Vermillion

I had the opportunity to work with MITEL to create a wide range of photographs of their products, business communication solutions. MITEL is in the telephone business and specializes with integrating networks and phones to help offices communicate quicker and more effectively. This project involved several location scouts, a large crew and two separate days of shooting on-location and in the studio.

We created a business to business portfolio, product portfolio and some artistic shots for graphic applications. The scope of the project was large and reminded me of the type of projects I produced when I was carving out my name in Phoenix.

Since the shoot, MITEL has merged with a competitor, Aastra, to hopefully corner the business communication market. I look forward to working with the newer version of this company in the near future.

While photographing a private political event in Sedona last March, I met Jerry Hirsch, Chairman, The Lodestar Foundation. He was clad in a brown blazer with a long white ponytail and a turquoise bolo tie, which made his stand out amongst the international backdrop of the event. We had a great conversation and he mentioned he had a project that I would be interested in. Several months later we met to discuss his ideas about creating a book about his Spanish Colonial furniture collection. Jerry is my neighbor so we met at his home to look at the pieces he would like photographed. Jerry’s home is something like a very comfortable museum, containing artifacts from across the seas, beautiful tapestries and several outdoor garden areas with water and trellises.

Due to the preciousness and fragility of these handmade relics we decided to bring the studio to his home and photograph the furniture one by one. Our trusty intern, Laura Marks, was in charge of logging each piece’s caption including title, material, time period, location and provenance. She was also the designer that worked on the book layout and typesetting.

This book was a collaborative project that required several rounds of fact-checking with dealers, commissioning a historical essay, and writing a forward with Jerry to acquaint readers with the contents of his collection. Jerry’s ultimate goal for this hard cover, 80 page book is to use it as a portfolio of his collection to send to potential buyers and dealers.

I worked on a project like this one years ago with the Phoenix Art Museum, which was a book titled “The Art of Turned-Wood Bowls”. In those days, books like these were produced by McMurray Publishing and I did the photography portion. Now, I use the same program to develop the digital files and create a book layout in studio.

READ THE BOOK ONLINE: CLICK HERE

I had the opportunity to visit De Moine, Iowa this weekend and viewing the wonderful Pappajohn Sculpture Park that consists of 4.4 acres in Downtown’s Western Gateway now displaying 24 sculptures worth a combined $40 million. Local philanthropists and lifelong art collectors, John and Mary Papajohn donated their sculptures to the Des Moines Art Center to create a new public art space in partnership with the City of Des Moines. Des Moines Art Center was established in 1948 and has a large collection of contemporary art from 19th and 20th century artists.

One of the sculptures was by Keith Harring, who I had the opportunity of photographing in 1986 when he visited downtown Phoenix.

Heres a sculpture of “Nomade” by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

I had the chance to do a job for Institute of Personal Development, University of Phoenix this weekend for an on location shoot in Iowa which entailed the shooting of General Tommy Franks in Oskaloosa, Iowa, home of William Penn University.

Later that weekend I visited my family in Omaha and hung out in the Lauritzen Gardens. My parents, sisters/brother, nieces and nephews were all there to have a small family reunion and enjoy each other’s company.

Check out my flickr for photos my Dad and nephews at the River and my Family at the Lauritzen Gardens.

The search in Dan’s archives was not without reward this week. I was poking around the piles of negatives when I uncovered something quite unexpected but also equally as exciting – I recognized someone! Keith Haring’s visit to Phoenix in 1986 was documented by Dan in a crowded room filled with children and adults down the street from his studio at Phoenix Art Museum.

Keith Haring is the father of street art and one of the biggest icons in art of the 21st century. He also is somewhat of an urban legend around Phoenix because he was known to make murals in downtown Phoenix, which have since been destroyed.

Haring traveled to Phoenix to conduct a drawing workshop at the Phoenix Art Museum with children and Dan had the amazing opportunity to record Haring interacting and making a collaborative work of art with his young audience.  Although this event seemed so simple in 1986 it has great significance to Phoenix, especially since the he passed away only 4 years later from AIDS.

Click Here to read more about his trip to Phoenix from Downtown Phoenix Journal