One Frame // Moustache Mike
in Portrait
Society 6 // The Store is Officially Open!
in Commercial
I wanted to share with you a little project we have been working on over here at the studio! I have a pretty solid shelf of images from my personal work, and for some reason all they were doing was sitting on my hard drives! So, with the help of our crew, we put together an official store on Society 6!
If you haven't heard about Society 6 yet, I highly recommend checking out their website! Basically, it is a fantastic resource for photographers, designers and artists to get their work in front of the public for purchase. From Society 6, you can browse around and see a whole bunch of work from some amazing artists. You can then purchase products of our work from their site!
In my store, you will be able to purchase prints, canvas, laptop skins, iphone cases and the occasional t-shirt :0) Make sure to check out the store to see if there is anything you love!
I will be updating the store on a regular basis with fresh work as well!
SHERWIN // A Documentary
in Portrait
Almost 2 years ago, a man walked into my studio who totally inspired me. Then his wife walked in and I was totally blown away by this couple. His name is Sherwin and he is the epitome of an entertainer. The man dresses to the nines - we're talkin' old-school-southern-country-meets-rock-and-roll style. His music has influences from Elvis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the man was even friends with Jonny Cash! His wife's name is Pam and she is a classic southern belle. This woman has impeccable style, both in person and on the stage. Needless to say, I was totally hooked on these two. They weren't in my demographic or on my radar for the music scene, but there was just something about them that was SO interesting to me. I knew I wanted to document a little bit of their life and they graciously invited me along to a gig they had here in Minnesota. It was quite fascinating. Sherwin has quite the following across the Midwest and Texas - and the man knows how to put on a show. People love him. His fans represent America. They love the energy and passion that he and Pam, who also joins him on stage, share with their followers.
Sherwin Linton has something very special and I wanted to share that with people. I felt it was appropriate to document him on film and I'm so happy I did!
Metro Magazine // The Beer Issue
We love our friends over at Metro Magazine! They have been one of our best clients over the years and I'm always excited for the next adventure with them! The magazine has recently hired a new art director, and this was our first shoot together! I absolutely love Liz and her vision on where to take the publication! I'm also loving her layouts and creative, yet organized approach to both her actual art direction and design!
I was SUPER pumped to photograph some of the most influential beer people in the city for Metro's Beer Issue. I learned a lot about the beer industry, including the fact that everyone has beards, wears Carhartts and are some of the coolest dudes you will ever meet! I absolutely love how these portraits turned out and am very excited to share them with you all!
FEATURED BREWERS//
Just for fun, here are some behind-the-scene photos!
Ceci Style // Art Deco
Every Tuesday, Ceci New York comes out with an online editorial called Ceci Style. I've blogged about these installments quite a bit, but I just had to share the latest cover I photographed with you all!
Ceci is a stunning woman, no doubt about it, but these covers go way beyond just making her look good. All of Ceci's covers revolve around an invitation she has designed for a client, the client's event and all of the inspiration that was pulled to create a piece of art. My job is to interpret the mood of this concept, using the correct lighting, direction and posing for our beautiful subject. When we shoot the covers for Ceci, we are always on location in NYC, so time is very valuable to the entire team! We all love working together, and want to make the most of the time we have. Therefore, we always end up photographing 4-5 looks in one day. Tons of work, but so much fun!
I just love the way this week's cover turned out! The theme is Art Deco and I chose to use, what I call, a 'Bad Flash' technique, which is basically blasting the subject with direct flash. It's tricky and very simple all at the same time, and I love the contrast that was brought out in this image. Everything about it is great! You can see the complete feature on the Ceci Style website!
Of course, many people helped us create this image, so I would love to thank them all!
CREDITS//
Photographer: Eliesa Johnson
Assistant: Allan Zepeda
Post Processing: Liz Hardt
Hair: Danielle Nelson
Makeup: Jaclyn Accetta
Wardrobe: Angelo Lambrou
Hair Accessory: Leah C. Couture Millinery
Jewelry: Tejani Jewelry
Portraits // The People of Amalfi
in For The Pro's, Portrait, Travel
In every bio you will ever read about me, it will always start by saying, "My name is Eliesa and I'm a photographer." This is a simple statement, yet a strong one. I don't go on by saying, " I am an editorial, commercial, wedding and yadda...yadda...yadda...photographer." Of course, people eventually ask me what I specialize in and I will elaborate then, but to me, this whole thing I do simply comes down to being a photographer. I take pictures.
My favorite subject? People.
No matter what project or job I'm working on, it always revolves around people and ultimately, taking a portrait of them. Whether it's for an ad campaign or a small feature on a restaurant, designer or even a fashion spread - I always approach it with the mindset of documenting the subject. Some of the 'greats' in the photography world have done the same. Take a look at Avedon, Leibovitz, Cartier-Bresson; all of their work begins with portraiture and can be translated for editorial and commercial purposes. Even modern-day-greats, such as Terry Richardson, Ellen Von Unwerth and Mario Testino have the same patterns.
I had a bit of an eye-opening-experience this past fall. While in New York showing my portfolio, I had 32 meetings scheduled with many of my 'dream' clients. I had narrowed down my work and brought with me two portfolios; one focused on fashion and the other on portraits. As I began showing the books, the response was, " So, do you want to shoot fashion or portraits? What do you want to be? Do you want to be a fashion photographer in New York City, like every other person walking in this room? You know, your portraits are nice, but you're confusing me, what do you want to be?" After about 3 meetings going this way, I went back to my condo, took apart both of my books and laid out all of my prints on the floor. For about 15 minutes, I had an identity crisis as to 'Who I Was' as a photographer, and I realized a couple of things.
I didn't want to be just another 'fashion photographer', I wanted to be Eliesa and known for my work and my style and I wanted people to book me based on who I was as my own artist. I didn't want to pretend to be this 'glamorous new york fashion photographer' who would be booked, because I could be general enough to get-the-job-done. So, I decided to totally scrap my fashion portfolio and only show my portrait work. (Side note; I had also brought along my ipad with a bunch of personal work, which were also environmental portraits, mostly shot with film and of my travels.)
The response to my work, once I just showed my portrait work, was a 180 degree turn around. Absolutely amazing. I was able to sell myself better, because I had stories to tell about these people. I also realized this is where most of my paid work was coming from, so they were legitimate jobs, and not just test shoots. I caught myself being incredibly passionate about these images and the body of work as a whole and in these moments, it was very clear in the direction I wanted to go and who I wanted to be as a photographer. I almost died when the art director of Vanity Fair compared my black and white images to "An early Avedon"....DIE. So, now, I'm making a bit of a shift in my work and approaching everything more intentionally from the environmental portraiture standpoint. Does this mean I'm going to stop shooting fashion or food? Absolutely not, but it's my approach to the work and the body of work to come, as a whole that is going to be on more of a direct path.
I've been on the road for the past couple of weeks, taking a bit of an inspiration-vacation. It's been really great to just take a step back from work and wander the streets of a new world with my camera. My mission was to simply document this time, place and people...wherever my journeys would take me and whatever that meant for my subjects. For me this trip was simple; to eat, drink and document. Here are a few environmental portraits I took while walking the streets of Amalfi, Italy.
Call Me Ishmael // A shoot for Danielle Everine
Sometimes, a shoot comes together so easily and so perfectly that you just know it is meant to happen! That's the way things went for Danielle Everine's latest photo shoot for her look book. For those of you who are not familiar with Danielle's designs, they are truly incredible. The shoot was composed of a small crew of just 4 people; Danielle, Micah, Telsche and myself. The weather was perfect, our light was even better and we were exactly in the element where Danielle's inspiration was drawn from - water.
It's really easy to get lost in Danielle's designs and hearing her speak about her work is one of the most inspiring accounts you will ever hear! In the spreads below, Danielle describes in her own words, what she hoped to achieve when designing this collection. Special thank you to Micah Savage for all of the gorgeous hair and to Telsche for being our most beautiful of natural models!
One Frame //
I've been a bit absent on this blog for a while, that's about to change!
Here's an image that I photographed for Metro Magazine back before the holidays! I absolutely love the drama of this image, sometimes there's nothing better than simplifying things and opening up a door for some natural light to shine in!
The Manning Brothers//
