#cademartin

[cademartin]

3-days, 50-Portraits, A Collective Voice. The Evolution of Over War

The Beginning. Being Understood.

There are people who understand you well enough to challenge you, but in that if-you’re-not-pushing-boundaries-you’re-not-doing-it-right kind of way, people you ultimately trust to have your back and your best interests at heart. Kate Chase, my friend, former rep and now producer, is one of those people. She’s the engine on this project – and while there were more than a few times that I was called to step outside of my comfort zone (I might devote a separate story to this), I’m really glad I answered.

Kate’s beloved uncle “Moose” was an Air Force pilot who had served in Vietnam, and flew the F-105, as a Thunderchief. She had heard from her mom that he would be attending a military reunion in San Antonio with other Thunderchiefs and she believed that I, as a photographer who chases characters and follows faces, should get myself there.

Moving On the Wind.

And I was off to San Antonio. I have always been up for adventure with my camera in tow, if there’s a whiff of a kernel of a spark of an idea for an interesting photograph, I’ll follow it on the wind. I packed up and showed up with a key crew. Texas was hot, the hotel nondescript. But what awaited us inside was a rich chapter of American history that I believe is unknown to most. These retired pilots are an often-overlooked part of the Vietnam War - itself by the year further relegated in our national narrative.    

I stood with my camera among these pilots who have not forgotten any detail of how and why they are connected.

Fly on the Wall

The beginnings of the portrait-making. Setting up, observing, I never know what I’m going to encounter in my personal portrait projects, how a day will go. It’s the beauty of the unknown.

With the Thunderchiefs, I felt like a reverent fly on the wall as they warmed up, and fell easily into their friendships forged in the most difficult of circumstances.

I like to go to the source for these group portrait projects, embed myself in the space and community they share. I’ve used the technique before, creating a studio of sorts in the very middle of the space inhabited by the group I’d like to photograph. Here we set up in a rented conference room and pulled each pilot aside during breaks in their conversations. They didn’t say much when they stepped away from their fellow pilots, they didn’t need to it was there on their faces, the brotherhood, support, joy, pain, pride and life shared.

As they talked to each other and then later through interviews, I heard the things said echoed in what I saw through my lens.

Opening Up

The prevailing stories and images from this controversial war, are almost exclusively those of the grueling ground war, while these airmen remained mostly stoic and silent about their experiences. The exception, I discovered, takes place at these reunions where these men with similar experiences could enjoy the precious, and blood-earned, crucible of comradeship with fellow warriors.

Upon seeing the final product and her husband’s portrait, Jan Lockhart shared these heartfelt thoughts with us:

“To say I was moved by it is a gross understatement.  As I scrolled down the piece, I saw many of our old and dear friends, and was so moved by the comparisons and the memories of the brave young pilots they were to the old warriors we see today.  When I scrolled to the picture of my husband, I just burst into tears.  His portrait, as so many of the others, looked through his eyes and into his soul...to the thrills and the tears, to the joy and the heartbreak of those days flying that wonderful machine in the most difficult air war ever waged.

These reunions are special in ways few people even realize.  I have been going for a long time, and one of the things I have observed is that no one...not wives, nor children, nor parents, nor friends...truly can understand what those guys faced in combat during that war. They alone can truly know each other...the very young men they were, how they felt about everything involved in that war, how they all loved that particular airplane, and the comradeship and respect of the men they are today. I think it is one of the most important things they do...slap each other on the back, catch up on kids and grandkids, and be able to know that the men in these reunions truly KNOW them.”

So while it might be easy to mistake stoicism for a lack of opinion or an absence of emotion, a few minutes in their presence and a good look through the camera, provided a sea change of perspective.

Revealed

As a photographer, I am comfortable looking for what needs to be communicated in the architecture and life found in faces and places. What I initially saw was a group of men bonded by experiences that only they understand, so much of it a glimpse into the worst of humanity.  

Yet it’s as though the solemn reality of what they did, saw and lost, allows them to cherish the good stuff. Observing them and their wives, taking that closer look I could see how valuable that is, where it fits in their stories.

The Final Product, CadeMartin.com/OverWar

While I have many personal projects under my belt, I can say that Over War has been one of the most in-depth thus far; evolving from what I had envisioned as a series of Air Force pilot portraits to a project that - fifty years later -ultimately gives voice to these men who had a unique vantage point on the Vietnam war – an airborne perspective as they flew over the conflict below.

During this process, we’ve also been fortunate to cross paths with a number of people who are working to ensure that the individual stories and first person accounts of these men who put themselves in harm's way are being told. Because many of the pilots did not speak about their experiences when they returned; and it seems because few had asked and even fewer were interested, we’ve come to understand that information is difficult to source. These first-person accounts are invaluable.

And while there are not many Thunderchiefs left that can give us a window through which to view and learn from their experiences, we believe it is important that we are careful stewards of their stories, that we do what we can to make sure they are able to speak their truths, to help us and generations to-come, accurately view the war.

With Honor:

It was an honor - and an extraordinary privilege to be a witness to this gathering, listening to the conversations and banter buzzing through the room. These men are cut from a rare cloth – living links to our collective history. They share obvious love for one another, a direct result of being together with the truest friends, forged of the same realities, culture and mindset.

And my forever thank you (again) to the team that made this all come to life:

Story & Design Director: Ron Walter

Copywriter:  Molly Leutz

Photo Producer: Amy Whitehouse

Lighting Director:  Chris Bisagni

1st Assistant:  Matthew Lemke

2nd Assistant: Robert Amador

Digital Tech:  Kirsten Wyss

Post Production: Sugar Digital

Military Adviser, Archival Photographer, Thunderchief:  Ed “Moose” Skowron

Website Developer:  Chris Hull

Pictured above, top to bottom: John Piowaty, Jessie Henderson, Ed Skowron, Ben Bowthrope and Tony Cushenberry.

[cademartin]

Rosetta Stone 25th Anniversary Portrait Project. 

Rooftop. Flower District. L.A.

Real people, not actors. It can be a cliche of a line. But for their 25th anniversary, Rosetta Stone wanted to highlight their users - people who have learned a new language as a way to change the world, in big and small ways. There were so many personalities captured in these portraits - so many faces of curiosity, of determination, of understanding, of wanderlust.

It was a pleasure working again with Andy Steenberge, Creative Director of Rosetta Stone. His vision and passion for this series were such assets to ending up with the portraits we did.

[cademartin]

Geeking Out On the Job: Face to Face with C3PO    

Working once again with Smithsonian Magazine, I was charged with photographing C3PO for a section of the magazine called “National Treasure” at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

While we couldn’t touch him, I could see and feel the craft that went into bringing his character to life on the screen. Focusing in on the droid’s hinges, lines and luster - the physical realness of this character - I did my best to channel the cinematic origin, to capture a movie still not a product shot. Thank you, as always, to Jeff Campagna for the opportunities to photograph these pieces of history, to Smithsonian Magazine for being a true giant in chronicling the objects of our collective history and culture, and to LucasFilm and Disney for your imaginations.

[cademartin]

My Well-Worn Chair at Sugar Digital – Wish You Were Here! 

Tattoo Personal Project 

When I went into this project, I knew what I wanted to capture, but as with most of my personal projects the final images were very much a product of inspiration, exploration and collaboration. On a break during another project, a client and I got to talking about tattoos. She mentioned a tattoo festival being held the following week in the Washington DC area. I don’t have any tats, but they’ve always intrigued me. And the promise of all those people with their stories essentially written on their bodies, those were the type of characters I’m compelled to chase. At the festival, I rented a space and set up a photo booth. I photographed everyone against a grey backdrop.

We had a great time, you can see more here:  https://vimeo.com/175869636

I went into postproduction without a concrete vision of how to make them sing. The final images are a true testament to how much the relationship between photographer and retoucher matters. There was so much professional trust and respect involved as we threw out ideas and played around. Ultimately we sampled the tattoos on each person’s torso; from there we created a unique personal tapestry background for every subject. Everybody I photographed had amazingly detailed, as well as personal, tattoo work, it was such a clear commitment of time - and money - on their part. In addition to capturing this in the portraits, the background helped showcase and amplify that investment in expression. This technique was nothing I’d tried before – and nothing I’ve attempted since – but it was truly right for these portraits. It felt as though these backgrounds allowed their stories to travel beyond their bodies.

[cademartin]

Greetings from the Four Seasons Stelara: 

File this one under the project dictating the process. For this shoot for Stelara, a pharmaceutical campaign, we needed to allow for an on-set curveball. The initial idea was the print campaign was going to play off of and use the same sets as the companion TV production, which had the model moving easily throughout the four seasons. We arrived at the studio in LA the day before TV was supposed to film to see their sets and lighting setup. Everything had been built and we were all under the impression that the sets could be tweaked for print concepts after TV had completed. Once at the studio, we found out that the set elements could not be tweaked or moved at all.  We marinated on all sorts of possible solutions, even the possibility of building entirely new sets just for our print project. That night I went to bed and had the “still lying awake” idea of creating the entire background in CG. I immediately emailed the CG geniuses at Luminous Creative Imaging in Amsterdam who were 9 hours ahead of us in LA.  They were game and available and I got an estimate, which I proposed and submitted to my client the very next morning.

Everything was quickly approved and off we went. We photographed the model in another studio entirely with minimal set design such as grass/snow flooring so the talent was grounded in elements she would be in for the final image. The background and field were created in CG by Luminous Creative Imaging to match the lighting design that we created on set. Color and tonal range were massaged to be beautiful, playful and pleasing as if the subject were out on a afternoon stroll. For the initial surprises, it felt so good to end up with a visually stunning image that rivaled the broadcast version of this campaign, one that ultimately surpassed expectation.

[cademartin]

Wish You Were Here – Tea Time, Starbucks at the Greystone Mansion 

I've been working with movie lights and crews for approximately 10 years now. When the Starbucks campaign for Tazo became a possibility, I knew I wanted to incorporate a cinematic and enchanted look and feel. Lighting and location were the driving force behind this project. The Greystone mansion is an historic and cinematically recognizable location from movies such as There Will Be Blood. The interiors had windows that never received direct sunlight so everything was lit artificially. I'm a nerd, a lighting nerd at that, and I love working with continuous lights and instruments because of the natural lighting effect they create.

As is my general preference, everything was photographed in-camera so all of the elements, including the floating teapots, were really there on set. I guess things could have been photographed elsewhere and composed in post after the fact, but I jumped through a few extra hoops to create these images in camera. Special effects such as smoke were also employed on set so that I could get the clearest picture of the whole photograph as I took it.

And an image’s magic can be in its mystery – how did they do that…?

Was the teapot really floating? Retouching with my friends at Sugar Digital in this case was mainly the pleasant task of playing around subjectively with color and tones to make the images as beautiful as we could. As with most of the projects I shoot, the heavy lifting is done on set. Pre-production, pre-production, pre-production. Good planning makes for a good production and detailed pre-production makes for painless post-production. The beauty of great post-production work can be in its subtlety – the icing on the teacake if you will.

Ultimately everyone’s commitment to the cinematic influence throughout the whole process helped achieve what Creative Director Daniele Monti described as “capturing the magic and whimsy of the new Tazo brand -- something in between a modern Alice in Wonderland and an iconography that pulls from different eras, places and cultures.”

[cademartin]

The cutting room floor. 

I wouldn’t grow and learn and push as a photographer without it. 

So much of the creative, collaborative work we do is represented by what doesn’t end up as the final image or images for any given shoot.  I love working with Warren Ellis and the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation - Maryland, and making this portrait of Honest Tea CEO, Seth Goldman, was a treat. Exploring his connection to Montgomery County, where Honest Tea is located, we ended up with a great image. This outtake looking up at me from that cutting room floor, reminds me of the joy of the process arriving there. The journey is vital to the destination.

[cademartin]

Greetings from the Magical Forest – New York Philharmonic

One of the things I loved most about the concept for this project for the New York Philharmonic’s 2016 Biennial season, entitled “Let’s Play,” was how it needed to be as much about the environment as it would be about the narrative — an elegant pied-piper in an enchanted forest setting with a charming a group of curious characters. The resulting image combines a magical Northern California location with the Phil’s French-hornist, Leelane Sterrett, and an audience of curious carousel-horses.

Sometimes the reality of a project dictates the approach. I generally pride myself on photographing as much as possible in camera. For this project, the client wanted me to keep with that formula and that was my initial plan. I was ready to go and after a few back and forths and with a final green light it was "let's go find a location and put all of the elements of the image out there." While this was a doable idea, Ms. Sterrett was leaving for a tour in Europe within the week. So we went ahead and photographed her in a studio in NYC before I went to scout the final location. Not only did I have to find the right location for the creative brief for this project, BUT I now had to find the perfect location that offered the same natural lighting that we had created in the New York studio. Working with producer Catherine Schramm, we found the forest two hours north of San Francisco and then I went to a Scooby-Doo Circus south of LA in Riverside, CA where we photographed carousel horses.

With these moving parts and challenges of time and space, the best way to answer the creative call of this project was to commit to a composite photograph. I worked carefully in each step of the shoot to ensure that every component would be as symbiotic to the whole as possible, the whole then becoming a magical sum of its parts. Aiming to have things line up seamlessly, CG horses were also created with the pros at Luminous Creative Imaging to match all of the pockets of different light that existed in the forest image - some horses are in open shade, others are backlit or side lit from the direct sun.  Once each of the pieces of the image were layered and composed, the color and tones were massaged to radiate the playful feeling of a magical forest.

Our making-of is here: