CONTROL

This summer I had an assignment for Portland Monthly to shoot a photo illustration about a nearly vacant property. I asked the property management company to have as many lights out in the building as possible. Unfortunately I didn't get as many lights blacked out as I'd hoped. I got a chance to turn those lights out this weekend and to make the photo as I saw it. Controlling a shoot from behind the camera is essential to my work but occasionally when extraneous details hinder the vision, post production is a lifesaver. The first image is as the scene was and the later image is the final piece.

HOMEWARD BOUND : SAN FRANCISCO

This month marks a new home base for my photography. I’ll be returning to San Francisco after living in Portland. I am very excited to announce this second chance to live in the vibrant city again. I look forward to the friends, food and community there. The city of Portland has been a beautiful home and I plan on continued pursuits with the companies I’ve done business with over the last nine months. Check www.brandonjosephbaker.com for more information or here in the upcoming months.

I have some new work I'm excited to get out to the public but that will have to wait until the move is finished.

Photo Booth Video Sandbox Studio PDX

I put together an animated piece for the studio I work with, Sandbox Studio. This video is from an art party we had at the studio in conjunction with Office PDX and is comprised of the images attendees shot of themselves. I built and lit the photo booth for the party and Cory Zimmerman wrote the action scripts that automated the multiple capture. It's also on the Sandbox blog. Many thanks must be given to The Roman Numerals whose new song can be downloaded here through Top Spin Media.

THE STANDARD SYSTEM

I've been working on a series of photographs recently involving repeated symbols, subjects or colors with a loosely related take on the homogeneous future. If you've been following my work in the last 6 months I've been exploring some new visions and posting them here. Friday I did a quick shoot with Meredith (thank you very much Meredith!!) and with kindly contributed fashions from Pin Me Apparel on Mississippi Street.

TEARSHEET : PORTLAND MONTHLY

The September issue of Portland Monthly has a little piece I did. It is a story on the development in the South Waterfront District in SW Portland. There are several very beautiful tall condominium buildings that are mostly vacant. I shot this with remote slaves from an adjacent building 15 stories up. I won't spill all the beans about the story or the shoot so you'll pick up a copy on the newsstands. Here is the image from one of the virtually empty condos. Be sure to pick up Portland Monthly in October. I have a 5 page fashion spread that went to press last night. It's a slick piece.

ART OF BROOKE WESTON

In June I shot photographs of Brooke Weston's art. She creates sculptures from discarded taxidermy mounts. Her art is featured at Cannibals on NW 21st and she has a showing on August 14th if you can make it please come out and see her installation at Milepost 5 during Manor Of Art. Buy some of her art and support local artists.

BLACK MONSTERS

I've been on the road heading to San Francisco for a shoot with Catholic Charities. I'm seeing old friends and shooting along the way. This is a continuation of the series I've been doing on cars and transportation.

Coco Donuts

In the last month I have found a donut shop with in walking distance to my place. Thank God for Coco Donuts. Their donuts are simple like Delicious Donuts. The atmosphere inside is cute; pink accents, polished silver surfaces and clean lines with lots of available light. The donuts are light hence the inspiration for this photo.

PARADE OF REDHEADS

This weekend my wonderful friend Courtney Cummins came to Portland to play. We did some testing with Meredith and Roze, model and hair stylist respectively. We got a lot really great shots from the day. I haven't finished editing them as this post goes up but I did want to share something I put together quickly this morning. Meredith is a former high jumper and quite athletic. Many thanks to everyone involved! The images look really great. More to come soon.

This is the final image from the series. Big thanks to Meredith for being so fun to work with!

Blake Britton

I met Blake Britton at his show A Time For Lions with Jonny Fenix at Nemo Design several months ago. I was floored with Blakes sculptures. They were hauntingly beautiful, full of subtle imagery and references to masculinity, and commandingly hung at eye level. Jonny's work was equally compelling I just felt drawn to the 3 dimensional aspect of the show. Britton does altered taxidermy mounts with bondo and cast rubber. A few weeks later I met Blake to see his process and hang out. Here are some of the photos from that morning. Please check out his work at bcbritton.com.

"Happy Endings"

Blake Britton

"Boys Don't Cry" left and "Head Above Water" right with Britton.

HAPPY PLAYGROUND

Last week I got breakfast with a photographer friend of mine,Christine Taylor and we had some coffee afterwards at my place. Unintentionally I gave her a coffee cup that matched her big orange hat. Suddenly inspiration strikes and an impromptu photo shoot happens. A special thank you to Christine for having too much coffee with me Thursday and for being a wonderful subject. Next time I'll have better cream for the coffee.

PLAYING WITH MY FOOD, AGAIN

This should stop. My recent fixation with expressing myself through food. Better yet, expressing myself through photographs where I misuse and play with food. Maybe it doesn't have to stop. Maybe I should have been a food photographer. Maybe I should have been a cook. Maybe I should have grown out of this phase years ago.

Donut Dreams

I had a dream last night in black and white. I usually dream in accurate or vivid color so this was a little out of the ordinary. I dreamt of jelly filled donuts. I was up early to make sure Delicious Donuts had what I needed before I headed off to work.

WHITE NOISE

–noun
1. Also called white sound. a steady, unvarying, unobtrusive sound, as an electronically produced drone or the sound of rain, used to mask or obliterate unwanted sounds.
2. Physics. random noise with a uniform frequency spectrum over a wide range of frequencies.

From WHITE NOISE by Don DeLillo (The book I'm currently reading). Metaphor referring to the confluence of all the symptoms of postmodern culture that in their coming-together make it very difficult for an individual to actualize his or her ideas and personality.

Proactive vs Retroactive

After driving home from showing my book to a client I began to contemplate the content of my book. For the longest time my book has been retroactive. Working in photojournalism and editorially many of my clients wanted to see work I've done for other publications. My client base has moved into a different direction, away from the printed weekly and monthly mediums into a more evergreen advertising world. I'm not discrediting the work I have done for past clients, I'm proud of the work, it's just not where I'm headed or at now. I've been doing some shooting work to help me find the voice I have now. The visual voice I'd prefer to speak with. Proactive opposed to Retroactive. As I piece together the work I'm doing now I'm going to publish them here first. This is the first in the series I'm doing now. The working title of the book is 'visions', working title only because 'visions' has a ridiculous connotation. These images are coming from a place that begins in my head an not in a previously published or existing medium. I'm trying to find that happy medium between my early roots in illustration and the photographic medium I've grown into.