Quest for the Muse

Throughout history artists have always had muses, individuals that inspire them to be creative and help in pushing that creativity to the surface. They are fun to hang out with and a nice dynamic is always present.
I have been lucky to have two friends who have always been there when i needed a little bit of a creative push, one is my L.A muse, the other is my Amman muse. I usually take these pictures for myself and my friends but today i thought i'd post a couple of pictures that i shot in the past couple months of Jen and Lara.

The Jen shots were shot with the leica and tri-x film. Lara's shots are with the canon 20d.

Gollum/King Kong and Me

While walking in London and i bumped into actor Andy Sarkis, famous for his roles as Gollum in Lord of the Rings and King Kong.

We had a chat for about 15 minutes in the street, i told him about our film and he was really nice and liked the idea of it. Asked him if i can make a frame and he was ok with it.

One Holga, Two films and Three countries

Every while and then, i venture out to the streets with a Holga camera. The results are always fun and i enjoy shooting it. I've shot two rolls recently and they cover NYC, Amman and Dubai.

Old ladies, white sneakers and a trolley always catch my attention.

So do red bags and huge sunglasses on old ladies.

I love the color in this picture , and the holga soft effect around the center of focus.
Someone caught me shooting...look at the difference between film and digital.
Back in Amman i saw this in front of the office.
Shooting from the car is an art you learn when you live in L.A
Dubai beaches. I wanted to get closer but i chickened out.
This is the guy that cleans the beach.

Is he going to go in or is he an Arab who is afraid of the water?

Simplicity vs. excessiveness
...and to end this post, Japanese tourists in Dubai taking pictures of a white santa on a sled.

All pictures shot with a Holga on Kodak Portra 400 vc 120 film.

My first Magazine cover

I finally shot my first magazine cover!
While attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, i was commissioned by Jo magazine to shoot their March issue cover.
Mahmoud Al-Massad is a Jordanian film maker whose documentary "Recycle" won the cinematography award for world documentaries at Sundance.
The session was a very quick one, we were running late to the closing ceremony, the sun was going down and i had to get the shot. The result is what you see above.

Finally Back in Amman

It's been a month since I have blogged but i have been traveling for the past 2 weeks, i went to London for a screening of Captain Abu Raed for Al-Jazeera's fabulous picture show, then i went to Dubai for a photography shoot for a book i am working on, then back to London after that. So as you can imagine i have tons of pictures to share here. Hopefully sometime next week i'll have time to upload some.

I leave you with four frames from my last visit to New York.