I have toyed with the idea of giving some of my favorite images from Personal Record a permanent home on the main page of lukecopping.com for some time now. What started as a small experiment of self-documentation has grown into a regular and very popular feature on my blog. Due to my own ongoing fascination with mobile photography as well as the wonderful encouragement that I have received from all of you over the past few months I will definitely be continuing to capture images from my day-to-day adventures – and you can now view a curated and evolving gallery of some of my favorites from the series here - I hope you enjoy! 

I have been in need of a new bio portrait for a long time, but I just never seemed to be able to find the time with how busy I have been over the past few months (or I was just plain avoiding it) Thankfully my friend and long time mentor Rhea Anna came to the rescue when she proposed that we swap portraits, of which she was also in need. Late last week we met up at my studio to finally make it happen.

Me and Rhea both specialize in photographing people, but neither one of us is very used to being on the other side of the lens. Aside from a large collection of very goofy and very surreal lighting tests that Rhea has accumulated of me over the years (she could probably publish a small book of them). I generally tend to make appearances on camera in a strictly iPhone / snaps at the bar / wearing a chicken suit kinda way, so It is a rare day when I can be convinced to sit for a formal portrait but with Rhea on board I knew I was going to be in good hands. I also knew we were going to be in for one hell of a good party!

Prep before the shoot included getting a much-needed haircut, stocking the studio’s fridge, and recruiting my friend – makeup stylist superstar Nicole Barry – to get us ready for the camera. Getting together with Rhea, whether we are working on a project together or just socially, is always a blast, and I knew I was in for a night of great pictures and classy cocktails when she showed up with a bottle of my favorite libation for me as a gift.

Being super cool, rock and roll, jet set photographers – we naturally nerded out hard and got way into shooting. We were just bouncing ideas around on lighting, changing the studio setup around, talking about styling (Rhea even jumped in to fix my hair on few occasions) and enjoying the occasional strong beverages. We got so into taking pictures that we didn’t even realize that one of Rhea’s friends had gotten locked out of the studio for a while! We both ended up with new pictures we love, and a great new story to add to the chronicle of our many years of collaboration.

We will definitely be doing this again.

Stop by Rhea’s blog to see her take on the experience and another set of images.

I’ll be back next week with all new content, but in the meantime I plan on taking the next few days off to celebrate my 30th birthday… see you on the other side!

© Ed Verosky

Recently, Ed Verosky (pictured above) from about-photography.com conducted a very pleasant pod-cast interview with me, that interview is now live and can be heard on the about-photography.com blog. We talked about topics as diverse as my work, Ed and I’s views on content over gear, self curation, defined styles, the importance of the personal element in one’s photography,  and the viewer experience.

Click here to listen to the interview. 

I cannot even begin to say how surprised and honored I was to find out recently that my project from earlier this year – Pigment – had been selected to be one of twenty projects featured in the American Society Of Media Photographers Best of 2011 Collection. ASMP conducted a pretty in-depth interview with me about the project, my work, and what it’s like to be part of a growing community of talented photographers and creatives working in the border city of Buffalo, NY. I am so proud to be featured among many other incredible projects like Jenna Close & John Held’s revolutionary remote control aerial photography, B. Proud’s fantastic series on long-term same-sex couples, and Barbara Kinney’s coverage of women affected by Alzheimer’s.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of the pigment series, and everyone else I have been lucky enough to collaborate with over the years.

Read the full interview with me here.

Photo: Aaron Ingrao

Last week Aaron Ingrao, Scott Gable, And Myself opened our new workspace, Victory Studios, alongside some of our closest friends, clients, relatives, and other creatives. Even the good folks at Vitamin Water got involved and donated some beverages for the party.  Here are some images from our opening party.

The three photographers of Victory!!! From left to right: Scott Gable, Aaron Ingrao, and Myself.

My assistant Jason’s son Liam, who became the unofficial mascot of the opening.

Local photographer Jerry Seawood has been spending quite a bit of time on the other side of the camera lately, most notably as a key image in my Pigment series.

Clients and friends: Anatomy owner/designer Ali Eagen, and style writer/educator/advocate Erin Habes

Dj Lo Pro took care of the entertainment for the evening.

A better view of the whole space….

….Which we are pretty proud of, considering the space was a disaster zone just a few months before when we began our renovations,

My girlfriend Erin and my assistant’s wife; Tracie

Tracie, Liam, And Jason

The Victory Logo

 Lisa Ellen Cooper and Lindsay DeDario

Scott and his family

 Dj Lo Pro

 As the sun goes down party goers were treated to one of the best views of the city.

Aaron and his father.

Jason Stoos

 Cooling down on the roof.

 As the night went on our photo ideas became more and more ambitious.

There is something wrong with us…

We are quite excited to finally be opening and hosting commercial clients in the new space. Keep your eyes open for upcoming educational and arts events we will be hosting there in the coming months as well.

Photo: Lindsay Dedario

There is a cool piece in this months issue of PDN (The Heroes and Mentors issue) featuring me called Learning from the Boss featuring several photographers talking about their mentors in the industry (people like Bill Cramer, Jeff Hutchens, and Bruce Weber were featured) I got the rare opportunity in the article to talk about one of my favorite people – my long time mentor, Rhea Anna. Check out the current issue of the magazine to see the full article

Without going too much into the magazine’s content, I just want to say that Rhea has been a wonderful friend and mentor. Working with her reignited my passion for photography after a long period of me thinking I had lost it, and the example she sets has been a huge influence on me and other artists that have worked with her. I have learned more from her about photography, professionalism, and creativity than any other source I can think of, proving that you cannot discount the influence of an amazing mentor.

Thanks Rhea!!

I received a pleasantly unexpected package in the mail over the weekend from Yuri over at Eurostyle Apparel,  a T-shirt company whose catalog and look-books I shot earlier this year. Inside I found three of the wonderful in-store posters that Eurostyle will be using to promote their new line in all of the stores that carry them as well as several fashion expos and events throughout the upcoming year.

Thanks Guys!

Anything!

I’m sitting here sick as a dog. I really should be resting, but with a sleep schedule that is already as tenuous as mine, getting some shut eye seems to be a elusive goal. I have an urge to be out there doing something creative – making some new images and working on a bunch of new video pieces. I’ve been doodling ideas the last two days and trying to get my creative muscles back into full swing after a brief personal hiatus that I took after my father passed away last month. I am itching to start working on some new personal work and redefine my portfolio in the coming weeks. I’ll be laying out my mission plan here on the blog shortly.

Victory!!

Me

Aaron Ingrao

Scott Gable