Matt Hill 11/17/17 Matt Hill 11/17/17

Baron Dreamcatcher + Badass Backpacks = Kickass Collaboration

So my friend and fellow altMBA alumni Adam Lemmon has a dream: create connections through conversations via his collaborative art project Badass Backpacks.

A brief glimpse into Adam's prolific mind...

“We make art-inspired bags that are ready for adventure. Badass Backpacks believes that your backpack can be more than just a backpack. We believe that it can be expressive and thought provoking. We believe that it can be a companion on your journey; that it can remind you to ask big questions, and it can remind you to put yourself inside each step of the way.

We seek to build bridges – connected experiences and products worthy of starting a conversation – helping our community find more ways to tell their stories. And giving them a bag for that journey. We are based in Austin, TX and all of our bags are crafted with love, made right here in the USA.”

— Adam Lemmon

See why he is awesome, right?

He chose Baron Dreamcatcher, The Fire Beneath and from among all my cut paper artworks to feature as part of his Custom 20, now on debut in Austin, TX during the EAST Austin Studio Tour Nov. 11-2 and Nov 18-19. I'm honored to be among a diverse group of artists chosen for this project. (Thanks, Adam!) And here is the resulting bag:

I had so much fun sharing the possibility of a new imagining of my humble little art with someone so eager and dedicated to make his vision come alive, redefine it, and combat the lizard brain. Every Zoom chat we had stoked my excitement. Heck, it's hard not to be excited around Adam–his enthusiasm is contagious.

Read Adam's account of our collaboration here. You'll soon figure out why he and I work so well together :-)

Right now it's a very limited edition of three. Your chance to grab the one for sale is this weekend in Austin. Or contact Adam via the links below.

There will be more, and when details are available, we'll let you know! Thanks so much for being you, Adam.

Make friends with Badass Backpacks:
Website
Facebook
Instagram

Matt Hill 8/29/14 Matt Hill 8/29/14

Featured Photographer of the day on Art Director's Club blog

I'm delighted to share with you a short interview I did with the ADC - published on their blog at ADCglobal.com. Read it here.

Matt Hill 2/16/13 Matt Hill 2/16/13

Night Paper #7: Heather Whatever in a Snowy Brooklyn Backyard

I am delighted to present that latest installment in the NIGHT PAPER series. A good friend of ours offered his backyard in Brooklyn as a place to have a shoot. LIttle did we know that when we scheduled the shoot, it would be the day after WINTER STORM NEMO (ominous drumroll and peals of thundersnow).

I was happy, since I envisioned at least one snow shoot in the series. Fortunately, our brave soul, Heather Whatever, agreed that a snow shoot was a great idea!

For this project, I made a timelapse while cutting Heather's cut paper fashion. Here it is for your viewing enjoyment:

And now for my favorite images from this shoot:

Matt Hill 10/7/12 Matt Hill 10/7/12

Night Paper #4 - Dumbo (NSFW)

This next shoot involves a second night of shooting with Gymnos Alitheia. Originally, we were scheduled to do this on the heels of the Long Island City shoot, but he was feeling under the weather, so we postponed. Luckily, we encountered a street fair! (grin).

Matt Hill 10/2/12 Matt Hill 10/2/12

Night Paper #3: Rainy Rooftop in Williamsburg (NSFW)

Last Friday evening, I completed my third shoot in the Night Paper series. Deepest thanks go to the very courageous models who braved the high-60′s temperatures post-rainstorm atop the 11th floor of a building in south Williamsburg. One was Clara Coquette, a fantastic and talented local burlesque dancer and the other wishes to remain anonymous. You were both amazing, and I thank you. Also big thanks go to my assistant and girlfriend, Mabel, for making many important details happen effortlessly. Mwah!

Here are some favorites from the shoot. More after the jump!

Here are test shots from the fitting:

Matt Hill 7/20/12 Matt Hill 7/20/12

Proud to present: Night Photography + Cut Paper + Nude Model = Start of a massive project

I have been dreaming about this project for nearly 4 years. After spending a lot of time working out mechanics of dressing someone in paper and honing my night exposure abilities, I felt I was ready to make this happen while on art sabbatical in Denver. Enjoy, and look forward to more of this. I intend to make this a gallery show + coffee table book. Shot on location at Barr Lake near Denver International Airport. Special thanks go to Sky Donohue for being creative, professional and brave enough to try this unusual project (Thank you, Sky!). Also I wish to thank Frank McDaniel from MAC Group and Denver Pro Photo Supply for their incredible support from gear to processing film. Deepest thanks!

These first two are really the essence of my vision for this project - dressing nudes in hand-cut paper for long exposures that include star trails and perhaps more. These are digital from my D700. ~~I also shot film with my Mamiya 7II and Toyo VX125. When those are scanned, I will share~~. Here is one 6x7 - the 4x5" film got blown at the airport :( I am very partial to the film shot, as the hour-long exposure makes the star trails look like rock stars.

After the jump, see some dusk outtakes we worked on while waiting for complete darkness and clouds to clear (which happened around 11pm).

The work involved in making these fashions was very detailed, yet fun. There were many iterations, fittings and start-overs. Here are some BTS photos of the process:

I used a Profoto D1 Air 500 Kit (2 heads) for this plus a Profoto BatPac for power. I decided I wanted very tight control over the light that included harsh, crisp shadows to complement the paper edges that also did not flood the foreground with light. The D1 grids are awesome, but I wanted even more control. So I made my own 30" snoots from roll paper and white gaff tape. What a perfect light!

This kept the light on the model only and allowed the 8-minute (digital) and 1-hour (film) exposures to be filled out by ambient light, not flash.

Stay tuned! This project will continue fora while until I have a body of work for the show and book. Follow me here in the RSS Feed, Twitter or Facebook.