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.

As a youngster growing up in California, I always wanted to be a Hollywood dog trainer.  Well, that didn’t work out so well.  But I do still love dogs, and I love working with them, despite what WC Fields said, “Never work with children or animals.”  Being the rebel I am, I decided to work with both children and animals on this new ad campaign for Seattle Humane with The Hilt agency.  And why stop there!  Let’s also add a super wild drag queen, and a family with three teenage girls while we are at it.  You know, just to make things more interesting!

Seattle Humane is a wonderful organization and I sincerely hope these images make them a lot of money so they can save even more animal lives. And some human lives too…

Here is my latest directing work for iBobber.  I hope you enjoy the video, laugh out loud, and suddenly feel the urge to buy an iBobber.  The fishfinder that syncs with your smartphone or tablet.  🙂
Big thank you to Fred Hammerquist, Alex Lebedev, Jeff Siegel, and Sage Price.
I am looking forward to doing a lot more directing in 2016.  Merry Christmas everyone if I don’t talk to you in the next week.

Director: John Keatley http://localhost/keatleyphotos
Co Executive Producer and Production Company: Vacation Theory
Co Executive Producer: Redeye
Cast: Allen Fitzpatrick and Jake Ynzunza
Wardrobe Stylist: Alexis Steinman
Hair & Makeup: Haley Olsen
Gaffer: Casey Schmidt
Color and Sound by Post Nuclear http://www.postnuclear.co
Music Provided by Epidemic Sound http://www.epidemicsound.com/
Special thanks: Nina Kaseburg and Fred Hammerquist

Here is our first Survival Guide video sneak peek!  This is a glimpse into the workshop weekend, delving into the topics of marketing, branding, what to charge, style, running a business and much more.  We have a year of Survival Guide weekend workshops under our belts now, and I have to admit, I never could have imagined how amazing this adventure would end up being.  Not only is this the content and subject matter I am most passionate about teaching, but the relationships, stories, encouragement, fun, good food, memories, and incredible art we have been able to be a part of has made this so worth it.  I was reflecting on this past year, and how far Survival Guide has come, and I realized that coincidence or not, this has been by far my best year creatively.  No question.  Survival Guide has taught me to push the boundaries and create the work I have been setting aside for far too long.  That was our intention for those who attend, but I never thought about the fact that I needed to hear and experience this as much as anyone else.  Teaching Survival Guide has forced me to grow and learn, and I’m realizing I may have learned more than any of the attendees even!

Survival Guide is heading to Austin, Texas February 19-21, 2016.  Sign up for Survival Guide here, and find out how you, too, can push the boundaries of your art and business.

Big thanks to Jane Sherman and Seattle Met for this fun shoot with Seattle Seahawks big DE Michael Bennett.  I am a huge Seahawks fan (ok, who in Seattle isn’t right now…), so making a portrait of one of my favorite players was an exciting opportunity.  Thanks also to Michael and Pele for letting us set up a studio in their home.  Go Hawks!

I have always been fascinated by faces.  Throughout my career, faces are what I gravitate toward.  But there have been many voices, external and internal, telling me to pull back and show more than just a face.  “You can’t just shoot portraits” the voices said.  I have experienced different periods of time where I have moved away from portraits, or at least tried to.  My general curiosities as an artist have taken me in other directions at times also, not to just make this all about a mental struggle.  I have explored environmental editorial portraiture, conceptual advertising (which I do enjoy), and many other types of photography.  Trying these other kinds of photography have allowed me to figure out what I don’t want to do, and at the same time hone my passion for the things I do want to do.  In that sense, I do not regret these periods of exploration.  If anything, this process has given me even more freedom and confidence to do what I want to do now.  This is the first time in my career that I finally feel like I have figured it out, so to speak.  I have rediscovered what I am most passionate about and what I must do, create the portraits that fill my head day and night.  I am filled with a whole new sense of excitement and creativity that I have never experienced before.  This project means so much to me, and I am excited where it is already leading me as an artist.

Thank you to my good friends, Cal, Ian, and the entire Wexley School For Girls family.

Hair and Makeup by Jennifer Popochock and Nancy Leonardi
Styling by Alexis Steniman
Retouching by Viktor Fejes
Digital Tech Lonnie Webb

Two years ago, John had the opportunity to go to Dubai for Gulf Photo Plus, where he joined a host of industry greats (David Alan Harvey, Greg Heisler, David Burnett, David Hobby, Zack Arias, Peter Hurley, and Joe McNally to name a few) to spend a week teaching all things photography and business.  He had a fabulous time seeing Dubai, meeting students, becoming friends with the other instructors, and shooting a portrait of Gregory Heisler in a wig.  It was awesome!