The members of the Miami Visual Collective have been busy for real. Here’s is the latest update on what is going on with the MVC IMAGE MAKERS:

Written by Miami Visual Collective

-PAUL MORRIS

Paul is just finishing the last touches for the launch of his new Studio at The Miami Ironside, an interesting creative community just North of the Miami Design District. While the Studio opening is imminent, Paul has been steadily working for months now, on the development of new tools for his aerial photography and video services, as he is adapting cameras and remote systems to an Aerial Imaging System ( AIS), soon to be launched commercially.

©Paul Morris

Find out more about Paul and his work in his website.

-SID  HOELTZELL

Sid has just run his famous yearly Crawfish Barbecue Party for his friends and colleagues from the local Advertising industry. A great gathering of creatives, producers,  photographers,  plus friends  and family, by the beach on Key Biscayne. After all the fun last weekend, Sid is  now getting his gear ready to travel for commercial shootings in Mexico and New York.

©Vincent DeVries

Find out more about Sid and his work in his website.

-JORGE  CARDENAS

Jorge is currently traveling to South America for yet another shootings for his big trucks client. He will be photographing 18 wheelers and other big trucks on locations for the coming 2 weeks.

©Jorge Cardenas

Find out more about Jorge in his website.

-LUCRECIA  DIAZ

Lucrecia has decided to relocate from Spain to Berlin in Germany,  a move scheduled  for next summer,  so we will keep hearing cool news from her, and enjoy new Dance Images, this time from the DeutchLand. A whole new beginning ahead. Best of luck Lucrecia!

Gades Flamenco Dancers by ©Lucrecia Diaz

Find out more about Lucrecia in her website.

-MATTHEW  PACE

Matt is currently jumping from Miami to Atlanta  and back, between commercial food photography assignments

Build a Burger ©Matthew Pace

and his series “Game Face” for a national health club.

©Matthew Pace

Next stop Houston,Tx. then onward to LasVegas, and all this happens while still growing his amazing Fine Art Photographers Group in Linkedin, as one of the most relevant forum for photographers who want to exchange serious info on Art  Photography matters.

Find out more about Matthew in his website

More on “Game Face”

-JORGE  PARRA

Jorge has  just cut a deal to be represented by the the ArchNetStudio Photographer’s Agency, who will represent Jorge  in a Non-exclusive way in North America. This Agency is focused in Architectural, Interior Design and Travel and Leisure Photography.

Jorge’s work is present in different categories, and he stands all alone in the Lighting Design Photography Category.

©Jorge Parra

©Jorge Parra

MIAMI  VISUAL:  ART  FOR  BUSINESS

from Keith Richards in the 70s  ©albert watson                                                                                                    to Steve Jobs in this era. 

I was lucky to attend a workshop in Madrid with one of the greatest in contemporary photography, Eugenio Recuenco, an artist whose images evoke an imaginary world populated with surreal landscapes and characters, visions achieved through meticulous photographic production.
©Eugenio Recuenco

©Eugenio Recuenco

MIAMI  VISUAL :  ART  FOR  BUSINESS

Dancer Monica Iglesias, photographed by Lucrecia Diaz

Just as soon as I started working with dancers, I fell in love with dance as subject matter, and from that moment on, the task of freezing movement became some kind of obsession to me. So, capturing the frozen figures in space, while trying to catch the “Decisive Moment”,  very much in the tradition of Cartier-Besson, looking for some tense state of perfect harmony, has become my personal quest and professional goal as a photographer.

When I arrived to my new hometown in Madrid, Spain, I made contact with  InnovaFoto, the Profoto sales reps in Spain. When they saw my specialized portfolio about freezing dance and movement, they immediately offered to sponsor and produce a shooting, in order to explore the capabilities of their new Battery-Operated ProFoto B4 System for this type of imaging.

I was tracking Dance Companies in Madrid, to continue with my work on movement, when I met with one of the most famous dance companies in Spain, Antonio Gades. They immediately got interested in running this shooting with their team. This way, I managed to get Gade’s best dancers for this project.

The shooting took place at the famous Daylight Studios in Madrid.

MVC photographer Lucrecia Diaz, during the shooting with Antonio Gade’s Flamenco Dancers

The ProFoto B4 characteristics include.

• Freeze motion at 1/25000 of a second
• Fire up to 30 flashes per second
• Huge 11 f-stop power range

One of the conclusions we got from this test is that it is best to shoot with at least 2 systems simultaneously, to better distribute light across the entire frame, and get perfect freezing of the image.

Dancer Conchi Maya, photographed by Lucrecia Diaz

Obtaining a great set of  photos in this field, where action/movement is involved, is a true collaborative process, a situation in which good communication with the dancers, and the invaluable participation of a strong Art Director, willing to get the most out of the team, are critical for great results.

See more of Lucrecia’s work on dancers from other dance groups, including the Miami Contemporary Dance Company at  www.lucreciadiaz.com

MIAMI  VISUAL:  ART  FOR  BUSINESS

THE EDGE OF NIGHT – PAUL MORRIS

East of South Point, Miami Beach. No photoshop filters, just real life

The magic of twilight is often hard to capture in photographs. Much of my career has been spent chasing this illusive vision, both from the ground and in the air. On those special clear days I am always on the lookout for that magic time when the earth’s motion reveals the edge of night. Magnificent in person and lucky to capture in photos, that time of day is known as the magic hour. I have chased it many times, and not always with great results. But the real fun is in the chase.

Click hear for more twilight photos by Paul Morris

WHAT’S FOR DINNER? – MATTHEW PACE

Working for publications and advertising, I enjoy all disciplines of photography, but food is one I like the most.

It has a language all of its own and to understand it is always a challenge. Honing in on your subject requires patience and draws every skill you have in your bag of tricks, sometimes doing the slightest unexpected ones that makes the shot, like this one, where using my diffuser for the surface the plate sits on.

But the real challenge of shooting food all day is coming back home to hear: ”What are we eating tonight?”

See more of Matthew Pace’s work at www.MatthewPace.com

THE HUMAN “FUN” FACTOR – JORGE PARRA

The cool thing about shooting with people/models is the endless capacity for improvisation that we, humans, are able to provide with no effort.

This time, I was doing this “sexy” lingerie shooting with a very hot couple on location, and during a small break, I snapped a close up of model Vanessa with the iPad, and suddenly, we were playing with those images, that will surely give way for me to build a “fun” portfolio soon.

The seed of a creative project spontaneously coming out of nowhere made my day!

See more of Jorge’s work at www.JorgeParra.com

MIAMI VISUAL:   ART FOR BUSINESS

Anyone can tell now with certainty:  it was not the end of world!  

Among many other good things, this also means  that we will -still- be alive and kicking, to enjoy  more of these magnificent sunrises and sundowns in this beautiful planet!!

We just misunderstood the Mayans. What most experts failed to conclude is that the end of the Mayan calendar did not imply the end of the world, not in “Doomsday format”

The world isn’t ending,  just one big  cycle ended,  and we, at the Miami Visual Collective are ready to  welcome and embrace a new cycle with  positive change, and isn’t this what a New Year is really about?                                                                      Mayans didn’t look forward to an end, they celebrated a new beginning. Let’s make it ours!!

The end of the old cycle in the year 2012 was full of hard work, many creative challenges and mostly repair and slow growth, from the economic bubble of previous years that fizzled.

Now, we are starting fresh, embracing and  creating positive change, and moving forward towards prosperity and success for all who strive to achieve it.

This our wish for all our current and future clients. Partnering with you and your  business is our goal to accomplish it.

The members of the Miami Visual Collective send you the very best wishes for this New Year 2013.

May peace, health, happiness and prosperity be in your path and may our paths cross to insure it!

Cheers!!

©Sid Hoeltzell

MIAMI  VISUAL:   ART  FOR  BUSINESS

For the past eleven years, Miami has become the epicenter of the art world for one week in December, and we are now squarely on the map as a burgeoning center for the arts.

Art Basel is the catalyst, Wynwood, the now well-known Art District, plus the art fairs in MidTown Miami and the Design District have become more interesting and dynamic than the “original” Art  Basel fair on South Beach.

“One of the things that called our attention in this 2012 edition of Art Basel is the larger amount of  photography showcased all across town”

At least 40% of all galleries, fairs and private shows were displaying fine art photography, from the valued classics to the new and contemporary photographic artist in their walls. This is  a huge change compared to years before, where photography had a faint, almost intangible presence.

One of the main reasons, and many critics agree on this, is that  the prices of other contemporary visual arts, painting, 3D installations, sculpture etc, have soared to such high levels, in a market-driven environment, where talent becomes less relevant than the perceived value of some art work, thus making good photography become an important part of any emerging collection.

Photography is finally being perceived as a collectible art form as evidenced by the huge interest and prices paid for vintage images by masters such as Stieglitz, Weston, Penn, Watson to name a few, and contemporary creators such as Lilian Bassman, Shinichi  Maruyama, Peter Eaton Gurnz, Burtinsky and Polidori.

This year photographers Chuck Close and Helmut Newton were prominent with many galleries showing their work, and Newton will be  at the World Museum of Erotica in Miami Beach, up until March 2013.

Both Close’s , Bassman’s and Gurnz’s work on chemically modified prints with alternative methods (Dichromate and/or Permanganate bleach, Woodburytype printing and mixed collodion/Gum prints on fabrics, respectively) brought  back the magic of non-digital processes in the spotlight.

We fell in love with a photographer’s work from Canada, David Burdeny. All his works have a graphic, minimalism approach. Pale colors with perfect compositions that border Japanese in his look.

We also loved, as usual, the works of Tom Chambers, who, through his mastery of light and Photoshop, brings you into his fantasy world that look more like paintings. He was very popular as always.

One of the “Satellite” fairs that many claim is now better than Art Basel is ART MIAMI It offers a much better blend of mediums with a lot less lean on installation art and without extremely high price tags present in other fairs.

There, we stopped to chat with one gallery representing Nick Brandt, whose iconic B&Ws of animals in Africa are ver well-known by now. When asked what is the line between great photography and art photographer, her response was: “while there is a multitude of people who can shoot great work today, few can sell”. There is something that has a star quality and they become the collectible ones.

Nick Brandt

As for contemporary visual art in general, much of the new work created today requires a lengthy and often unintelligible description of why the work is important.  The concept becomes more relevant than the execution, and in many cases the art cannot stand on its own. So the work becomes inaccessible and uninteresting to the average art-lover, and caters only to the art elites of higher end dealers and collectors.

Miami Art Basel and the entire array of fairs and exhibitions are now a force to be reckoned with, and will only get better for the Miami art scene all year round.

It will be interesting to see what next years bring, specially now that photography has  got the well deserved and long overdue importance in the art market.

MIAMI VISUAL: ART  FOR  BUSINESS

I had no idea what he did, all I knew is something smelled fishy, but after they told me what he had done, I had little choice. 

They hired me to shoot Bronzini, and I took the gig.

The plan was simple, get there early and be ready. He and a few other associates flew in that very morning, somewhere off the coast of the Mediterranean. They would show me who he was, so I had to put myself in position, get my shooting gear ready, and wait, until he was captured and brought to me.

I didn’t have much time to shoot him, but some years of experience doing this, helped me wash away any hesitation and regrets, just get the shot off and fast!

They brought him. He was a slippery devil alright, but  we wrestled  and secured him onto the table. I will never forget the cold look in his eyes. 

I took the shot, actually,  I took 4 shots,  just to make sure I got him, and then we hauled him back onto the freezer. We’ll deal with the body later…

This is cold-blooded Bronzini, on his best-looking angle.

Bronzini fish,whole fish

And these below are some of Bronzini’s friends and associates I have been commissioned to shoot before him.

Variety of raw seafood.

You should know by now that,  regardless of  how it looks, I am a Lens for Hire, and I shoot food.

To see more of my work on food photography, go here.  To see another side of me go here

For a good fast recipe with Bronzini or his associates, go here

To reach Matthew Pace, go here

MIAMI  VISUAL: ART  FOR  BUSINESS

With Hurricane Sandy  just behind us, and Art Basel just ahead, the Miami Visual Collective has found a great way to tie both together.

 The  ” Garage Print Sale ” for Sandy Relief

Prints made to go on the spot

During those days when Miami becomes the world capital of all Visual Arts, The Miami Visual Collective will showcase an electronic projection of  images, a Virtual Gallery, taking place at a garage in the heart of Winwood, where we will be offering wall art prints on demand, and to make waiting for the print to go much sweeter, with every print ordered, buyers will get a free beer on us !

Photo Art combined with the right snack at the right moment during Art Basel!!

Equally important for all:  the 20% of sales done during the Garage Print Sale will go to help victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York State.

The members of the Miami Visual Collective are no strangers to helping others and championing causes. We have previously helped  the Miami Heart Gallery,  The Flashes of Hope and a few years back, the MVC members raised money for Save the Children, on behalf of Hurricane victims of Katrina.

We will be showcasing fantastic images from our members, to be printed  on demand, and sold as wall art, for the very special pricing of  just $50.

Find the Miami Visual Collective’s GARAGE PRINT SALE

 WHERE:   120 NW 25th Street, Miami FL  33132

WHEN: December, Thursday 6th and Friday 7th.  6PM till 10 PM

Find us right there, the warehouse garage, at street level, with free  drinks and snacks and  cool images,  and meet our MVC members, right after sunset!!

Buy any cool print  for 50 bucks, for your special person, your office or home, or an original Christmas gift, knowing you will also be helping our fellow americans in New York State, gravely affected by Hurricane Sandy.

So…Order a print..See a show…have a beer…Walk away with a piece of art…

MIAMI VISUAL : ART  FOR  BUSINESS

I thought I was cold that early New England morning until, I watched this guy waist deep in a freshly flooded field of cranberries.

By now, most have seen the video ads , you know the two guys standing comfortably in a lake of floating berries talking about their juice, looks good on the tube, just not as good as the real deal I saw the real people who produce it, not an easy thing for them to do, but a very cool thing to watch. It made me like them more!

Harvesting cranberries ©2011matthewpace

So here I was at the capital of cranberries where Ocean Spray presides over the local growers, who supply them with these multicolored ruby-red little marbles of fruit.

Contrary to what I thought, they don’t grow in the water. They grow on vines along the ground and when the time is right, around late September to October, they flood the area from a nearby water source. The branches rise and along comes the “Water Reel” (video) or what they call Egg Beaters that slap those berries off the vines and float to the top. That’s called Wet Harvesting and often whole families take part.

Wet Harvesting cranberries ©2011matthewpace

Wet Harvesting cranberries a family event riding on the Beater and having a picnic at the same time.

So this Thanksgiving, when you slide out that ruby log out of the can to celebrate a real American holiday, know that you are eating turkey with a real American fruit.

Want to try a different cranberry sauce..click

A little history on cranberries…click      

For more images… click

For more on me…click

Wet Harvesting cranberries with a Water Reel ©2011matthewpace

 MIAMI VISUAL: ART FOR BUSINESS

©Imogen Cunningham

The exhibit is a retrospective of the life of this prolific artist, who in her 93 years of life, created trends ahead of her time. An exploration of the scope of the work of Cunningham is also a travel through the great periods of 20th century photography.

Cunningham was ahead of her contemporaries in subjects such as the human figure, dance, and the environmental portrait. Despite having been born on a farm in Oregon, her parents encouraged her to pursue higher education. She got a degree in chemistry and, subsequently, moved to Germany to study photography on a scholarship in 1909.

The beginnings of her career are marked by soft pictorialist images. Later, she transitioned into work on the modern architecture of the 1920ʼs, which led her to a stage of experimentation with botanical forms and nature in which she played with light in order to create interesting forms.

©Imogen Cunningham

In the 1930ʼs, while working with Dorothea Lange during the Great Depression, she contributed to the development of what is now known as street photography; through it she documented that period in history through her portrayals of the characters of the street.

©Imogen Cunningham

During these years, her portraits also made her one of the precursors in the environmental portrait, photographing her subjects in their element.

Cunningham was also a pioneer in the photography of the human figure. At the end of the 1920ʼs she began to photograph nudes, fracturing them and playing with light and volume as she had previously done in her work with plants. The works were controversial, especially those which featured male nudes.

©Imogen Cunningham

She gained notoriety with her work on dance and her series on the great dancer and choreographer Martha Graham led her to be hired by Vanity Fair to photograph several Hollywood celebrities.

©Imogen Cunningham

It is necessary to emphasize the great legacy that Cunningham left on the history of photography as an artist cannot be pigeonholed into any single photographic genre of the 20th century because she dealt in almost all of them.

Self portrait at the beginning of her career / Cunningham near the end of her life with nude model. Photo by Jodi Dater

Written by Lucrecia Diaz.

Lucrecia is a Miami Visual Collective Member and is currently working in Madrid, Spain.

See more of Lucrecia’s work at her website

MIAMI VISUAL: ART FOR BUSINESS

 

MIAMI VISUAL: ART FOR BUSINESS

Known as the “Cuban Ellis Island”, the tower is where many emigrated through to become American citizens, and  it’s presence will always remind us of our early past, a silent witness of the swift changes in the look and feel of the magic city.

MIAMI VISUAL: ART FOR BUSINESS

I’m an ex-New Yorker who started his career back in the day photographing liquor and food.  I am a foodie who loves the fruit of the vine.

            Advertising agencies used to have cattle calls with photographers corralled into a room with our uniquely similar Halliburton cases.  In those times where the “F” word (Film) was still hot, my case was always filled with 8×10 transparencies.  Neatly cut black matte boards holding the best of what we had to show, waiting to have creative directors hold them up for 15-30 seconds and possibly grunt.  There was always the potential for the awaited …  ”Please, call me to review an estimate “.

I had done a particular still-life with very artfully created SWEAT.  I planned this classic painterly set, did my thing and off to the cattle call I went.  Then the big cheese walked in and grabbed my stack –o-chromes.  I was very excited! 

          “This is some great sweat you got here, looks like you made grape leaves on the wine glass, very creative”.   Then he asked me what kind of spray I used to get the sweat in the pattern that matched the label of the glass.  I explained in my naïve eagerness that I carefully replaced cold liquids into the glass until the natural condensation started adding up.  As this went on, I used a coffee stirrer straw and slowly blew the areas on the cold glass to create the grapes pattern (I could not afford the complex retouching for 8×10 “F” word).   I stuck to my sweat.

Cool right? 

             The big guy said he was in this business for 25 years and roared that he knew great-sprayed sweat when he saw it.   Cleverly, with foot in mouth,  I responded that he was wrong and held to my story about what I did.  His reply, the classic “you will never work for this agency buddy”.   As every other photographer in the room saw the bottoms of his heels walking right out the door, I had the profound sensation of shrinkage.  At that juncture,  I packed my stack-o-chromes and melted out the door, sweat drying up fast.

That was the beginning of the 1990’s and soon we all stopped using the “F” word.  I won’t even begin to discuss the value of what we can now do with Photoshop.  I feel like one of Jane Goodall’s chimps after learning to use a twig to extract termites from a log…

I have sweated thousands of times since then.  Today, I can tell my sweat from others,  those who sweat where they should not (I have seen liquor images with “sprayed” sweat” on great acrylic ice-cubes?),  I’ve learned to get steamed-up on occasions, and the benefits of  silicone, and have developed my own tricks. I prepare my glassware with something that no-one has guessed, which I have used for over 15 years.  It still is one of those: “if I tell you, I have to kill you” kind of a scenario.

            I have learned to love sweating anything up.  It applies to whatever the product needs to look its sweetest.   My work is about making the drinks or products look totally 3D  and sweaty in our 2D Collective world.

I have also learned to use the right lingo… condensation.   Ahhhh,  sweet mystery of life and advanced  civilization!!

I am still sweating after all this time, and I am sticking to it, as long as my partners in the Miami Visual Collective don’t  mind, and I manage to keep my clients happy!

Written by Claudia de Rubeis

_________________________________________________________________________

You can see more about Sid Hoeltzell’s work on his main website

More about Sid

MIAMI VISUAL: ART  FOR  BUSINESS

Recently,  Cardenas received an assignment from International Trucks to shoot a series of beautiful and gleaming eighteen-wheeler trucks on location in Colombia. They wanted him to create strong, dynamic images that show the power of their trucks in different settings-from mountain and valleys to charcoal mines and other industrial landscapes, all of which you can find anywhere in South America.

Cardenas used his production company in Bogotá, Colombia to produce a series of amazing photographic illustrations for the client’s next ad campaign. Taking full advantage of technology and creative vision, it was decided that all the separate elements of the photographs would be shot separately.

Jorge said, “To achieve that heroic final shot, hours of preparation are necessary, and having a big truck ready on the right location for the shoot is almost impossible, so I decided to shoot some of them separately.”

To photograph the backgrounds, Cardenas used his knowledge of the area and then, tracking the sunlight with software, he picked the perfect time of day to be in each specific location, at a specific time, to get exactly the light he needed.

“The backgrounds are composites from different images taken in the same location; it was necessary to use several images in order to create an image that includes all of the elements of the location: the road, the mountains, the sky, etc., things that could not all be captured in one shot.”

The trucks were then photographed in a nearby wide-open location. This made it possible move the trucks as needed to match the lighting conditions to make the final scene look real. The creative challenge for Jorge then was to light and compose the trucks so that they and all the various elements of the backgrounds would match seamlessly in the final photographs.

Jorge’s experience in automotive photography and his singular creative vision came together in these stunning images. The trucks not only look natural in the different settings, but they also look powerful enough to drive off the page.

See more Heavy Metal by Jorge Cardenas 

Written by Claudia De Rubeis

MIAMI VISUAL: ART FOR BUSINESS

Blending fashion and social awareness, Fashion Tails aims to educate the public about the plight of homeless animals.
Under the general production and coordination of Miami Fashion Designer Eva Danielle Wittels, photographers were encouraged to create their own concept for a fashion shoot involving couture models and homeless cats and dogs.

The animals used in the photo shoots are waiting for caring people to adopt them and take them to a real home, not just a temporary rescue house. Long-term hosting is not financially viable, so these animals risk being put down if not adopted quickly.

This is when fashion photography kicked in!

With the help of the non-profit agencies that are temporarily hosting the animals, like Paws4You, cats and dogs were brought out to on location or to the studio facilities using local government transportation. Fashion models were styled and dressed, and every photographer made his/her contribution to this noble cause.

Jorge  talks about the project:

“I enjoyed very much the feeling of satisfaction derived from knowing my work might help salvaging these cute animals from potential annihilation. The people who lead the non-profits are doing tremendous efforts, and their commitment is an example of dedication and true love for dogs and cats. Being surrounded by all these animals made me understand the importance of their goals instantly. It was a very unique day, in spite of all the production challenges imposed by this type of shooting, involving untrained animals, which stay too long in cages, and become  difficult to handle.”

“I also have to thank models Iryna Storoshuk and Lidya Ramos for her talent and contribution to the shooting”.

Check Jorge Parra’s Bio or visit his site www.JorgeParra.com

Come see selected images from these project at the “NO KILL” show at Charest-Weinberg Gallery. 250 NW 23rd St.Miami FL 33137, from September 22nd till end of October

All the images from the photo shoot will be published in a book that is currently being edited. All the proceeds from the print and book sales will be entirely donated to the non-profits caring for these animals.

Written by Claudia de Rubeis.

MIAMI VISUAL: ART FOR BUSINESS