Project : Scolla X Speechie | Preface07.05.10
#nowplaying “Baby Pa” by Pete Rock (Deda Mix) “I used to pray for the bright lights, to be on the big screen, now I’m watchin’ my life, blow up into big things.” I’ve always wanted to collaborate with a musical artist. Not necessarily on a musical foundation, either (even though that would be nice). Recently I’ve been working with the artist Young Scolla, who flew up from VA to shoot the production for “Outta Here”. Over the week we filmed in several locations while also getting some dope portraiture. Shouts out to Brendan @ SocietySOP in Boston, and also a big shout out to Barry @ Fab 5 Ent for making all of this happen. Also shouts to Will Grinden, who I had the chance to introduce to Yagerbombs, and also KBunz, who fell victim to the sour diesel along with Scolla, and everyone else I kicked it with during Scolla’s visit. Lately I’ve been somewhat withdrawn, and if you’ve been looking for me, and you know me very well personally, you’ll know that I’m not hard to find. I honestly feel as if I’m in a good place right now. Minus the stress & the deadlines, and the scope that I’m under. I’ll be dropping most of the media in a segmented manner, stay tuned to the blog to see the remaining work. You can find out more about Young Scolla by clicking HERE.
Not only is it a honor to work with artists with this caliber of taste, but to be able to work with someone who is aware of how important branding is, and to be able to apply that fundamental philosophy over several different aspects, is a blessing. I’m very enthused from the artists I’ve worked with this year alone. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future. Once again, you can find out more about @YoungScolla by clicking HERE.
Film Prints from Japan.05.26.10
#nowplaying – “Higher” by The Cardigans What’s the word you guys? After a few conversations today, I decided that it would be best to upload some 35mm film print scannings from the first time I went to Japan. I’ve never really published them, as far as on a personal site. As much as I talk about film, I’ve yet to post any film prints until today. The frames were photographed in 2006, When I was 18 years old. The 35mm film camera I was using at the time was a Nikon N90 with a variation of lenses. I was shooting with Fuji Provia 400/Fuji Super 800/Ilford Super XP2, shooting mostly on manual and rarely on aperture priority. There is nothing like film on this earth. Regardless how great the quality a digital body can produce, it can never produce a REAL, substantial image. Film is somewhat magical; it’s as if you’re snatching a moment in time and engraving it into this thin piece of silver gelatin film, one frame at a time. Some of these frames have my old water mark on them.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll upload some proof sheets. + Speechie 1 comment
DetroitExposure Studio Opening05.24.10 Saturday I attended the DetroitExposure Studio Opening in Royal Oak, MI. This was an amazing day for so many people, including myself. Check out the DE Boys at www.detroitexposure.com /// www.studio.detroitexposure.com 0 comments
Savage Diplomacy.05.23.10
#nowplaying – “Je Reviens” by Autour De Lucie As I’m sitting here, at this desk, looking for words to fill up this paragraph, I can’t really find much to say. Embarrassing as one might find this, I still have commentary from the homies Adrian Luther {1st Frame} & GZ {3rd Frame}, and hopefully everything should speak for itself. Adrian & GZ, graphic designers & photographers who reign in the Inland Empire, approximately an hour or so east of Los Angeles, aren’t just my homies; they share the same philosophy as I on numerous things. I honestly feel like we’re related, in some odd, distant world. The homies pretty much birthed me into the Southern California mindstate & showed me the ropes. All the way from ONT to DTLA, through Wilshire, then Fairfax, scooped up some In & Out and got the word on the ’secret menu’, Santa Monica, Venice, then back inside Los Angeles, up & down Pico, until it was time for me to hit the crib in Koreatown. The day I shot these frames, just happened to be one of the best days ever. Now, if you excuse me…I’m gonna go watch a Kung Fu movie. Probably “The Butcher” with Yuen Biao. +Speechie
Do you feel the game is tainted? ///////// Adrian Luther: In a way, I feel that cats take the game for granted, it’s so easy to get put on now, people don’t want to pay dues anymore, they just want to start in their rookie year. I agree 100. Do you feel like that helps you take a certain approach to your work? ///////// ADRNLTHR: Definitely, it’s motivation; I’m not the type to hate on what the next man is doing. I’ll continue to stay in my lane and play my position. What’s your favorite medium? ////////// ADRNLTHR: My Macbook Pro… I don’t draw, I don’t paint, I just control the mouse. Do you feel like your fashion & lifestyle change the way you approach marketing & design? Is there any place that you’d like to re-locate besides California? ///////// GZ: Dude..We havin’ the time of our lives out here. We never take any of it for granted, the experiences nor the people we’ve had the opportunity to meet….and because of this, we always stride to put out the best product possible. End of the day all we’re trying do is contribute to the game that raised us, have our voices heard and manifest growth through our work.
About Damn Time.05.15.10
LA & Beyond | www.speechieforpresident.com from Speechie on Vimeo. #nowplaying – Dom Kennedy “Locals Only” What’s the word yo! It’s been a minute since my last post, but so much as been happening over the past few weeks. I returned from California with a bag full of experiences & a shit load of work to organize, noting the fact that I left my hard drive power cord on my way up to Sacramento from Los Angeles, forcing me to reroute my workflow and export all my media onto my Mac until I returned home (Props to the homie Alvyn Maranan for letting me use an additional power cord). As soon as I touched down in Detroit I began shooting again, which doubled my workload, but everything is slowly but surely steadying itself. Today I’ll be publishing a few posts, hopefully one from Los Angeles, also. I’ll be making additional changes to the blog/website itself. So sit tight! + Speechie 1 comment
The First of the Many.04.15.10
#nowplaying – “Final Home” by DJ Krush & Esthero (Piano Mix) What’s the word yo! I’m currently in LA right now, but I’m HELLA behind on blog posts! Got a lot of great shit coming up within the next few days, so stay tuned! I’m so happy for the simple fact that everyone in my circle is doing there thing! SHOUT OUT TO RESPEKFRESH DOWN IN SOUTH FLORIDA FOR HIS INSPIRATIONAL MSGS VIA BBM EVERY MORNING. {WWW.RESPEKFRESH.COM} SHOUT OUT TO THE HOMIE STEF FOR DOING HIS THING OUT IN THE DMV! [STEF.BANDCAMP.COM]. And definitely SHOUT OUT TO THE HOMIES ADRIAN LUTHER & GZ FROM SAVAGE DIPLOMACY. INTERVIEW WITH THEM COMING UP SOON! [WWW.SAVAGEDIPLOMACY.COM] This next clip is of my homie Stevie Soul down at Freshman Clothing. I was in Detroit during this. The homie holds it down! (www.steviesoul.com). And with that said, I’m out to shoot a photo interview with the homie Graham Harrington in downtown LA. UPDATE : I’ll be uploading a HD version of the video tonight when I return home from the interview. Stay tuned! 3 comments
Tori Washington & The Cornbread Crusted Salmon04.04.10
#nowplaying – “Desert” by Emille Simon
Oh mon amour, mon coeur est lourd. Je compte les heures, je compte les jours. Je voudrais te dessiner dans un desert. Le desert de mon coeur. Oh mon amour, je passe mon tour. J’ai deserté les alentours. Je te quitte, voila c’est tout. Oh mon amour, je passe mon tour. J’ai deserté les alentours. Je te quitte, voila c’est tout. Dans la nuit parfois, le nez à la fenêtre. Je t’attendais et je sombre. Jetez au vent mes tristes cendres, voila!
Every Other Thursday.04.02.10
#nowplaying – “Amnesia” by Blu What’s the word? I’ve been somewhat sick over the past 3 days, but I’ve been well enough to shoot! Which is a good thing. Recently I sat in on a photoshoot by Davide Anderson with my homie Lyuba, and what was supposed to be a 2 hour rendezvous, developed into a 8 hour trek throughout the inner city. Over the week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that I need in my life to progress dynamically. Surprisingly, one of the things that I need the most is time. Having time & funding to work on your own schedule, freely, makes a large difference in your output and creative levels. Honestly, this year I really need to put myself in a position where I can spend more time with myself. The past weekend I spent days on end in my space, listening to classical piano and editing photos, as well as brainstorming new premises, and clarifying my plan of action over the next year. Detroit is such a beautiful city for growing, but once you’ve out grown the city it can only be damaging to you. Right now I am at the age where I really need constant exposure to dynamic situations, and that is one thing that it is difficult for this city to provide. I’ve already grown enough here; ce qui est fait n’est plus à faire.
We entered this Polish import/art store filled with dope woodwork & cultural ornaments, some made up to 40 years ago. They had a cabinet of hundreds of uniquely handcrafted wood boxes; all ranging from $20 to $150. If you like cigar boxes, or your store things in wood boxes/chests as I do, buying one of these would be ideal.
Of course, I would never document another shoot from another photographer. Not only out of respect, but because there are TOO MANY CAMERA SNOBS who walk into other people’s space, and because of their age, equipment provisions, or mindset, feel that they have the need to advise other photographers of their presence. Honestly, that’s an ignorant thing to do. Once again, you can check out Davide Anderson’s work, here : www.davidephotography.com If you look at my camera strap(in the third photo from the top), you’ll see that I’ve REMOVED THE CANON 5D MARK II STRAP FROM THE BODY, AND REPLACED IT WITH A CUSTOM MADE STRAP. I’ve done this simply to prevent the prejudice from “Tech-Heads” who judge your skill level from the gear that you use or your lens set up (I’ll be writing further on this soon). Judge my work, by my work.
Even though I missed sunrise, I was able to watch the sunset during dinner, which was HELLA DOPE. Life is beautiful. In reality, life is amazing, constantly. We are blessed to live and breathe new experiences everyday. The difference is, some people don’t really sit back and take the time to enjoy what life has to offer, in that moment in time. By the end of the day, we were both exhausted from all the picture taking; I actually ran out of battery power several times before this last shot. But it was all good. I was totally done.
The Homies.03.29.10
#nowplaying – Joe Hisaishi “Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi” What’s the word yo? I hope everyone’s been chill… over the weekend, I’ve really just been relaxing for the most part, meditating on the things to come, and the people I wanna connect with. For the most part though, I’ve been kicking it with the homies. Speaking of the homies.. few of you have ever met them.. so I spend a day just kickin’ it and photographing. It was pretty dope… I’d like to introduce everyone more thoroughly without making taking away from the photos… so here we go. Introducing Ant, Nice, and Envee (in descending order). I didn’t really publish ALL of the photos from that day because I definitely wanted to give you more of a individual explanation of each one throughout the week… hopefully I’ll be able to do that. For the most part.. sit tight.
Can’t Wait To Connect with the West.03.26.10
#nowplaying – Pete Rock feat Vinia Mojica “Mindblowin” What’s the word yo! It’s been a long week… I finally have time to sit down and do things the way I want to now. Working with the new 5D MK II and the large raw files (getting used to my computer dealing with the delay), planning shoots while editing older assignments, solidifying travel plans (I’m due west), and canceling the others, hanging with the homie Byn before he left for the Philippines, and also formulating what I want and need to do for the blog. I’ve always wanted to set a more intimate environment for the blog, with more behind the scenes photos and just random things throughout my week or even day. The sad thing isn’t that I never had time, I just didn’t have the tools I was satisfied with. I’ve been waiting for a full frame digital body for so long now, and honestly shooting with the majority of digital cameras that cut your frame space by 25-30%, it’s not entirely satisfying when you’ve already experienced the full frame on a film camera prior. I’m sorry you guys but the reason why I didn’t publish a lot of work is simply because I wasn’t satisfied with it. Therefore, I wasn’t as inspired prior to an assignment to publish my work after. I always felt like I was compensating editing for the frame space I lost. BUT I will be publishing things from 6 months prior that I’ve only published to the clients or friends and just random frames that you’ve never seen before. Earlier in the week I shot with my homie Lyuba, breaking my camera in for the first portraiture shoot I’ve done since the new purchase. I was so happy with the shoot (the colors are SO DYNAMIC, and the depth just adds to the shadows and tones), and even though editing it was extremely hard, I made it work. When I say DYNAMIC.. I mean extremely sensitive to minor adjustments. Since then I’ve been making new presets in Lightroom or editing from scratch, primarily.
The colors are so deep and even though the options you have for any camera are infinite, this camera just seems to have the consistent range that I need in my life to bring me back to inspiration. Hopefully I’ll be able to publish more photos from this session soon, we shall see. I’m more excited of the work to come. I’ll definitely be publishing more photo sets and also a few other things that I’ll be introducing the blog. P.S. be expecting a shoot from @thelexvision and myself very soon; he’ll be leaving for Osaka, Japan soon, and we should have a few photos together alongside a few other comrades of ours, also. +One Love. 5 comments
Reasons Why I Hate to Love.03.19.10 The truth came out sorta like this… :
The truth has no fear. 15 comments
Seba Jun | せば じゅん03.18.10 I honestly don’t know what to say. I wish that I would’ve found out sooner. From what I hear, the death of Nujabes (Jun Seba) was announced on M-FLO’s site. His family had a private burial for him shortly after his death.
R.I.P. JUN SEBA (せば じゅん ) 1974 – 2010 1 comment
You know nothing about the Zef Side.02.27.10 Let me begin by saying this is definitely the craziest shit I’ve seen in a long time. Shout to the homie Christos @ detroitartist.org for showing me this last night while we kicked it. South African/Africaan Hip Hop is on…a entirely different page. Composed of 3 members (Ninja, Yolandi, and DJ Hi-Tek), this group from the Cape is really getting a lot of attention. If you haven’t seen the videos already, you’ll be amazed. This is definitely one of the most astounding things I’ve witnessed in a very long time. Enjoy. LOL UPDATE : I actually did research on the cinematography of the videos.. in the second video contains Leon Botha, a victim of Progeria. What you think is make up, is a real human.
Get Familiar : RESPEKFRESH | www.respekfresh.com01.12.10 Good photography speaks for itself. As much as I would like to give you my opinion, I’d rather you have your own. My homie Fresh, hailing from South FL, along with a few other homies, is putting it down on the photography scene. You can peep @RESPEKFRESH with the links provided. Get Familiar & Enjoy.
WWW.RESPEKFRESH.COM
10 Days Into the Decade…01.10.10
…and I finally decide to post. I rarely ever make resolutions in the New Year. Quite frankly, I believe that you should follow through with things that will better yourself daily. As 2009 came to a close, I found myself pondering career decisions, paths and strategies, finalizing on decisions that have plagued me over the past year. Along with a few others, I’ve spent most of my time building a foundation and creating the grassroots for a successful network; which is not easy. As far as resolutions go, forget the ridiculous and cliché notions that most people have. I will say I only know several things that I am sure to work towards : #1 Major Upgrades. This year I’ll be investing some major green into photography. I expect to spend $10,000 to $15,000 on photography equipment, workflow systems, studio construction and darkroom equipment. This is honestly a huge leap, but I understand that these investments will benefit me a lifetime with the proper care and use. #2 Continuing Education. This was one of the biggest decisions for me. I am not attracted to nor do I find the need to go to school. This entire year I devoted my time to pondering what I would do by traveling, networking, exploring and exposing myself to multiple environments and lifestyles. I’ve come to the conclusion that regardless of my talent, I cannot base my future on luck. I would be in my favor to return to school and receive a degree, which I could use to benefit any of my aspirations. Life is about decisions, not luck. You wouldn’t bring dice to a chess game; the game is simply not designed that way. #3 Restoring Order. As far as this goes… you’ll see. #4 MYSPACE.COM is Dead… Almost. Myspace can still be used. I believe that the objective now is not to have a ton of friends, but to have the right friends. I’ll be editing/restoring my account and attempting to utilize it once again. This is a task of it’s own. #5 Maturation of Work. In February I’ll be 22 years of age. Along with myself, my workload is maturing also. I’m beginning to see the demands of my clientele and how they’ve changed over the past 3 years. The trick now is balancing artistic integrity with the average clients need for common perception. In 3 years will I still be known as Speechie? Or as Erik Robertson? Or another name? This is a crude reality that one has to face when he/she is branding themselves. Will I work independently or with an agency? Solo or Duo? Or with several photographers? Will your only medium be photography? Ah… questions upon questions. #6 Presentation. Presenting my work so that it can be viewable by the public is something that I honestly rarely do, via facebook, flickr or physical print. Over the past few years I’ve come to the conclusion that it is imperative for you to do so to contain clientele. #7 Terms of Establishment Yeah yeah, the legal bullshit. It has to be done. I can honestly say that these are the personal objectives that I’ve set out for this year. We are currently in the 1st Quarter, everyone needs to understand that planning and execution is imperative to any goal that you wish to achieve. I wish you all the best. Au revoir. - Speechie 2 comments |
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