Thought I would pass along my recent interview with Stitch about Uniform and some other thoughts about photography. Enjoy.

It goes without saying, but this was a fun shoot. Set build at Milk Studios in LA, and working with NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Big thank you to KD, Roc Nation, Sparkling ICE, Javelin, and Production on 5th. Total team effort. Last year I also shot a print campaign for Sparkling ICE with Robinson Cano. This was the follow up shoot, plus I directed a few web interviews with KD which you can see above as well.

In August, I took part in my fist group show, Out Of Sight 2016, at the historic King Street Station in Seattle. Two of my Falling Bodies prints were on display, and what a thrill to be included with such talented artists from the Pacific Northwest, including two of my favorites, Rodrigo Valenzuela, and Susan Dory.

The only thing more exciting than showing at Out Of Sight this year, was selling my first print and seeing that little red dot next to the title card. Hopefully this is just the beginning.

Special thanks to Greg Lundgren, Sierra Stinson, and Mackenzie Canlis, as well as the entire Out Of Sight team, for making this happen.

For the first part of 2016, my iPhone camera lens had a crack in it. This was a huge bummer, because it prevented me from creating iPhone Portraits. It was the first time in about 3 years I wasn’t creating spontaneous portraits with my iPhone. As someone who usually doesn’t create an image without some sort of production, creating a spontaneous portrait on a whim is an incredibly satisfying and exciting experience.

Not having a fully functioning iPhone camera for several months was a pivotal time for this project. A little part of me was feeling burnt out and tired. In the first three years, I had photographed over 300 iPhone portraits of family, friends, and strangers. I wondered if I would ever regain my excitement for this project if I stopped pushing myself to create.

Eventually in the Spring, I did get a new iPhone. The 6s. As soon as I picked up the phone, I couldn’t wait to make an iPhone Portrait. What I began to realize is the time away from this project gave me new energy and excitement to explore and push myself further. My pace has slowed a bit for several reasons, but my excitement and focus has only grown. The above images are a handful of the recent portraits I have made this Summer and Fall. I will continue to share more about this project as I move forward.

You can see a larger gallery of my iPhone Portraits here, and you can also follow @johnkeatley on Instagram to see the full project unfold.

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Are you going to be in New York for PhotoPlus Expo? It’s happening October 19-22, and I will be speaking on Thursday the 20th. If you are going to be in town, I would love to see you there. I am giving a talk sponsored by Tether Tools about how to get the most out of your photo shoot opportunities.

Life on set at a commercial photo shoot can be daunting, particularly if the client chooses to be present. John will talk to you about how he manages to make his set feel comfortable for the subject, client and photography team, all the while having a great time and getting awesome pictures. Learn about production, managing workflow, handling clients requests and expectations, building lasting relationships, and the tools that will make everything easier to navigate. First 100 registrants will receive 20% OFF if you sign up with this link - SIGN UP NOW!

You always remember your firsts, and yesterday was the first time my new series Uniform has been published or recognized in the fine art world. Thank you IGNANT! They do such a wonderful job curating, and it is a thrill to be a part of that. Be sure to follow IGNANT on Instagram for more inspiration.

I love making portraits of other artists. True, a portrait of anyone is a wonderful mystery waiting to be unlocked, but I always have an extra sense of excitement before I make a portrait of an artist. I think it is because they are often willing to experiment and collaborate, and are more willing to be patient while I exact my desire for perfection and exploration. Louie Gong was no exception.

Louie Gong is an artist, activist and educator, among other things. His heritage is Nooksack/Chinese/French/Scottish, so he brings a really unique perspective to his work, along with a modern sense of style. His murals are incredible. When I first saw his work, it felt somewhat familiar in the sense that there is a fair amount of Native American art here in the Pacific Northwest. But very quickly you realize that something is different about this piece: a modern sensibility that at the same time still feels authentic to its roots. Then I start to see the Chinese influence which seems so subtle at first glance. It’s quite brilliant.

Louie just opened a really cool new store here in Seattle called Eighth Generation. I want the blanket he is wearing, which he also designed. Christmas wishlist… If you aren’t in the Seattle area, fear not, they have a great online store as well.

This shot was a collaboration with City Arts art director Dan Paulus. Thanks Dan! Here is a link to the full article on City Arts.

While I didn’t use my iPhone to make any of these member portraits or videos for BECU, it was my iPhone Portrait project that helped shape the direction of this ad campaign by DNA. It is incredibly gratifying to work on a project like this, when there is a close tie to something as personal as my iPhone Portraits. Exploring the human face through photography and video is the one thing I have never grown tired of. Every new person I photograph presents a new opportunity (or sometimes a challenge), and I am always learning from the experience of photographing people. Below are some of the portraits I made from the nearly 50 people I photographed for this project. Everyone is an actual BECU member. Working with “real” people is a lot of fun for me because they don’t come in with any expectations as to what they think I want them to do. And there are always some surprises, which I think makes the portraits all the more interesting.

If you were watching the summer Olympics this year, you may have seen these commercials, which I directed. The billboards, bus wraps, posters, etc. are all over Seattle, as well. Big thanks to BECU and DNA, especially Lianne Onart, Dave Echenoz, Molly Woodruff, and Dan Gross.

I always try to keep people on their toes and make things as fun as possible. To me, that means taking awkward pictures of the ACD Lianne and BECU member, Kiki.

My daughter, right as she discovered / I taught her, you can yell, “M&M’s” on set, and they will magically appear.”

Big thanks to my wonderful crew. Projects like this are a total team effort. Not to mention it wouldn’t be nearly as fun without all of these great people.
Producer: Kort Havens
Digital Tech: Lonnie Webb
1st Assistant: Brian Jones
2nd Assistant: Peter Hanson
Stylist: Alexis Steinman
Stylist Assistant: Gwen Stubbs
Hair & Makeup Artist: Jenny Verador
Hair & Makeup Artist: Haley Olsen
DP: Matt Daniels
Sound: Scot Charles
PA: Audrey O’Neil
PA: Hugo Garcia
PA Camera: Sacha Benis

Con Man. The many faces of Howard Cogitz.

Identity is an interesting thing. We dress and decorate ourselves to convey a message to others, communicating to them with intentionality or not “this is what I want you to think about who I am.” What is interesting about this, though, is that most people don’t interpret our message the way we intend. Our identity and the opinions of others are inextricably linked together, for better or worse. Our identity forms opinions. Others opinions mold and form our identity.
Identity is something I have been thinking about a lot over the last several years as I try to understand more about myself, and how I view others. In 2015, I created a portrait series called Members Only, where I styled 13 people to look exactly the same. Once I finished that series, I wanted to explore multiple identities in a single person, and wondered what was the extent of the range of a single human face. In a portrait, visually, how much can one person change? With that, I give you Con Man.

Howard Cogitz is one of the most prolific American con men of the 20th century. His first known con was in 1958 while running a fake real estate development company in Florida. At best count, he walked away with over 3 million dollars from nearly 16 individuals and families.

In 1963 he spread out, with known ties to Las Vegas, New York, and San Francisco. It seems he may have primarily lived in Florida under many different aliases, which indicates he may have originally been from there. His main game was to create fake corporations in the real estate business and offer investment opportunities to people beginning to think about retirement. His work can be traced from 1958 to 1971 when all signs of him vanished. He was never caught or arrested, although there is record of him receiving a traffic ticket for speeding in Los Angeles during 1964 under the name Charles Barber.

Below are some behind the scenes pictures for those of you who like to see how things are made. A very big thank you to Jennifer Popochock, Alexis Steinman, Brian Kirk, Viktor Fejes, Duffy De Armas, my wife Nichelle, and Peter Hanson. Behind the scenes pictures by Peter Hanson. I feel like this is just the start of something pretty exciting.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are back on tour, folks. The new album, “This Unruly Mess I’ve Made” comes out in February 2016, and they are currently doing “An Evening with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis” tour in the US. Some of my favorite projects over the past couple of years have been with Ben and Ryan, and this image was no exception. This might be my favorite conceptual landscape image to date. Hope you enjoy the sneak peek at how it all came together. I’m already looking forward to whatever comes next.