Photographer + Director
Brooklyn, NY
Portfolio
Campaign
Before I shot this Kids campaign for Nike, I had spent a year and a half shooting major athletes around the world for their rebranding of the Nike Tech Pack sweater. When the team connected with me, their first ask was to do it the same but different, so it could sit alongside the adults tech pack and kids could identify with the some of the athletes involved like Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Cristiano Renaldo, Neymar, Maria Sharapova, and KJT. It was a massive undertaking shooting these athletes, sometimes across their respective country from another athlete we shot the day before. We landed on the same light but bringing the kids in color to differentiate them. I loved working with these kids. We shot at Root studios in Brooklyn, playing ping pong in between the shots and school classes. it was a fun day playing around and making kids feel cool and laugh.
Q&A
Q: What song do you play on repeat?
A: "Heading South" by Zach Bryan.
Q: What's the best way to start the day?
A: Homemade Cold Brew, a peanut butter cookie, and a hug from my wife.
Q: What are you most looking forward to this year?
A: Taking pictures. I'm always thinking about the next picture, what I should look for, how I could shoot it, Where and most of all why. I like finding the why.
Q: What is the most impactful project you've worked on and why.
A: Oh boy... That's a tough one. My personal project A Sensitive Boy is a photographic series of self-portraits exploring the emotions men are programmed not to share and a deep dive into my past experiences that created my bravado. Taking these pictures during COVID isolation helped me cope with what was happening in the world. On the flip side, back when I first started, I documented a group of Samburu warriors coming to NYC for the first time in conjunction with the Thorn Tree project to help raise funds for their schools and wells in Kenya. It was an incredible experience watching these men who had experienced so much in life, yet had never tried ice cream or ever touched the ocean. It was eye-opening to the luxury we enjoy here in America. If I was to choose a project that affected my career the most, I would have to say my portrait of Pharrell Williams. When that image circulated it led to big jobs for Nike and fashion editorials for Numero and the Vogues. That then all snowballed into fragrance campaigns for YSL, Jean Paul Gaultier, and more.
Q: What mystery do you wish you knew the answer to?
A: Is there a God?
Q: What are some things you had to unlearn?
A: It's ok to not have a reason behind a picture. Sometimes it's nice to just make something beautiful for beauty's sake.
Q: What fictional place would you most like to go?
A: Sunnydale... If you know, you know!
Q: What book impacted you the most?
A: What is the What by Dave Eggers, a story about the lost boys of Sudan and their journey through life during the second Sudanese civil war.
Q: What risks are worth taking?
A: Breaking the rules of photography. Exposure doesn't always have to be perfect, you don't always need detail in your blacks, noise is ok, and not everything has to be in focus. I love Paolo Roversi's question, "What is Focus?" Sometimes breaking a rule or two finds you something incredible.
Q: What are the first 3 chapters of your autobiography titled?
A: Black and White and everything in between.
Q: What do you spend the most time thinking about?
A: HAHA! Everything, but to name a few; My wife, my son, and my next picture.
Q: Best and worst advice you've ever received.
A: The worst advice I've gotten "It's a good picture, let's move on to the next look." If you aren't happy with the picture, keep working on it.
Q: One thing you can't show up to a shoot without - Besides a camera ;)
A: My playlist. I can't shoot without music.