Last week I had the pleasure of leaving the house other than for groceries or alcohol to photograph Brian Wecht of Ninja Sex Party for WSJ. Shooting during this pandemic has obviously created a lot of new obstacles, limitations and opportunities for growth. With that said, we were limited to only shoot in Brian’s backyard which wasn’t ideal, but we made it work (although he had a great little studio space I wanted to shoot in, but for safety reasons we couldn’t). But I gotta say, I’m becoming a fan of AstroTurf, don’t judge me.
If you don’t know, Brian was a theoretical physicist professor at MIT who had left his tenured professorship to pursue his music as half the duo Ninja Sex Party. With the story being about transitions, Ronnie at WSJ asked for us to have options of him in and out of character. At the end of the day, he feels like he made the right choice.
I knew I wanted something tight on Ninja Brian’s face to show the intensity that he brings to the stage. It’s the same that he gives if he sees someone not wearing a mask in public.