João Does Blog

João was born in Lima, Peru. He spent his youth avoiding team sports and drawing elaborate blueprints for things like minivans that turned into submarines. João found the perfect amalgam of art and engineering when he inherited his father's old Pentax. At the age of 15, the family moved to Vancouver, and João used his camera to document the strange new landscape and get close to girls. After completing a degree in Psychology in Canada, he studied photography at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, executing slick, highly-lit fashion shoots. But it was his intensely personal images he shot in Lima that first attracted magazines such as the Fader and Travel & Leisure to his work, earning João recognition as one of PDN’s 30 in 2005. João is based in New York City. Subscribe Subscribe to my new mailer and email newsletter: Name: Email: Address: City: State/Province: Zip/Postal Code: Country: Contact Direct [phone] [email protected] Greenhouse Reps [phone] [email protected] Website www.joaocanziani.com

[joaocanziani]

2012-03-01. M.I.A... Mea Culpa.

Above: Me, out of town, on and off assignment.

Well? I profusely apologize for my absence. I've been neglecting my blogging duties. Truth is, I've been busy busy. And after all was shot and the day was done, I was faced with an acute writer's block.

(What I was doing mostly was posting my little adventures on Instagram - I LOVE INSTAGRAM. If you end up missing me, even just a little bit, then what better way to keep up than to follow me there. My username is @joaocanziani . I promise not to disappoint... There's me, above, on and off assignment, and then below, some outtakes from various latest shoots, and then below that, some instagram pictures "off duty.")

Funnily enough, the year started a little slow that I got a little worried. But folks, the lesson here is that you cannot just sit on your ass and wait for things to happen. You have to make them happen (but you know that!).

So I got a call to shoot a fashion story in Palm Springs at the beginning of February. It wasn't a huge budget but it covered my assistant, some equipment, and my flight. I decided to do it, and take the opportunity to do some portfolio meetings in LA. Oh, and tell the whole world that I was going there, via email communication, and using the wonderful social media methods (they really work, do embrace them, just don't overdo it).

The meetings went great! I brought a couple of very fresh and very fragrant portfolios to ad agencies such as TBWA-Chiat Day, 72 and Sunny, and magazines like The Hollywood Reporter, among others. Then the calls started coming in. For the first time, it seemed, the news that I was in the West Coast was an alluring proposition for photo editors. First, it has a lot to do with building relationships, and even forming friendships if one is of similar sensibilities (which you may very likely be since we're all involved in the wonderful world of photography). Once they love you, and you love them back, they'll follow you wherever you go (it's a continual earning process).

Second (with apologies to LA photographers), I booked myself as a local. Meaning I take care of my travel and my accommodation while in LA. This may seem obvious to some, but it's important - at least to me - to go to great lengths to get the job. If I really want to shoot something, I will do whatever is necessary to shoot it. An editorial feature is an incredible opportunity for exposure, promotion, and putting something fresh in my book.

With one shoot in particular, I found myself weighing things in my head for a moment: I was very willing to fly myself somewhere (from LA) in order to do the shoot, even if the magazine was unwilling to pay for the flights, because the assignment was too good to pass up. Thankfully, I didn't have to do that at the end, but I learned that communicating this keenness was invaluable.

So what was a short work trip to LA turned into a longer trip with visits to San Diego and San Francisco (including more portfolio meetings there and a little day trip to wine country in Sonoma). Then I was back in New York for a day, leaving to Peru for another assignment the following day. By the time I was done, I was absolutely fried. But I loved it loved it all.

I'm back in New York now, available for more.

[subliminous]

2012-01-09. In the spotlight!!

I’m still floating in the clouds from the news I got yesterday: This blog is now listed in Tumblr’s Spotlight for Photography. Not that it should matter, but a little bit of recognition feels good. So if you’re already following me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And if you think your friends and your loved ones will enjoy this blog too, then go ahead and spread the word.

Thank you to my good friend, talented photographer, and NYC-partner-in-crime Nick Onken for the cool portrait of me shown on the Spotlight page. This was taken just this past New Years Eve at my place, surrounded by a few good friends. Thank you to the Tumblr editors as well, whoever you are. Ok, now go check out all the other awesome photographers listed on the Spotlight and follow them too!

[joaocanziani]

Let's start the new year right! My other blog, Subliminous.com, the one that has taken over my obsessive-compulsive photography life a bit, is now featured on Tumblr's Photography Spotlight.

Well, hell, cheers to that! And Happy New Year!!

Love,

João

[joaocanziani]

2011-12-22. Have a happy Subliminous holiday.

If you got a little box from me like the ones above, then I think you're a very lucky guy (or gal) because it means I love you lots. (Please don't be hurt if you didn't... It was very very hard to put together a list of good friends, photographers, family and friends to send these to.)

I used the send the usual holiday cards in the past, but this year I felt like doing that was a little boring and too predictable. I not only wanted to promote my photography through my Subliminous blog, I also wanted to send something impactful that people would enjoy. So I came up with the crazy idea (it seemed crazy at the time), of sending a small chocolate with the word Subliminous embossed on top. My inspiration for these chocolates (and the name of the blog) was this Peruvian chocolate I used to love when I was a kid, called Sublime. (The name for Subliminous comes from Sublime, and Luminous... but I don't know if that gets lost in translation now.)

Then I came up with the idea of sending a sticker with the blog info. Again, a business card or a small postcard with a picture seemed the typical thing to do. Who sends colorful stickers these days, specially photographers?

My idea for the design for the stickers came from these Peruvian Chicha music posters I used to notice in the outskirts of Lima (like above). Growing up in Lima, I used to take them for granted, but then living so long abroad gave me a new-found appreciation for them. In fact, once I started researching this style, I became obsessed with it, and even started noticing them in New York.

So the research began. First, a chocolate maker that would be able to emboss the word Subliminous on the chocolate, in a similar fashion to the Peruvian chocolates. This seemed impossible. The chocolate makers I talked to either couldn't do it in time, couldn't emboss the words, or they would be prohibitively expensive. These chocolates were too "nice," like the fancy ones with filling people usually send to clients. What I wanted was something a bit more commercial, if you will, that looked a little more retro. Not so sophisticated please.

I was looking in all the wrong places.

If it wasn't for my amazing studio assistant Kathryn, I don't think I would have been able to pull this off. She found the perfect company that could do these, and they tasted pretty good too!

Well, the next step was the packaging. How were we supposed to mail these? Again, I wanted something colorful that people would be eager to open, similar to say, a box of postcards or greeting cards you find at gift shops. Doing something like that, beautifully designed and printed on really nice paper, was also way too expensive. So Kathryn looked up and down the internet for something appropriate. She ordered box samples from various companies, such as small wedding cake boxes (the kind you give to departing guests with a piece of the wedding cake). But these proved too flimsy to mail anything in them. And they came in very limiting (and cheesy) colors.

So we pored over the U-Line shipping catalogue to see if there was anything there we could use and customize. (If you don't know U-Line, then it is about time you should... they have everything you need in order to ship your artwork or whatever, and they're pretty nice and efficient too.)

After a little back and forth, and some brainstorming, we came up with the perfect solution: We decided to ship them in these small corrugated boxes measuring approximately 3 x 2 x 1 inches, and designing another sticker that would be die-cut in the shape of the box that we would then wrap the box with (above). We could design this sticker in the same Chicha style to the inside sticker.

Voila!

I don't have any of these chocolates left, but I have plenty of these stickers, "From João with love..." If you would like one, you can email me and I'll mail you one.

Happy holidays from Perú lovely people.

[joaocanziani]

2011-12-12. Common for Respect Magazine. And zombies.

I've been wanting to shoot more celebrities since I moved to New York. Seems counterintuitive, since they all appear to congregate in Los Angeles. But no matter, I see that New York-based photographers I admire shoot them often here too. It has been challenging to get, but it's possible.

So when Casey and Monique of Kids With Candy Productions (who apart from having a full plate producing, also moonlight as photo editors for Respect) approached me with the opportunity to shoot Common, I jumped on it. It didn't matter if I had to shoot him at midnight, or could only have him for five minutes. I would do it. I would adapt.

Careful what you wish for. All shoots come with their own particular set of challenges. But this one, ohhh.

We were told the shoot was going to take place at Warner Bros. in midtown. Call time was to be 4:30 pm on a Wednesday. After a lot of back and forth over a couple days, that changed to Thursday at 6:45 pm. Thankfully I was still available.

Since I wished to shoot him on the street as well, I wanted to head to the location a couple of hours earlier and scout around the area. And as it was going to be dark already, I decided to bring some lighting for that as well. (I was getting really excited... I wanted to try a colored gel or two on one of the strobes and attempt to get a sodium vapor look to one of the outdoor setups.)

Once we got there, and after more than half an hour of attempting to get all our equipment up the building, we were told by the receptionist upstairs that the shoot location had changed. We would have to meet Common and his team at Jay-Z's Roc The Mic Studios down on West 27th Street.

We headed back downstairs and hailed a cab. I really don't know how we did it, but my assistants Pete and Adam and I fit in the cab like sardines with all our equipment. Once we got to Roc The Mic, I got word that shooting him outside was no longer an option (no sodium vapor options this time). Fortunately there was a whole empty floor upstairs from the studio, white walls and clean. A blessing in disguise.

We got setup, went through scenarios, and waited until Common was ready. We waited....

Mr Common shows up finally with a small entourage of mostly women. Another man puts some music on from a small portable stereo. We get to work. Common was gracious and charming. But best of all, he was into the ideas I suggested... like, "let's jump!" (see below)

What's the moral of the story? At the end, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and all that. The shoot turned out amazing. I was so happy with it, that at the end of the shoot I got away with shooting Casey, Monique and my kind assistants Adam and Pete, acting out as... Zombies!

(Must have been because I was watching The Walking Dead at the time.)

[joaocanziani]

2011-12-07. You go mom! A Helen Hamann exclusive.

If you're like me, you may be having a really hard time choosing gifts for your loved ones. Well, here's an idea. What about a beautiful hand-knitted alpaca sweater, made with lots of love in Peru, and designed by none other than... Yes, my mom.

Yet if your loved one prefers knitting those sweaters herself, here's another idea: A calendar for 2012 of her designs, the patterns of which are available by purchasing this calendar.

Or hell, just get the calendar because I think it's going to look great on your office wall. And because I'm really happy with how it turned out. I shot these pictures for my mom a few months back here in the studio, and got my very talented friend Oscar Ramos Orozco (of Behance fame) to design it.

Thank you so much Oscar, and thank you to the sultry Tereza Janáková for modeling these sweaters for us.

You can purchase the calendar here.

Or view more of my mom's sweaters on her website, helenhamann.com.

A few more pages from the calendar following...

[joaocanziani]

2011-12-02. Getting jiggy with it.

Now that the weekend is inevitably approaching, I leave you with these pictures of honorable members of the New York photo community "networking," as they do best. Pictures I took with my trusty, yet lately a little unreliable (the shutter is sticking... do I really have to take it to Nippon Camera for the 4th time?!) Yashica T4. (I insist on shooting with it because it's the most amazing feeling to get the pictures back after the anticipation of waiting for the film to be developed. (Pardontherunonsentence.))

So ok, these are from a couple of very official photo parties that I always love to attend, now that I live here: The PDN Photo Plus Expo Bash, and the American Photography and Illustration Party.

Enjoy. Have a great weekend. Until next time. Love you and all that.

Ms Ani B. and hired model and Ms Jess A.

Mr Andrew H.

Me and Ms Ali U.

Ms Anais M. and Ms Jeanne G.

Mr Marcos C.

Mr Ture L. and Ms Amy W.

Ms Amy W. getting socked (?) by... Ture? I don't recall this.

Panda sightings on the street.

Mr Jake S.

Ms Victoria R. and Mr David B.

If you're reading this, please notice the details. Do you see a third face? Hmmm?

Ms Ernie M.

Mr John L. and...? Geordie, is that your ear?

This is Geordie. Mr Geordie W.

Ms Sabrina B. and Ms Jessica A. Sultry.

Ture and Amy, making up, post sock.

Feathers. That's it.

[joaocanziani]

2011-11-23. Ninety nine portraits.

Ex-cop: "Do you know what it means to be an anarchist?! It means I will brutally rape you and take all of your power and dominate you. It's survival of the fittest."

Anarchist girl: "Whatever, man."

— Overheard at Zuccotti Park, October 25, 2011.

This was just some of the colorful and varied dialogue we were witness to while shooting this project. Ninetynineportraits.com is now live.

I'm a contrarian at heart. Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park was an event that overwhelmed my social media life. I didn't want to be yet another photographer in NYC documenting or tweeting about it. There was something about it that was calling me however. I needed to look for myself. I needed to be a part of it. Not to protest, but to stand there and sort of "shake hands" with everybody involved (the camera gives you unprecedented access if you really let it). To witness firsthand an important event I think we'll remember for a while.

It turned out to be one very rewarding experience, and very fruitful in my mind, despite the devil's advocates (i.e., one Bryan Formhals...) telling me otherwise at first. Because on those two days I met all kinds of passionate and/or crazy people. Including a young man apparently so high that he was operating on a completely different level (hope you don't get to run this country when you get a little older). The asshole that stood there and told prospective subjects not to pose for me because he claimed I would be profiting from all this. The lady who sold buttons right in the middle of the park, with the words written "WE ARE THE 99%" for five dollars. Five dollars! To visitors and tourists alike. The irony.

This is why I was fascinated with this. At first I was received with indifference. But then I felt I belonged there as much as the next person. For those two days, my seamless and my strobe lights became as much a part of Zuccotti Park as the tents and the banners. And just like they didn't seem to mind (or care) that the button lady was selling buttons there, most of the young protesters there met me with kindness and open-mindedness, eager to pose for my camera.

This wasn't just a protest. In my mind, this was also a reflection of who we are as a country. You may think your neighbor is out of his mind, but you let him be. And he probably thinks the same of you, but he lets you be too. (In most cases anyway.)

At any rate, Happy Thanksgiving, no?

[joaocanziani]

2011-11-20. The 2011 NYC Marathon, two weeks ago today.

I ran my first marathon two weeks ago today, on Sunday, November 6. I decided to bring the Yashica T4 and a couple of rolls of film, and shoot the experience. Here are some pictures from that day, and a couple from the day after. I wish these pictures could capture the excruciating pain and excitement and ultimate euphoria. They'll just be quiet reminders instead.

A few people have said that running 26.2 miles is not a good thing for the human body. Quite a few tell me about issues with knees. Yesterday a friend was telling me about a friend who had to quit at mile 18 because he started feeling a weird pain in one of his legs. Doctors checked him the next few days but found nothing. So he got a CAT scan and they found a brain tumor, thankfully discovered in time.

Anyway, I didn't want to listen to those people. There's a lot we do that is unnatural to the human body. We smoke, we fly in space, we drink to oblivion. If you think about it, we're killing ourselves every day, with these pleasures and addictions that we can't seem to shake off. Well, every day that goes by gets us closer to death. A little excess sometimes is not a bad thing. Tempting death, even in minuscule amounts, is a reminder that we're very much alive.

Those people were right. But who cares?

Because me too, at around mile 18 (the famous "wall" comes at around mile 20), started feeling these cramps in my legs, and they intensified as I continued. They became so unbearable towards the end that I had to stop for a little bit. I drank some gatorade, ate a little banana. And started walking again. I seriously thought that I was going to have to walk the last three miles.

People on the sides are screaming my name, because it's written on my t-shirt. There's thousands of people watching this thing. With a little of that encouragement, I thought, What's a couple more miles? I started running again. They seemed the longest and most painful I have ever experienced. I mentioned to some friends afterwards that my legs felt as if they had turned to glass, and I could easily shatter them any minute. There was really no option but to ignore the pain and continue.

My mistake was probably starting too fast. My dad, who was tracking me online from Peru, wrote me an email right at the beginning, "João!! Slow down! You're going too fast!!" Dad, I wasn't checking my emails at the time... Well, I paid for it at the end. But that's ok. I did it just under four hours, and that to me was quite an achievement.

[joaocanziani]

2011-11-18. In light of recent events.

I took the following pictures on October 21st and 25th at Zucotti Park in downtown NYC. Behind-the-scenes — sort to speak — taken with my Yashica T4 while I was shooting a personal project there, which I will unveil early next week.

Like virtually every photographer in the NYC area, I decided to visit the park and check it out. Unlike today, it was relatively calm then. The atmosphere was welcoming. The protests peaceful. The park had also become a media circus, and a tourist attraction. Businessmen stopped by on their lunch breaks. German and Japanese tourists took pictures as if this was one more stop in their Manhattan itinerary, right after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

So I got the crazy idea that I wanted to do something photographically about it. I wanted to take portraits of the people I encountered there, to perhaps shed a light to the whole phenomenon that Occupy Wall Street has become. In my mind, it didn't just have to be the protesters. This had become something more... I'm oftentimes more interested in how we perceive an event in reality than the event itself. And this perception nowadays includes and is saturated by the Media, twitter, Facebook, and every passerby with their iPhone camera. But this was crazy because I thought, "how am I going to come up with something original from something I feel everybody and their mother is covering ad nauseam?"

Only time will tell.

So wait till next week for this project. I'm really excited about it. In the meantime, enjoy these.

[joaocanziani]

2011-11-10. American Photography 27!

If you're in NYC, tonight is the AI-AP party. What's that, you say? Another expensive photography (and illustration) competition, that's what. Yet the photography they pick year after year is always impressive, influential, and raw. I always look at the books they publish of the winning entries for inspiration. They throw a good party too.

Apologies in advance if you've already seen the image below to death. Well, happy to announce that it was "selected" to be included in this year's book. In addition, the image above (from my Ciudad Natal series, which I will unveil soon), was "chosen" to appear in the AI-AP website.

Now let's get those commissions rolling!! (Right.)

Today I'll be posting other winning entries that were selected and chosen for this year's American Photography on Subliminous.com. There's some amazing stuff in there. Take a look.

[joaocanziani]

2011-11-04. In Hunter's footsteps.

I was supposed to post this last night. Instead, Breaking Bad happened...

We bitched about the whole notion of "American tourism" over dark rum on the rocks.* Overweight tourists, oversized hotels, gigantic cruise ships. Why would you travel all the way here to play golf at a golf course that looks exactly the same as the one on your backyard in Irvine? the argument went. We sat in the patio of one of these very same oversized hotels overlooking a tropical beach somewhere in Puerto Rico.

I was telling Tim the suite they put me up in was probably three times as big as my apartment in New York, and so ill-designed that there was enough empty space to play tennis inside it. My bed was the size of a small pool, and instead of facing a window with a view, it faced a stucco wall with an equally enormous flat-screen TV.

It was time for dinner. We thought it would be really nice to sit outside. It was a lovely and fresh tropical evening. No, the bartender informed us, There's no outdoor dinner seating. (And the top-40-blasting poolside bar was already closed at 8 pm.) Our options were sitting in the Asian-themed, heavily air-conditioned restaurant, or in the whatever-themed-I-can't-remember, heavily air-conditioned restaurant. Asian it was.

Do you know there's more than 160 Burger King Restaurants on the island?**

So again I ask, why come here when you can have it all in the comfort of your own home mall?

I watched Johnny Depp's The Rum Diary the other night, adapted from Hunter S. Thompson's novel of the same name. I haven't read the novel yet, but I know that it's based on Thompson's travels and experiences on the island. I gathered from the film that the main theme is Depp's character attempting to stop these American businessmen from building a big hotel in a small pristine island off the coast of Puerto Rico. The movie has its very funny moments, and brings home this whole tourism issue Tim and I were talking about. It is worth watching, though a bit Hollywood formulaic. (Hot chick love/lust interest: Check. Crooked businessmen: Check. Wooden performances: Check. Even Johnny plays it the same way he did in Fear and Loathing.) Now if the guys from Breaking Bad had made the movie instead, it would have been a very excellent movie.

Why am I telling you this? And who is this Tim guy?

I traveled to Puerto Rico with English novelist Tim Lott back in August for British Airways' High Life Magazine. Tim was writing the article, and his whole idea was for us to follow in Hunter S. Thompson's footsteps; to try to find the places he stayed at and the bars he visited. Not surprisingly, Thompson invented a lot of it, or changed the names of a few places. At least his spirit guided us, and we enjoyed ourselves in his honor (but I'm sure, not to the same extent), often having these animated discussions over Ron del Barrilito.

I guess the big hotels won. But it is not all that way, and it doesn't have to be. There's more to this island than the fancy golf courses and the cavernous hotel suites. Hopefully these outtakes show that. If not, get your ass down there. It's American soil after all, so you don't need a passport.

(What? You're not American? Then ride British Airways direct from London and pick up a copy of High Life this month.)

The article coincides with the opening of the movie. Tearsheets above. And as usual, a few more outtakes on my "other" blog, Subliminous. Thank you Lucy!

* Recipe for a really good and refreshing cocktail: Ron del Barrilito, ice, squeeze lime on top. That's it. (Cigar optional.)

** After driving my first time around the island, I noticed a lot of Burger King's there. I decided to look it up and see how many there were. I hope this is a reliable source, from 2005. Only thing I could find.

[mullitover]

2011-11-02. Yours truly on Mull It Over.

[joaocanziani]

mullitover:

JONATHAN CHERRY: What gets you up in the morning?

JOAO CANZIANI: My iPhone alarm. When I’m home, coffee, which is a bit of a ritual for me.

JC: Are there any emerging photographers inspiring you at the moment?

JC: Yes, definitely. Not sure if some of these guys are emerging, but they’re inspiring me nonetheless: Tomasz Gudzowaty, Geordie Wood, Jake Stangel, Noah Kalina, Thomas Prior, Emiliano Granado, Ryan Pfluger… the list goes on.

JC: What is your current project all about?

JC: I don’t usually get too political in my photography, but living in NY I could no longer ignore the whole Occupy Wall Street movement. So I decided to go check it out. I was intrigued enough to do something about it … (Like every other photographer in a 10 mile radius from downtown Manhattan, I’m sure. Well, my take on that is, if 100 known writers wrote about this, each of them would hopefully say something different about it, if each have a voice of their own. That is the challenge, I guess. The same goes for photographers.)

Let me just say that for better or worse, what’s happening these days represents a sort of crossroads in this country’s history; a revaluation in how we’ve taken our ways for granted. I’m very happy with the results and hoping to share this series very soon.

JC: What draws you to making portraits?

JC: On a visceral level, the thrill of being allowed to enter and almost “invade” a person’s life, if only for a few minutes. Like what they say in some other cultures, that the camera is stealing a little piece of the subject’s soul. I like that. I just hope I don’t get to misplace that piece of the person’s soul by taking a crappy portrait. If it turns out good, you elevate it I suppose, you feed it.

JC: How do you find juggling personal & commercial work?

JC: It’s fine. I seem to manage. If I go a while with paying gigs without shooting anything personal, I feel as if my body starts aching for the personal. Like developing a rash. And viceversa. It would be really nice to go weeks doing my own projects, but I admit I need commercial work to feel validated. To know that people (that means in most cases clients) are responding to my work. To me, it goes round and round: the personal and commercial feed each other.

JC: Any advice to recent photography graduates?

JC: Yes. Read the above to mean that in my opinion you cannot get stuck in the ivory tower of your own dreams and personal projects. You must go test your ideas in the real world. Not only you must go out there and shoot them, you must show what you came back with. You shoot for you, but also for others. Artistic validation doesn’t just come from inside, but from others of similar hearts and minds. And never stop hustling. When you’re exhausted and are about to give up, keep on at it, because the reward comes when you least expect it.

JC: Favourite tree?

JC: I was gonna say the ficus, but no. Eucaliptus. Although it’s not indigenous to Peru, there’s a few eucaliptus forests there. The smell of the leaves reminds me of my childhood.

Follow João here.

[joaocanziani]

2011-10-26. Miss Lily's Girls for Animal

I shivered when I saw this opening spread...

Before I lived here I used to have a little ritual that whenever I visited NYC, I headed to Café Habana in Nolita for a bite right after landing. Mostly because of the corn. But I must admit it was the waitresses too. They had a carefree sultriness that I notice a lot of women in New York possess, in my opinion. Perhaps it's the influx of many cultures that this city is blessed with.

I digress. Long story short, I ended up meeting a couple of the girls that worked there a little while ago. We met up a couple of times for drinks. But then we lost touch. Until I got the call from my friend Marina García-Vasquez (of Mex and the City) to do this story. It turned out, one of the girls was now working at this new restaurant called Miss Lily's, and was going to be one of the models for the shoot. The idea was to shoot three girls that worked there to showcase the restaurant in the magazine.

How life often seems to come around. New York is a small town after all.

We shot this story in mid-September around the streets of Chelsea for Revista Animal. You probably haven't heard of it, because it's a relatively new magazine published out of Mexico City by Grupo Hábita, the same guys that in a few short years have amassed an impressive collection of hip hotels all over Mexico, and have now just opened a new one in Chelsea, called Hotel Americano.

Go check it out. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of Animal with this 12-page spread in it.

Lastly, my ode to coffee: I think I had like 6 espressos that day. I felt like I was bouncing off the walls. I may have been behaving off-my-rocker a bit that day. But you know what, I loved it, and I was loving the results. Doesn't matter what camera you use, man... Have a lot of good coffee, let go, be crazy, and trust your instincts.

Thanks Marina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[joaocanziani]

2011-10-19. Once upon a time in Nicaragua.

The wait is over! A story I shot at the beginning of the year is finally out in print. It was one of the most memorable photography trips I've taken. 10 days of roaming the country. It was just Juan Carlos, our trusty guide driving us, Stephanie the writer, and I. Along the way I attempted to "snowboard" down the side of a volcano, I smoked a cigar for the first time, and swam in the ocean at dusk.

Oh yeah, I also did take over 3,000 pictures. And became fascinated with Nicaragua's history. Beneath this foliage of paradise, beneath this idyllic setting, is a checkered and bloody past. My brain couldn't help but hold on to and imagine these gruesome details. Traveling this country with fresh eyes, it was incomprehensible to me that these things could happen here, of all places.

I guess it got to me one day. I now remember that on the fourth shoot day, I wrote this on this blog:

Yesterday I felt an emotional weight throughout the day. Pretty much everything we shot and visited had a reminder of past events. Or if it wasn’t obvious, our guide Juan Carlos reminded us by telling us of fascinating stories that happened in this country only a few years ago. An adorable old lady I was taking portraits of reminded me of my own grandmother, but the reason I was shooting her was because she had lost her son to the revolution. An old prison that had now become a museum and memorial had very simplistic illustrations on its walls of what had happened there a few decades ago. But somehow these illustrations triggered my imagination with wild images of torture and death. Even our last location of the day, an active volcano crater that seemed right out of the set of Jurassic Park, had been a convenient place to rid of “evidence” for Somoza, the dictator of the day. So the question is, do you remember the past but therefore feel crippled from the weight of all this violent history, or do you just decide to move on and attempt to build a beautiful new country? Or, is there a way to do both by honoring the past but looking forward to the future? I think that’s what Nicaraguans are doing, and really, one powerful antidote to the pessimism that these memories can cause, is sense of humor.

Juan Carlos did keep us in good spirits every day with his irreverent, un-PC jokes, and it was awesome and refreshing. If most tour guides were like him, I would gladly sit in an open-top double-decker bus packed to the gills with overweight tourists, looking out at Times Square.

So what are you doing?!? Cancel your stay at the Four Seasons in Maui! Forget about your timeshare in Costa Rica! Head down to Nicaragua instead. But pick up this article first as a little guide. It's out now in the November issue of Outside.

Oh, and I have also have been posting lots of outtakes from the trip on my other (and new) Tumblr blog, Subliminous. Go check it out. Ok, and if you're lazy, and/or very far away from a newsstand, you can read Stephanie's story here.

Thank you Juan Carlos for being the best guide, Stephanie for sharing some good times together, and of course, Amy Feitelberg and Amy Silverman at Outside for an amazing adventure.

[joaocanziani]

2011-10-14. Announcing my new tumblr! Follow me as well, on Subliminous.com

Hey, pardon the absence as of late. Got busy with a weeklong and crazy shoot in Florida, a small accident with the laptop while away, and another intense shoot once I got back. No excuses. Just the vagaries of a photographer's life I guess.

Plus, I started another Tumblr blog, and I've been appropriately obsessing over it. As some of you may know, it's called Subliminous. It'll function more as a portal into my visual brain perhaps, a feed of imagery past and present, outtakes and the such, and lots of personal stuff. Oh, and inspiration and other things I find that make me tick.

Speaking of which, today I'm dedicating the whole day to posting images that caught my eye at the World Press Photo Exhibition in Montreal. I was there a few weeks ago, after I exhibited my Canadian Café Bar series at La Petite Mort Gallery in Ottawa.

The image above is one from the series "Florida" by Jolianne L’Allier Matteau and Alexandre Chabot.

So, if you're on Tumblr, follow me on subliminous.com 

Happy weekend!

[joaocanziani]

2011-09-29. One, two, three... BANG! Mr Moggridge for Fast Company.

On a hot muggy day in the middle of summer, I shot possibly the kindest man in NYC. His name is Bill Moggridge, and he has been assigned the task of revamping the Cooper-Hewitt Museum up on Fifth Avenue and 91st Street.

You'd think for a man with such an impressive resume (he designed the first laptop computer), he wouldn't give me the time of day. But he was game for pretty much anything. The shot on the opening spread, above, was completely unscripted. I don't remember why he threw his arms up that way. Thankfully I was able to catch it that first time, because when I asked him to repeat what he had just done (I thought, "let's try to perfect that pose"), nothing thereafter was as good as that first shot.

A curious thing happens in my photographer brain when I get a shot like that. I've often compared it to an addiction. Like a rush of blood to the head (shit, Coldplay analogies now?). But this is the reason why being on set is so enjoyable, when you start feeling like you're on the "zzzzzzzone!" You get these pangs of pleasure that enable you to continue shooting, and so you continue seeking for more pangs of pleasure (the outtakes!).

Meaning, once I know I have something good in the bag, I try other variations to cover myself and see what other good stuff we can come up with. But this shot to me elucidates what Bill's all about in relation to the museum: "Here, this is what I'm creating. Out of thin air."

Oh! And I had the pleasure of working with the amazing Leslie De La Vega for the first time, Fast Company's director of photography. Thanks Leslie. And thanks to my assistants Stewart, Eva, and Ayla for making it a smooth and fun day.

Lastly, lastly, lastly... The reason for the title above, "One, two, three... BANG!" Very happy that a few assignments I shot this spring and summer are finally getting published. So be on the lookout the next couple of weeks for more good stuff... Don't change the channel.

[joaocanziani]

2011-09-22. A chockfull of blogpost.

There's a few things I've wanted to mention over the last few days that they have piled up in the virtual laundry list in my head, so I decided better to post it all at one time:

1. First order of business, I'm cleaning up house. I'm removing some of the older posts on this blog, which are now irrelevant, as I want this blog to contain more longer-form posts — a combination of pictures and words and thoughts. Some of these older posts will live instead in another Tumblr blog dedicated to just pictures (and a little inspiration). Click here for a sneak peek. I'll make a more official announcement soon. In the meantime, you're welcome to follow me there too.

2. I never got to announce the winners for the Canadian Café Bar print giveaway last week! Mr noemontescars.tumblr.com is the lucky winner on the Tumblr portion, and Ms Paris Carter on the Facebook page portion. Thank you for participating and sharing.

3. Speaking of Canadian Café Bar, today is the last day of the show. And like that, the time flew by! I'm pleased with the feedback I've gotten, and sometimes amused too. I got the chance to meet photographer Tony Fouhse at the opening, whose portraits of heroin users on the streets of Ottawa I really like. In fact, he's exhibiting this body of work right after mine, at La Petite Mort Gallery in Ottawa. The opening reception is tomorrow evening. He also got to interview me for his awesome blog, Drool. Click here to read that interview, and also learn more about his work.

This is what the Peruvian Ambassador to Canada had to say about the show: " '[I felt it] was important that the embassy . . . show everything about Peruvian culture, no matter how controversial or explicit the art may be. We may not like it much,' he said referring to the subculture, 'but it’s real.' " Hmm... You can read the rest of the article where that quote came from here.

Lastly, kudos to Alison Zavos of Featureshoot for her reply to a comment left on her blog's post featuring this series. (Click here, and scroll down to read the comment and Alison's reply.) I actually don't mind if you agree with the comment. It's her words that are insightful. I grapple with a desire to be original in my work, all the time. I'm sure everybody else does too. Every time I come up with something new, I'm already wondering if I "failed."

What her comment brought home to me is that it's the intention of the work that is important... Why am I shooting this? The point is, read the statement. I learned, while writing this statement for the project, and writing my experiences shooting the series, that if you don't effectively explain what you're doing, and why you're doing it, the work falls apart. This series is true for me because I learned something new about myself in the process. Sometimes that's all that matters.