Hey, All.

I'm Clint. I make art. I make art using a camera. I make art using a camera to create photos. Photos mostly of people. Almost always of nouns. Some of my other stuff is depictions of urban rhetoric and irony, but that's not stuff for MM.

There are a ton of photographers in the world -- I guess I'm hoping that I come in somewhere between Eliott Erwitt, Martin Parr, Alec Soth and Ramon Muxler. (For you literary types, that's Shel Silverstein, Ogden Nash, Ernest Hemingway and Hunter Thompson.)

So yeah. Art. Let's talk about that for a moment. The art paradigm is very different from the glamour/fashion paradigm. The glamour/fashion people get a project from a client. They hire you. They give the photos to the client. The client uses them. The art paradigm is more like this: artist hires a model. Artist shoots photos of model. Artist pays model out of his own pocket. Artist does this about 500 times. Artist collects the photos, edits them down to a coherent collection and begs galleries to show them. Someone might buy prints of the photos. Hopefully by then, the artist's wife won't have left him because he blew the rent money on figure models and film processing. Man, does that piss her off.

So I'm not looking to do "garage glamour" type stuff. I'm not going to get you into FHM or SG anything. I'm more bohemian gallery space than Maxim cover, if you follow. I need models with curves. Which, sadly, makes me incompatible with about 90% of the models on this site. So are we all clear? I'm not looking to do GWC, glamour, bikini or soft-core porn stuff. There are lots of photographers here for that. I ain't it, though.

A lot of the work I do is with plus-size models, although I do work with normal models as well. I have two main projects going: One a set of narrative portraits and the other a set of figure and more imaginative images. I also try my hand at classical figures, too. My style seems to vacillate betwixt contemporary and classical. Hell if I can explain it.

I work in the art space we have in our condo building, and am a member of a photo co-op where we have shared space to work.

I have a regular H/MU artist who is awesome, and models are always allowed to bring anyone they want along as long as they're not hyperactive, distracting or constantly offering "helpful suggestions." I don't even let my wife try to "help." And man, does that piss her off.

Shoots run about two hours before I wear out, and I'm a big fan of shooting film. I do some digital, too. But not much. Sometimes my wife helps holds the light stands, sometimes she just reads her Kindle and does laundry, sometimes she brings cookies. She's cool that way. If the shoot goes really well, my wife will insist I take you (and her and the H/MU and whomever else is around) for pizza. I think she and the MUA just like pizza.

I always offer my models a print as well as a CD or FTP directory of their edited photos. For the print, you can have 8x10, 11x14, big as a barn, I don't care. You earned it. The images will be web-resolution shots. However, I generally only select and edit 10-20 photos per shoot. There are no factory seconds from me.

Speaking of paying you -- I have no (none, zero, zip, zilch, nada) problems paying a model. Me paying you and you signing a model release keeps things professional and businesslike. Or, as my gramma used to say, "Good fences make good neighbors." But wanting to be paid and wanting full ownership rights of the photos isn't going to happen. Cake. Have, or eat. Choose carefully. If I'm paying you, a full release and 2257 release is expected, as well. This also precludes you "editing" the photos in Photoshop. Please don't. This is my art. Don't "improve" on it. Again, I don't even let my wife do that. And man, does that piss her off.

At times I think of myself less a photographer and more an artist who uses cameras (since I can't draw worth a tinker's damn). And sometimes I think of myself as a philosopher (leaning more towards epistemology and rhetorical theory) with a camera.

You will bring ideas with you and I will bring ideas with me. And the way I find shoots work is that some of those ideas will really rocket and take off. And some of them will just kind of sit there. And ideas that neither of us brought with us will spring up and we'll both go "Hell yes!" and make great photos with them.

That's kind of how art works, I think. Along with philosophy and all the other stuff that makes life great.

Speaking of great, if you like I don't mind bringing down a thermos of coffee (I use good beans!), a bottle of wine (I like Gewurtztramiener, you might like Cab, either way it's all good) or a big cooler of ice water. I also bring down the SoundWave and usually have some yacht rock going. Sweet Jesus, that music is smooth.

That's about all I can think of.

I've had photos shown at:

Flak Photo
File Photo
MN Fringe Festival
and a bunch of other places none of which I can recall right off because frankly, the 1980's were pretty good to me.

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