Elle Decor shoot.

I’m digging the Hasselblad/digital back setup. Here  are some other Greenfield portraits:

Have a picture of yourself on set? Send it over and we’ll post it!

I recently returned from a shoot with the wonderful Exit Zero folks down in Cape May, New Jersey.

My task was to get a visual document of the town. This place is well-rounded; there are Victorian houses, beaches, fudge (a lot of it), awesome pooches, flowers stands, seafoods of every variety, sharks popping off of buildings, and so much more.

I limited myself to sixteen images here, but there are oodles more. I had a fun time playing with Alien Skin filters– Cape May felt like Velvia to me, and I did my best to replicate that.

In any case, have a look!

Much of Ms. Goetzelmann’s work involves jumping and floating and boogying. The lady’s got spirit.

Even the hairs on her models dance.

Even the fruits!

We have an excellent treat today- a behind-the-scenes look at a fantastic creative soccer extravaganza. What the hell am I talking about? The AdiCup, of course! The AdiCup is a soccer tourney with teams made up of New York creatives/football enthusiasts who square off for the chance to compete with teams from Tokyo, Berlin and London at the finals in South Africa, which coincides with the World Cup.

Last year, photographer Chad Tenorio was tasked with shooting portraits of all 28 teams, the players, officials, and fans. He did so well that he repeated himself this year, but with a new setup. How does one accomplish such a feat in just a few hours?
TELL US, CHAD!!!

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For this year’s event I had Sam, my set builder, put together a three panel wall set to form a sort of wedge. I wanted to almost cram the players into an uncomfortable space. As Sam and I were discussing the paint and materials, he told me he always associated urban sports with a fence. Every playground in the city is completely fenced in. Sometimes the playgrounds are even padlocked so as kids my friends and I had to climb the fence just to play basketball. So, as an homage to city playgrounds Sam had the idea to clad the three walls with chain link fencing.

I loved that idea but knew I’d have a tough time selling it to the client. The client wanted a really clean and minimal set because they weren’t sure what was being done with the pictures afterwards. Last year, they had me shoot all the teams against white because they had a graphic designer create “environments” in post. That turned out to work really well.

This year, no post-production. So I really didn’t want to shoot against white. I did sell the idea of a grey background. And, eventually sold them on the three walls set like a wedge. But they did not love the chain link cladding.

I didn’t give up on the cladding idea and told Sam to go ahead and find the materials. The client and I agreed that they would have a look at the chain link wall the morning of the event provided the fencing could be taken down if they didn’t like it. I agreed on that. But, I knew deep down the wall would look great. Working with the same budget as last year, I spent more than double on production this time around. I wasn’t going to let them dismiss my set so easily.

THE TEAM:

Set was built by the great Sam Murray.
Assist and Digital Tech –Brian Ferraro
Asst and Player Wrangler –Jeff Vallee
On set Assts –Grace Villamil, Jake Jones.

Chad's team testing out the team/being generally awesome. Chad's there too, in yellow.

Thankfully, they loved it as soon as they saw test pictures with my team standing in. Even with the chain link, the set still looked clean and minimal as well as very modern. We previously toyed with the idea of putting down astroturf painted grey, but after re-visiting the site a week before, I decided I liked the green turf already there, so we went with that.

For the the past three weeks I was going back and forth with myself on how to light this set. I had to have different options because if the client didn’t like the fencing, I’d have to light everything differently. Most of what I was coming up with was going with a hard light from way up and hard fill lights from the front. I did something similar last year and it looked great against the white. The results were very contrasty with some great catch lights in the eyes or in the sunglasses the players wore. Very much like 90s hip hop videos.

A FEW OF LAST YEAR’S SHOTS (Graphic design by Gabe Kuo).

The night before the event I still wasn’t sure how to light the thing even though a few hundred dollars of gear was already rented and set to be delivered. Sometime in the middle of the night I decided to light the set from above with a very soft light. I reset my alarm clock a little earlier so I could call the studio and add a couple of things that I needed to achieve this.

I went with two Profoto Acute heads with Photek umbrellas and a diffusion sock attached to each. The heads were hoisted up high, slightly in front and on either side of the set. Not too much overhead, because I wanted the light to be somewhat forgiving. I diffused the light further by putting 1-stop silk flags on c-stands in front of each umbrella. The flags softened the light while making the source slightly larger. Despite the soft lights, the position from high up still gave a lot of shape to the faces.

Finally, I wanted some highlight from behind the players, so we put a Broncolor Satellite behind the set and hoisted it up with a highboy rolling stand and pointed the Satellite straight down. I told my assistants to be careful to not let the highlights go more than a third of a stop over the umbrellas. I didn’t want the jerseys blowing out and I wanted the players to stand wherever without having to worry about some of them going too hot.

SOME FINAL SHOTS (TEAMS AND FANS):

There were twenty eight teams competing this year with eight players each. From my experience with some of them last year, I knew they all had strong personalities and each team customized the jerseys Adidas gave them to show this. I really wanted the players to shine and their jerseys to stand out. With the teams, the set, and the soft top light in place, I quickly and carefully composed the shots so graphic elements would stand out while making sure the players didn’t have to hang out on my set too long.

Shooting with a Canon 5D Mark II and 50mm lens, I waited til the games got rolling before I shot a single frame of the teams. Last year I learned that the better team pictures were the ones who were bloody, dirty, and sweaty right after a game.
What you also get are very tired players whose last thought is to have their portrait taken. The on set dynamic changes further when a team steps up right after losing, sometimes badly. At that point, it’s all about disarming them. But, did I mention the strong personalities?

Because the games didn’t start until after 1pm this year, I didn’t get my first shots done til about 2pm. I had between 2pm and 7pm when we had to break my set down to shoot all twenty eight teams, a bunch of the fans, the referees, and whoever else. Even though it wasn’t my first time shooting so many subjects in a short period of time, it’s still hard not to feel a bit anxious. Thankfully with three great assistants, and one great intern, we were smooth and focused. Jeff, the assistant in charge of wrangling all the players had the toughest job but I never once had to look over his shoulder.

In the end, I got what I wanted and the client was very happy. My team and I had a lot of fun as well. Hope we can do it again next year.

_

Thanks Chad, Thanks creative bruisers!

First up is Adrian Valenzuela. I thought he could go first, because he’s clearly a sport. And very brave, as he puts himself in the path of speeding, aggressive women on skates, often.

Off we go!

—

Holy cow, you are the King of roller derby pictures. I love how incredibly thorough you’ve been in your documentation of this scene. How did you get involved with roller derby, and why did you decide to photograph it?

That’s quite an honorable title you’ve bestowed on me Rachel, but I am new to this scene and there are many others more deserving of the title King of Roller Derby pictures.

Maybe someday I’ll have truly earned that title. Shooting Roller Derby came to me in a roundabout way and it almost didn’t happen. A while back I attended a photography workshop taught by Charr Crail. Charr had photographed the Sac City Rollers and told us if we ever had the chance to shoot Roller Derby we should do it. At the time I didn’t even know people were playing Roller Derby, but she got my wheels turning and I wanted to try it.

Derby got stuck on my white board of ideas in my office and I’d forgotten about it until one night at Fat Cat Tattoo in Sacramento. The boys at Fat Cat’s were having an anniversary party and I had some of my work displayed there. I got into a conversation with a woman about photography and she mentioned that she was “Wrench Wench” from the Sac City Rollers. My wheels started to turn again…

Wrench Wench put me in contact with Sac City’s media people and they set me up to shoot “The Big One” a California Tournament they were hosting. I was extremely excited to shoot, planned out how I was going to shoot it and then shortly before the tournament I received bad news. I got a message from Sac City telling me not to come out. The league had bad luck with some photographers and since they did not know me and this was a major event, they didn’t want to take a chance. Discouraged, I once again put Derby on the back burner for another time.

A few months later I found a posting that finally led me to my first game. Sonoma County was looking for someone to take action shots in a rink with very little ambient light. Not a good thing for action shots, but not a big deal if you have strobes.

I planned on lighting the rink with multiple lights but quickly learned that Roller Rinks built way back when don’t have electrical codes of today. The only available outlet I found was at a DJ booth pretty far from the track. I was only able to use one light that night, but it was a blessing in disguise.

That one light enabled me to get some very dramatic lighting on the skaters, which became the foundation on how I light Roller Derby games today.

I initially wanted to shoot Roller Derby for my portfolio. I was thinking about shooting a couple of games and then put it behind me. But after spending some time with the different leagues and getting to know the girls, I could not walk away. I admire hard work. I quickly learned that these women are not just dressing up in costumes to stage a theatrical play for our entertainment, Roller Derby of today is a real sport.

These women are dedicated athletes, they invest themselves physically, mentally and financially into a sport they love. I wanted to create photographs for the skaters, for my friends, that show the intense physical and mental investment they have made. I want my friends to look good because they work hard and I truly admire them, this is why I photograph them. I want anyone looking at one of my photographs to be able to feel the intensity of the game and the emotions of the skaters.

Do you have a favorite derby shot? Share it with us!

You know that’s a touchy subject right? You’re asking me to choose a favorite photograph… a photograph of specific skaters out of a larger group of women that will get jealous if I don’t select them. Derby girls are a tough bunch but they are still have feelings. Ladies… put your kneepads on your feelings please.

I have two actually, one is of the Silicon Valley Roller Girls and the other is of the Santa Cruz Derby Girls. In the Silicon shot, Jammer Pia Mess is getting a whip from skater Feisty Irish in a game against the Angel City Roller Girls.

In the Santa Cruz shot, Jammer Lulu Lockjaw is getting a whip from Santa Cruz skater Eden Yourheartout in a game against Tucson Roller Derby’s Iron Curtain.

What’s your general lighting setup- how do you make the light work when you’re on location and shooting action?

My general set up for a Derby bout is fairly simple, I have two lights on each side of the track, the first positioned outside the turn and the other midway down the straight away to light up the far end of the track. These four lights give me even lighting down the straight aways and partially through each turn. So basically what I am setting up is a cross key situation, where depending on my position one set of lights is my key and the other is my fill and vice versa.

If time and architecture allow for it I sometimes also light the background to make the venues look a little more interesting. All the lights are triggered remotely with pocket wizards. When using flash, you just can’t and actually shouldn’t “machine gun” the camera and hope for a good shot. You have to learn how to compose quickly, lead your subject and try to predict where they will be to get the shots you want.

behind the scenes!

Thanks, Adrian!

“Hugo became fascinated by the gaudy world of the Nigerian movie industry, known as Nollywood. But instead of documenting what he saw, he decided to collaborate with Nigerian actors, models, and a makeup artist, using props, film sets, or natural settings to create a series of fictional portraits. The results are provocative, sometimes funny, sometimes shocking. In some cases, the actors incorporated post-colonial clichés into their own tableaus, thereby creating subversive self-representations with Hugo as the instigator and documentarian. This, to me, is what makes these pictures so remarkable.”

I think what also is so remarkable about the images is that they are in some senses still very formal portraiture; the straight-on, square format is deceptively staid, in a sense.

Izunna Onwe and Uju Mbamalu. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008

Major Okolo and Do Somtin. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008

Maureen Obise. Enugu, Nigeria, 2009

Patience Umeh, Junior Ofokansi, Chidi Chukwukere. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008

Rose Njoku. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008

Gabazzini Zuo. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008

There are more great square portraits debuting this week– Mona Kuhn’s Brazil work is being shown.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen new work from Ms. Kuhn. Lovely as always.

Doppelganger, 2009

Kaio, 2009

This one reminds me of one of Pieter’s, no?

Jungle Roots, 2009

Marina on White, 2009

Kiss, 2004 (this one is older, and from France, but I love it.)

Finally, let us end with an image from Stephanie Halmos. Beeeyootiful.

Untitled (Bess - Diptych Part Two), 2009

Collect them all.

There’s also a making of, to double your pleasure.

Directed by: Arev Manoukian

Cinematographer: Arev Manoukian

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Have a great weekend!