Walking in the Dark: An Ambitious Photo Shoot With We Are the Wilderness

I have a tendency to be overly ambitious. In elementary school, this resulted in a lot of unfinished inventions, like the time I tried to attach a pen light to a velcro sneaker so you could "see where you were walking in the dark."

So when Shanda from We Are the Wilderness, contacted me about headshots earlier this year, I was determined to make up for my fourth grade mistakes with the Night Sneaker ™  and set things right in the world. 

I told Shanda I saw the band as steampunk-ish gypsies, mysteriously lounging in the woods like actors on a set, like they were waiting for you. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus meets The Proposition during a Sakura Cherry Blossom Festival.

Unfortunately, she just kept saying it all sounded perfect. I had run my mouth off and was now stuck making it happen.

All I knew was what I couldn't do. I couldn't create the equivalent of a Shakespeare in the Park theater set in Prospect or Astoria Park because the cops would kick us out faster than you can get pepper sprayed for saying "Hey, the meth head across the street is actually committing a violent crime, but please, send four officers to this local band shoot!" 

Thankfully, my friend Erik is a wonderful NYC history buff who can practically recite The Power Broker by heart. He hooked me up with deets on a top-secret prime location that is most definitely not a bike trail in Queens.

In order to procure the set pieces, I paid a visit to Build it Green -- an epic salvage yard at the edge of Astoria. This is the kind of place where you can buy a casket, a toilet, a marble fireplace mantle, and a wind turbine and still have money left over for five half-used cans of paint.

Meanwhile, Shanda was texting me photos the clothing she was picking up from Mandate of Heaven Clothing, a vegan-friendly fashion line out of Brooklyn. I guess you could say we were literally making sure the curtains would match the drapes.

I went home and hot-glued pieces of glass and an alarm clock to a broken coat rack. I spent two days trying to figure out how to get a Speedlight and a Pocket Wizard to stay put inside a paper lantern without ripping. But the whole time, I was secretly freaking the f*ck out. I mean, THIS was in my kitchen...

Either a good idea or a horrible, horrible, art school mistake.

I was asking myself what the hell I was doing, if any of this was even going to show up in a photo. Worst of all, my biggest fear was that I just didn't have the skill or experience to pull off the ideas in my head.

I was so nervous, I even diagrammed the entire shoot in Photoshop layers. Yes, I photoshopped pictures of clamps onto a picture of a tree. It got that weird.

In the end, my OCD diagramming at least seemed to save everyone some time. The set was put together in 30 minutes, I knew exactly how the ropes would tie. No one waited, so there was no weird energy. The shoot peaked at sunset, just like we'd timed it. But most importantly, the band was happy.

Even though I spent a lot of time building a set, ultimately, my job was just to take a picture of a band and have it represent their personality.

Here's an awesome video of theirs that you should watch, followed by some shots of mine. It's interesting how different the styling and look in the video is from my photos. Two different takes on an amazing sound!

            

Shanda's clothes by Mandate of Heaven

Happyland: Two portraits of Elizabeth at 75

Happyland, Connecticut, is a housing community in Preston Connecticut. My mother lived there in 1965. She said it used to be an amusement park. According to her, the park was later torn down and replaced with homes, but the name of the park remained. And so, my mother lived in Happyland.

In this photo, the image of her younger self sitting on a couch in Happyland has been projected onto her kitchen cabinets. The cups are orange for the Thanksgiving season.

This is her prized glass coffee table. Needless to say, you're not allowed to put items on this table that are capable of scratching glass. She's had this table for a good 30 years, and there isn't a single scratch on it.

The windows are covered in plastic which is sealed with a hairdryer to save money on heat. You should do that, if you don't.

Tara and Melody's Wedding in Central Park

I had the honor of being the photographer for an intimate same-sex ceremony this morning in Central Park.

The highlight of the day (for me, that is, I assume their highlight was the "getting married" part!) was when the newlyweds' daughter turned to me and the other woman who was present as a witness, and asked us: "Do you two live together, too?"

Here are a few pictures from the day. It was a really sweet ceremony and I'll always remember it.

Hot Chicks Adopt Kittens!

Photos and text: Kyria Abrahams 

Model: Rachel Kay

Foster cat courtesy of Anjellicle Cats.

This ain't your momma's cat lady. 

Photo Story for The New Luv

I had the honor of shooting a sexy photo spread for a upcoming fashion magazine called The New Luv. The magazine will focus on compassionate fashion without animal cruelty, with a sensual bent. I'm really excited to be a part of it as they move forward.

Check out the splash page!

http://thenewluv.com/

Here are some outtakes that didn't make the final set.

Rachel sees her future

Sotheby's 21st annual Take Home A Nude Benefit for the New York Academy of Art

Last Thursday, I covered Sotheby's Take Home A Nude Auction for Andrea Blanch's Musee Magazine. Here are some of my favorite photos I took of the night, including Brooke Shields, Liev Schreiber, and Oliver Zahm. More will be up at Musee shortly.

---

The festive atmosphere at Sotheby's 21st Annual Take Home A Nude auction was marked by cabaret performers on stilts and a wandering 'ringmaster' singing parodies of Madonna songs. The auction featured over 150 works (not necessarily nudes) from artists such as Yoko Ono and Francesco Clemente, who was also the guest of honor.

Attendees like Brooke Shields, Daniel Boulud and Padma Lakshmi took in artwork during two-hours of cocktails and silent auctions on the 10th floor before finally heading off to dinner. Liev Shrieber and Naomi Watts were in high demand by photographers and journalists, who were drawn to her classically-styled dress from Victoria Beckham's 2012 collection.

Meanwhile, street artist and Source writer Royce Bannon wore a funky Mishka NYC button down shirt with a dinosaur pattern, and Oliver Zahm, ever the party boy, stopped to take a photo of himself kissing my shoulder tattoo. In short, the night offered something for everyone -- even if you had to leave without a $30,000 nude.

(all photos by Kyria Abrahams)

Brooke Shields

Liev Schreiber

Oliver Zahm photographs Brooke Shields

Oliver Zahm of Purple Magazine and his friend whose name I forgot to write down

Royce Bannon, street artist

Beatrix Ots

Eileen Gugenheim and Padma Lakshmi

Jonathan Young

Bob Colacello

Maureen Chiquet - CEO of Chanel and Eddie Borgo