week of sharing/ethan hill

Ethan Hill and I have known each other since we were in college together at Art Center in Pasadena.  He has grown into one of my favorite portraitists. Frankly, I am totally unsurprised by this. I was always mesmerized by what he could do with his images. In school, he would go into the darkroom and come out with images completely transformed by his darkroom mastery. This has only evolved gracefully over his career and continues still.  

Ethan has been one of those people that I can show projects to when they are in their infancy and I am honored that he does the same. It is so important to just have a dialogue when working on personal work. I am so grateful for his feedback. He has just updated his website, so you all should check it out. His portraits have a poetry and soul to them that is both the subject, but also innately Ethan. Truly beautiful work. Take a look here.

I shot this portrait of him awhile back but still love it. As long as I've known him, Ethan has worn bow ties. I couldn't imagine photographing him without one. And he's the only person I know who can get away with this combo...