Shoot with Nayara

I shot with Nayara this weekend; she was wonderfully beautiful. We shot for 3 hours without hair, makeup or a wardrobe stylist (although I did borrow some clothes from my friend Jennifer @ Fein Showroom). It was a nice break to shoot without a cluster of people swarming the looks. It was also a nice challenge- I plan on doing this more over the next few months so I can discover the strengths and weaknesses of each model as I schedule editorials and jobs. HERE are more of our shots.

The Record has been Beat

$104.3 million for Alberto Giacometti’s “Walking Man I.”

The art market is back on?!

iPad + (Publication & Advertising)

Anyone else see the HUGE opportunity for the publication and advertising business with the new iPad?! Both industries experienced a HUGE hit with the digital revolution however the iPad offers a new chance for both industries to reain control of their businesses again.

Let’s think about it:
• It’s the size of a regular book/magazine
• Magazines make their money off advertisers and only a small amount from subscribers
• Subscription services could be sold on the app store
• Right now online magazines are wonky and really impractical to navigate when surfing the web because you can’t hold them like a regular magazine or flip through them so they “feel” like they make the internet a slower experience

It still is not a perfect fit and cannot replace magazines and books for the simple fact: you can’t flip to wherever you want in a 3dimensional environment like you can with a true magazine. But imagine looking at Interview Magazine’s amazing photography on a beautiful and bright environmentally friendly digital page in your hands! Imagine flipping through the pages of ads, which are designed just for being seen on this environmentally friendly device, being able to zoom in on details, then moving on to the actual content! Imagine some of those ads moving or being interactive! Imagine real time polls in your hand. Artwork and literature will display beautifully on the tablet.

I was the first of my friends to get a cell phone (that sounds funny to say now, especially considering how young I am). I stopped landlines service in 2002 before it was normal to run exclusively wireless. I was the first to get an iPod, I had a smart phone before smart phones were considered cool outside the professional world, and I know I’ll be an early adopter for the iPad.

I, for one, hope leaders in the advertising and publishing industries see the potential to bring the money back in and raise the overall quality of both industries as well as the consumer experience. If not, well, then I’ll just have to step in

PS: I know people are bitching about the name “iPad.” Personally, I’m calling it the “iBook.” I suggest you see it that way too.

Experimentation with Art

I think it is important to experiment with art otherwise it gets static. Today I did a shoot that pushed me. I combined some of the lowest forms of digital technology with some of the highest fashions I have ever shot. The result? Great pictures of amazing photographic quality but with TERRIBLE image quality. I think the public is ready for some new adventures in art.

Italian Spiderman

Adventures in New York: Extra in a Commercial for Scores

I received an email from Scores New York to appear as an extra for a commercial. The payment would be “prime rib and an open bar.” This was the strangest thing to me because I have never been to Scores before and have NO idea how I would make the mailing list. I haven’t been in a strip club since I broke off my engagement with a stripper about 6 years ago (yes, I’m serious) and I didn’t have any afternoon plans so I considered the opportunity.

The day before the commercial I worked with one of my hair stylists, Charlie, on an editorial. He happens to work at Scores and I asked if he had them send me the email. He said he didn’t but would be doing makeup on the set of the shoot. Weird, ay? I decided “why not?” and told him I’d meet him there Saturday.

I ended up showing up 2 hours late. There were hardly any people there but the guys attending were your typical strip club junkies: the middle aged guy with loads of money and a clean style, the nervous 22 year old sucking down Coronas, wannabe players in their 20’s wearing suits (and you know they don’t wear suits to their jobs), a guy with a serious mullet, pervy old men with plenty of disposable cash who are not bashful about asking a girl if he can take her home and eat her ass, and the rest of the strip club world. I mostly spent the morning waking up, drinking and observing. It was definitely fun to watch as a person who is interested in sociology.

The women were interesting too. Half were paid models and the other were dancers who would receive payment in the form of free house rent or in clothing. I listened in as two debated whether to take the $2,500 free dress or to take the rent cash. They opted to take the house money and buy the dresses. The paid models were always excited and smiling. It was clear they saw the job as a novelty. I have no idea where they got the models since I couldn’t imagine they would ever be seen in a print campaign.

The strippers were, well, strippers. Strippers are interesting cats for many reasons but I have total respect for them. I met a lot of strippers in my early 20’s and I know some are fucked up, but plenty are actually smart and very business minded opportunists. In my waking/drinking haze I mostly just remember watching one with implants adjusting her rack every 40 seconds while having a really interesting conversation with a blond who just moved to NY from Florida. (I heard one of the guys say she reminded of him of “The Little Mermaid all grown up….” that kinda weirded me out. This was the same guy who told me he wanted to be a famous actor and felt this would be his big break).

Overall, I spent most of my time at the bar hosing down drinks with a couple strippers followed by lunch – Pizza… not prime rib. I sat at a table and made small talk with some of the guys while another started hitting on a stripper. An interesting thing happened: she stopped listening to pull out her phone to play with a text or whatever. Normally that woudln’t raise any attention from me but I noticed that EVERY male (except the guy talking to her) immediately pulled out his phone as if to say “I’m also really important in a world outside of here.” I noticed that even I started to pull out my phone out of habit and then slowly slid it back in my pocket. It made me wonder- “what’s up with that social cue.” I started to think of mirror neurons for a moment until my concentration was broken by the belching kid from the bronx sitting next to me.

I finished my 3rd slice of pizza and then washed it all down with more free pinot grigio as I played “the guy at the bar drinking a shit load of wine.” 3:00 rolled around and they wanted all the “boys to come to the dining room and then we’ll place girls on your laps.” I started laughing when I heard them say that and realized I really didn’t want to be a part anymore so I ended up bailing to go check out art in Chelsea.

As for the art: Marlborough had a good show, as well as Pace Wildenstein on 22nd. Max Protetch had a petty rad installation also.

“Rulai” by Zhang Huan @ Pace Wildenstein

Fruit Fly

From a recent editorial about fruits.

MichaelDonovanPhotography.com

Publications

This month I’m being published in 4 different magazines. They’re based in NY, LA, Miami and Chicago. It also appears I will be published in a great international fashion mag in the next month or two. It is definitely a great way to start the new year. I’m shooting several other stories next week and I’m hoping this will launch to more national and international work.

Some Inspiration

I found this picture while searching for new mashups and remixes… this shot epitomizes the way I wanted my life to look like when I was a kid (except I wanted my Countach to be red… and I still do!):

Shoot with Natalie Hockey

Ever since I quit Facebook my schedule has been busy. I completely forgot to post some shots I did of Natalie Hockey! She’s a brilliant girl with a bright future ahead of her!

I have TONS of great shots of her and here are a few. There are some more on my site.

Falon

During my vacation I was commissioned by a friend, Falon, to do her portrait. I haven’t seen in over 7 years!!! We first met at work when I was an Operations Manager in Spokane and she was managing one of my smaller evening teams (she had a staff of about 25 and I think we gave her a part time assistant… but I don’t recall).

I was the youngest operations manager in the company, she was the youngest person in her position and she ran the team with the youngest group of people in the company but we were all the most successful despite having the least experience. Obviously I don’t think age had anything to do with it; determination to be the best despite having all odds stacked against us is what made us the best and is a feature employed by many of us to get the results we want. I think one of the reasons I’ve always liked Falon is because we both connected in terms of understanding people and tasks.

Falon and I always had a pretty good connection so it was great to see that she was doing extremely well both professionally and personally. She is still in the corporate world but doing a completely different industry. We joke about how I made her cry every day (yes, I really did… I was the boss/coach that pushed everyone to their breaking point like) but I’ve always seen her as one of the toughest women I’ve known.

I’ve always found her beautiful so getting the chance to see her through the camera was one of those experiences that I’ll always cherish. I always learn something from every shot but this shoot reminded me the importance of having friends who are truly strong people.

Anywa, enough with the gooey stuff…. here are a few of her shots.

Welcome Winter with Fleet Foxes

This was my favorite song last winter. What better way to bring in the winter than with the Fleet Foxes’s?!

Dec. 8th is International Michael Donovan Day

Today is my birthday. I woke up and was worried i was going to have a midlife crisis. Then I realized I was too young for one and went back to sleep.

Today I thought about a few things but the biggest realization was how poorly I have viewed my birthday. I’ve always thought of it as being placed at an inconvenient time. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years all float around it. Not to mention Veterans day and Valentine’s day. And don’t forget: the weather is often junky in December. So people forget. BUT I realized this could be the BEST day to celebrate.

I decided December 8th will be International Michael Donovan Day. Everyone in the world is invited to celebrate. It will be viral and underground for the first few years but I have a theory: your life wasn’t worth living if you didn’t change the word in such a way that the entire planet can’t collectively agree that they would never go back to the way they lived BEFORE you changed the world.

So here is the deal: I’ll donate my birthday to the world. Everyone celebrates life on this day. And there will be another celebration on June 8th as well. Get silly, get stupid and get retarded. Have fun, be safe and go crazy. Dress up funny, give homemade gifts, have friends over for dinner, do whatever. Always do something new each year but make sure to celebrate life. Even tonight, celebrate life in SOME way! Even if it means going to the theater by yourself- do what you want and make it special.

Happy International Michael Donovan Day (IMDD).

Three Great Shows from my childhood

Night Gallery

Twilight Zone

Tales from the Dark Side

This is the kind of stuff I would watch with my family. There’s clear evidence of this in my work
http://MichaelDonovanPhotography.com

Music Video: Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp” video
by naivepromo

I’ve had this song on my computer for about two weeks but I finally stopped to look for the video. Wow. This is radballz!