WSJ

BRIAN WECHT OF NINJA SEX PARTY FOR WSJ

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.

HOWIE MANDEL FOR WALL STREET JOURNAL

A few weeks ago we ended up in Van Nuys at a small industrial complex which happened to house Howie Mandel’s office in it. I gotta say, this office was pretty fantastic. Not only did it have a few small offices in it, but it also had a mini cyc built in and a recording booth with a mixing room!

As cool as everything was, the main area that we brought the EQ thru seemed to really speak to us. The mini carousel and general anarchy of the space was just an amazing setting for this particular shoot.

Let’s start with Sean and Howie doing our color card…

The mini cyc was great for a studio option..

The serious thinking happens on the ponies. I was really drawn to this piece in Howie’s office, come to find out that he has this around because his granddaughter loves carousels and it really reminded me of the Depeche Mode video for Personal Jesus.

I was happy to see that some of my favorites have kept their younger, silly side! What a great day with a down to earth dude.