New Work: Oprah Magazine

Being based in St. Louis is great because of its close proximity to many other cities in the Midwest. So back in December, I got a call from the photo editor at O Magazine for a job in Kansas City. But the bigger surprise was their request that I also shoot like I do with all of my personal work, using 4x5 film.

It's very difficult to shoot 4x5 film without polaroids to work the lighting and framing. Fujifilm is the only company that makes 4x5 "polaroids" (yes, Polaroid doesn't even make 4x5 polaroids anymore). So I've developed a process and technique where my digital SLR translates almost identically to what my large format camera sees. There are a couple of advantages to this process. 1. I don't have to wait 2 minutes for each polaroid to cook and 2. I'll have full resolution digital images to later work with.

Although digital is so convenient, it still doesn't translate the world the same way 4x5 film does through texture of the grain and focus falloff. My approach to every image changes completely as well. Getting THE moment is critical so everything you do up to firing the shutter is more deliberate and finessed. I appreciate the fact that I learned my techniques over time (7 years in NYC) and in the world of film.