Nick Onken: The Madbury Club

Nick Onken frequently collaborates with the Madbury Club, a collective of artists based in NYC that is known for their forward and backward thinking as well as their crazy fun antics. Their new project,  Nylon Expeditions: A Madbury Editorial Experiment, documents their Monday morning jog through Manhattan wearing old school, bright neon, nylon tracksuits to illicit reactions from the city commuters. Nick Onken was along went along for the ride (run) to capture these photographs of the group in action.

Throwback Thursday: Andy Glass

Andy Glass does whatever it takes to get the shot. Here he is, 15 yrs ago, up close and personal with a lion for a Land Rover ad campaign.

Cade Martin: Location Combination

“I HAVE BEEN REALLY INTERESTED IN CGI...it’s is sort of where my work is evolving.” It’s an evolution that took a big leap forward in Cade Martin’s recent work for the Society for Human Resources Management. Where his photography is often whimsical, with a magical, ethereal quality (you can see some of it here) this could quite possibly be his biggest magic trick yet.

Hired to help promote SHRM’s annual conference, Cade took to the streets to scout the perfect Chicago locations. It was no easy feat: each must represent a quality that fit both the ideal HR candidate and the conference itself, and each must lend to a digital manipulation to fit the appropriate word.

“Chicago is so cool,” says Cade. “The architecture is amazing. The city gave us their blessing to shoot wherever we wanted, so there was a lot to choose from.”

The next challenge: raising the bar for next year’s conference.  “Everyone loved the work. We just keep thinking—what are we going to do next? How could we possibly top that?”

HOUSEwarming: Greenhouse Welcomes Claire Benoist

GREENHOUSE IS THRILLED TO WELCOME CLAIRE BENOIST TO OUR ROSTER! Claire grew up in Strasbourg in the Alsace region of France, home of sauerkraut, Munster cheese and Riesling wine. (“Riesling is still my favorite,” she admits.) Her parents—well-respected molecular biologists/immunologists—imbued their love of design and travel on Claire, who spent time globetrotting to China, Japan, New Zealand, Tonga, Russia and most of Europe before moving to Boston at 16. She came to New York in 2005.

Claire’s diverse upbringing has lent a complexity to her work, which is carefully lit, clean and sharp. “I think still life is the perfect balance of the two worlds I was brought up in, design and science,” she says, “it involves plenty of experimentation and an almost scientific precision in some instances, while being artistic in its composition.”

With a truly deft hand, Claire focuses on form, showcasing texture, color, or the features that make an object special. “I like to make mundane, ordinary objects come to life,” she says.

Claire’s clients include TBWA/Chiat/Day, Ammirati, Goodness MFG, Story Worldwide, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Entertainment Weekly, Shape, Self, Maxim, ESPN The Magazine, Business Week, Fitness, Health, Hemispheres/United Airlines, and Ink Publishing.

Welcome, Claire!

Tony D’Orio: Get Schooled

“WHAT IS BEAUTY, IF NOT AN EXAGGERATION OF REALITY?” In his take on back to school for Benefit cosmetics, Tony D’Orio delivers just that: a heightened reality that seamlessly blends everyday and Broadway.

The client wanted pink, Tony explains, and after that “it was up to us to decide how theatrical we wanted to go.”

Tony and his team focused on the details to add to the intensity of the scene. Subtly nuanced, it offers an Alice-in-Wonderland appeal through scenes that mix CGI with actual props. Impeccably tailored wardrobes on carefully casted models add to the hyper reality.

The tongue-in-cheek humor of the project suited Tony’s style. “I always like to push something in my photography—cinematic lights, styling… [on a scale of one to 10,] I want my photography to be an eleven.”

Lesson learned!