Panorama with Mount Rose and Reno/Sparks
Jack Hawkins, a talented architect with a unique ultramodern style, has commissioned me to photograph several of his projects in the past. One of his somewhat recent assignments was the stunning Green Residence, located in the Virginia City Highlands. Hawkins has an amazing talent for making a structure sit ‘in’ the landscape and become a part of it, which gave me some unique opportunities like the above panorama. That’s Mount Rose on the left, and the lights of Reno and Sparks on the right.
Truly an incredible place, and well deserving of the accolades it received once our photos were published. Reno Magazine ran a feature article on it, and it received a Nevada Design Award from the AIA.
Click ‘read more’ to view some additional images.
I’ve taken a hiatus from social media lately, but it’s time to return. I have a long list of updates to make to this site, but we’ll start with this image. It’s somehow fitting since it was taken with an analog camera, a Rolleiflex loaded with Fuji NPS 160 on a particularly poignant day in the Nevada desert.
2011 has been a busy year so far. Busy enough that it doesn’t look like I’ve updated my site in a very long time! For a while now, I’ve been working on the facelift that you see. It’s not quite done yet (still have to finish the portfolio section), but it’s working very well so far.
You may be wondering about my new logo. Here’s the background. My initials, of course, are A.G. In addition, I live in Nevada – the Silver State, and although it isn’t used as much anymore, silver prints were the standard in black and white photography for a very long time. Ag is the designation on the periodic table of the elements for silver. And of course, the Polaroid-esque frame ties everything back in to my profession.
The biggest event of the last few months, however, was the move into my new photo studio. Although I’ve had a studio for several years now, this time I devoted a lot of time and energy to construction a 40 foot cyclorama. This endless backdrop is a joy to work on. Where my old studio was limited by the size of backdrop paper that I bought, I can now photograph a motorcycle, a car, a small elephant…well, you get the idea. Come by and check it out sometime!
In the course of working on the Tutto Ferro project, I photographed Sezmu Restaurant. It’s a newer establishment and I haven’t yet had the chance to sample their food. I will say that if their food is as good as the architecture of the restaurant, it will be amazing (and by all accounts that I’ve heard, it is). I was mainly concentrating on the bar and metal details, as these were the items that Tutto Ferro had produced. However, I did get a chance to photograph the exterior as well.The owners are very nice people and were quite helpful with arranging the shoot. Sezmu is on Mt. Rose street in Reno, just east of Arlington.
Last month, I photographed Tutto Ferro for Reno Passport magazine. They do high-end custom metal fabrication and have been involved in many of the more iconic building projects in Reno. It was a fun assignment and gave me the rare opportunity to combine architectural photography and environmental portraits into the same series.
Paolo, the owner of Tutto Ferro, carved out a few minutes from his busy schedule for our photo session. His warehouse/work space is filled with interesting projects (his racing Vespa will hopefully be the subject of another photo shoot), but I finally settled on the above background. I’m guessing that it is destined to be a clock, but it was the perfect background to establish Paolo as the company’s visionary and leader.
This is the image that was used for the Passport’s cover. In keeping with Paolo’s ultra-modern minimalist aesthetic, all the roll-up doors in his shop are painted bright yellow.
I’ll follow this up with another post about Sezmu Restaurant, one of Tutto Ferro’s projects. But for now, I’ll close with this image of Paolo’s sculpture by the River Walk in downtown Reno. It’s near the corner of Sierra and First if you’d like to check it out in person.
During the Tuaca photo shoot, I was able to set aside just a little bit of time for an architectural photo of the Aces Tattoo building. It’s on Virginia Street, just south of downtown. This area is full of interesting old buildings, and I’ve always liked the neon and hand-painted signage of this one. Glad I got a chance to light it a bit and photograph it just for fun.
Leslie and the Badgers incorporated one of the images from our recent shoot into the cover art of their new album, titled ‘Roomful of Smoke.’ I can’t wait to hear the album…this band is incredible! It will be released on iTunes starting July 7th, and I’ll update this post with info on ordering a physical copy as soon as it’s available.
I was recently commissioned by Reno Passport to photograph some of the female artists involved in Nada Motel (a yearly art festival in downtown Reno). I’ve been excited about the whole concept of environmental portraits lately and decided to approach this series as a group of independent portraits even though it would have been much easier to have everyone just show up at the same place for a quick photo. For example, Jill Marlene, the talented performance artist, was photographed in the Trocadero Room where she frequently performs. Stephanie Hogen was photographed in her home studio. Trelaine Lewis and Elaine Parks both ventured out to the ruins of a ghost town for their photos…an appropriate setting for both of them. Elaine lives in Tuscarora, Nevada (a small artist community/ghost town) and Trelaine’s art frequently incorporates bones and skeletons found on back roads.
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