Behind the Scenes: Cigar Aficionado

3000 bamboo skewers never looked so good! For the May/June issue of Cigar Aficionado's Good Life Guide, high-tech durability was the driving theme. To emphasize the unique microfiber blends of the featured golf apparel, a monochromatic silver bunker and sand trap were created. Skewers were individually glued and trimmed to create the sexy golf terrain. Sand was hand sculpted and combed to emulate a freshly raked texture. Once again Jeff Harris's magic lighting skills and eye for depth captured a truly gorgeous spread. Art direction by Sarina Finkelstein. Another successful collaboration! 

Jeremy Scott for Swatch

Not quite the Pop Swatch I rocked in '93 - it's hotter, sassier and very Fashion. American designer Jeremy Scott teamed up with Swatch to create a fresh take on the art of time. Vivid pop culture elements, strong colors and eye catching style meld into the perfect functional accessory. Add this to my Christmas list Santa!

Swatch

Behind the Scenes: New Balance Wellness

Photographer Peter Z. Jones

For the New Balance Wellness catalog shoot I designed and fabricated a 12ft X 8ft wall. The scale was massive and the effect was dramatic. Homasote bricks were cut in varying sizes and layered to form 3 levels of depth. A mixture of joint compound and mortar emulated an aged surface, while paint unified the tonality and further increased shadows.

Team: Art Director: Mark Keegan. Photographer: Peter Z. Jones.

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Behind the Scenes: Hendricks Gin Test

Behind the Scenes at Jeff Harris Studio from Tory Williams on Vimeo.

After the saw dust has settled, paint brushes are cleaned and the set is installed; the prop styling begins. Watch and enjoy as photographer Jeff Harris brings the composition to life.

Ode to Opera, Wings and All Things Leventi

Curtain, Palais Garnier, Paris, France, 2009Palais Garnier, Paris, France, 2009Amargosa Opera House, Death Valley Junction, California, 2009Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest, Romania, 2007Palau de la Musica Catalana, Barcelona, Spain, 2009TWA Flight Center by Eero Sarrinen

Photographer David Leventi

If you are an artist, designer or creative like myself, you will understand that there is a feeling which drives us. The moment you begin creating, you see lines converge into compositions and designs form, the visual projections of what our mind is capable of creating. You own it. You feel it. You bring it into reality.
 
May I introduce photographer David Leventi. At center stage, camera perched at attention, the air thick with the voices of history, his mind races. With the view of an opera singer, he takes in the mass beauty, painted trompe l’oeil ceilings, private boxes and repetition of chairs an audience would fill. Richly draped fabrics tower above his head, the chandelier glows, and architectural acoustic perfection echoes.
 
He wants it all. His photo will surround you, revealing all levels of the space, catching what the naked eye is unable to. His lenses focused, the photographic beauty begins.
 
Leventi explains, “…the light in the opera house strikes each of these features and returns to the camera, affixing them to film. Lit solely by the existing chandeliers and lamps…” The collection: Bjoerling’s Larynx, records the interiors of 40 world-famous opera houses in Europe and the Americas.
 
Recently, Leventi photographed the renovation of the TWA Flight Center by Eero Sarrinen at JFK. The images were featured in the New York Times Magazine. I immediately recognized David’s architectural perspective reflected in the textures of the structures concrete and the images’ all-encompassing feel.
 
Leventi portrayed the experience for me: “I can't begin to describe what it was like to stand in his futuristic masterpiece alone. It reminded me of a chapel to air travel. I knew that the building had been photographed by many photographers in the past, but I wanted to do something unique. The pictures that The New York Times Magazine published are interesting because they show the texture of the tile within an emblematic shot of the space. It's a two for one deal!” 
 
Heads-up Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, and architects of the world - If you’ve got something grand, this man should be photographing it. His work is breathtaking.