Introducing Rich P. Song (The Video)

Like I was saying in my previous post, I was out shooting Rich P. Song the other day in his old neighborhood. Having an artist on the same page as the creative people behind him isn't necessary a regular occurrence, so being that he was a rare exception to the trend, he was really awesome to work with.



Aside from visiting his old neighborhood, we also hit up a couple places that he holds near and dear to his heart. It was great to see how close he's kept himself to his roots in Chicago even now that he's going bigger places.

As far as the video goes, I tried to give the video a similar feel to the photos and share a little bit of Rich P. Song's world with you all. I downloaded a couple mixtapes lately and one of the more recent tracks I have been jamming to just fit so perfectly that I had to use it. Enjoy it and stay tuned for more!

Introducing Rich P. Song (The Photography)

After working with Pheave on a couple videos and photoshoots (view video 1 | video 2), Bailey from My Media Group and I got the call to make something happen for another local artist making waves for himself - Rich P. Song.

Steering clear of the typical hip-hop cliches, I was happy to shoot Rich P. Song in his old neighborhood and give everything a "real", homestyle-type feel even with his successes. It was so much fun shooting outside of a studio setting and be able to evoke more feeling out of the photos despite the cloudy day. Everyone else being so eager to be a part of his photoshoot and video made things super easy too. Stay tuned - the introducing Rich P. Song video will be up soon! Enjoy the photos while you wait!

Are You Born Free?

So while I was making my rounds online, I came across this video directed by Romain Gavras for M.I.A's newest single "Born Again". I love music videos like this and I absolutely LOVE what Gavras did with it. Such a strong/controversial message set against an equally powerful song. It's brilliant. I usually don't like videos that pause the music for "storyline" (e.g. more than a fair share of uninspiring hip hop videos...gag), but M.I.A's video does it so well that everything still flowed. Needless to say, it extended my break from combing through photos from a recent photoshoot to play it over and over again. Okay back to work. Enjoy!



"The French director created a nine minute-clip filled with explicit, violent, graphic, politically-charged images that come in accordance with the powerful single. M.I.A.’s still-untitled album is scheduled to drop June 29 via N.E.E.T./Interscope." - Via [Hypebeast]

Cristeta Comerford says...

Over the weeekend I headed over to Northwestern University to attend a lecture from White House executive chef, Cristeta Comerford - the first female and first minority chef in the White House. Even first family cooking aside, she's had quite a decorated resume. So when I heard she was coming back to Chicago, I definitely wanted to listen in on what she had to say. The event was graciously put together by Kaibigan, Northwestern's Filipino student organization, and was co-sponsored by Multicultural Student Affairs, ECO, Food Health Initiative (FHI), One Book One Northwestern and SEED.

Although we didn't get to sample some top tier Obama-style cuisine, it was really interesting to hear how she got her start, how it is to work for the first family and how she envisions healthy living will evolve from the uber-processed fast food life we know (and gluttonously love & twit-pic) to a smarter, more conscious dining experience. I was also happy to hear that her knowledge went beyond the kitchen and into the impact of greener food production solutions to help us all lower our carbon footprints. Oh and yes she does make Filipino food for the Obamas, but she has found ways to put healthier, yet amazingly tasty spins on our traditionally artery clogging deliciousness. Hmmm...maybe we can snag her recipe for adobo for next year's Adobofest?! Hahaha.

Anyway, in addition to snapping some photos, Ryne from BakitWhy and I got some face to face media time with her after the event which was great.

I also got to meet another Canon red-ringed faithful (albeit the pure video iteration) from TFC who was covering the event. Nice meeting and chatting with you, Ted! I'm excited to collaborate with you and TFC more in the future!

At any rate, enjoy the photos everyone! For higher-res requests, shoot me an e-mail and I'll take care of you.
































And by the way, big thanks to AJ Aguado (outgoing president of Kaibigan) for inviting me to the event (and for snapping the last pic of me and Cristeta Comerford, haha) - you guys did a great job putting the event together!