American Craft Magazine - Artist Roberto Lugo

In our line of work we have the opportunity of meeting many talented, creative and amazing individuals. Photographing Artist Roberto Lugo was certainly a treat. His passion for his craft is undeniable and extends beyond the simplicity of creating beautiful ceramic objects. He uses his vision to shed light on issues such as poverty, race, inequality and the human experience in general. By doing so his pieces transcend what simply meets the eye and allow us to peer into Lugo's personality and upbringing.

To learn more about Roberto Lugo check out the April/May issue of American Craft Magazine published by the American Craft Council.

American Craft Magazine - Lissa Hunter

I just received my copy of the April/May Issue of American Craft Magazine and was excited to see the images we produced while photographing Artist Lissa Hunter. We had a great time photographing Lissa who is such a multifaceted artist. She works in a multitude of media and having a look at her Portland studio provides a timeline of her evolution as an artist. In her studio you can see paintings, works covered in encaustic wax, ceramic, paper, charcoal and coiled baskets. Some of her work showcases a delicate mixture in a single piece of many of the skills and media she has worked with throughout her artistic career.

If you are not familiar with Lissa's work, I would encourage you to visit her website and have a look at the wonderful work she produces. Meeting people like Lissa is just one of the reasons why I love my job as much as I do. Hope you enjoy the images.

Old Port Magazine - Spring Cover

With temperatures as frigid as they have been I am sure we are all looking forward to spring. I know I cant wait to start creating more images outdoors and engage in activities that allow me to enjoy the sunshine. Looking forward to that, I wanted to share with you today the latest cover I shot for Old Port Magazine. Hope you enjoy it and makes you daydream a little about what you will do once you can go outside without having to wear layer upon layer of clothing.

What is it you are looking forward to do the most when spring finally arrives?

Colby College

Last month we had the privilege of collaborating with Colby College creating a few images intended for editorial and advertising purposes. It was the first time for us creating images for this institution and must say that we had a great time doing so. We worked closely to Barbara Walls, Director of Creative Services, who art directed the shoot. We loved collaborating with Barbara, the communication we developed would've given the impression we had worked together in many previous occasions. She knew exactly what she was after and was so good at communicating this to us so we could interpret her creative vision while allowing us to run with it. We really appreciate clients with that kind of vision and hope to work in many more projects with Colby in the future.

I wish I could share with you more images from the shoot but all in its due time. The image you see above is actually an outtake from the shoot. After we got what the client wanted I decided to shoot a few more frames taking advantage of our subject's willingness to participate.

I am very happy with the image and hope you like it too. Look forward to sharing more of the work we created for Colby College in a future post.

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Cover - The Sunday River Issue

This year has been a great year in terms of the editorial work we have had published. Most of all because we have been fortunate enough to make it into several covers. Today I want to share with you the cover of The Sunday River Issue that we shot for Maine Home + Design Magazine. You can find it on the newsstand through the month of November. We also collaborated with Janice Dunwoody who did the styling for the shoot. This residence had some great views that would make any avid skier want to live there. Hope you enjoy the images.

John Bisbee for American Craft Magazine.

This summer I had the opportunity to photograph John Bisbee who is one of my favorite Maine based artists. The shoot just got published and I am now able to share it here with you. We collaborated on this project with American Craft Magazine, published by the American Craft Council and it was a blast. The shoot took place at the Brunswick Mill where John has his studio. I had the opportunity to see him at work and experience a bit of what happens there everyday. John and his team are all great people and the sense that there was always something creative going on was palpable. Within the studio space we saw a lot of John's work as well as some of his girlfriends and apprentices work.

It was really interesting to see the work that John was excited about, for me it was all exciting since it was the first time I saw some of it. It was interesting to observe the evolution from one piece to another. Made me reflect on the way some of my work may relate to each other and on my own evolution as an image-maker.

I want to thank John and his team for collaborating with us and making it such a memorable experience.

A small gift John made for me while I was photographing him at work.

Smithsonian Magazine

Ok, so today I want to share with you one of the most fun and fascinating assignments I have done this year. On the stands this November you can find an image we created for Smithsonian Magazine. The assignment was to create a composite image of two scientists who work on brain research at MIT. The art director wanted us to craft an image that depicted the scientists manipulating a brain and pretty much gave us free rein on what we could produce, so we decided to have some fun with it.

This is the original image we submitted.

Dr. Xu and doctoral student Steve Ramirez have been conducting research related to memory. It almost seems like something from a science fiction movie. Their research focuses on implanting memories that are not there. Scary right? But the motivation driving these scientists is benign. As the magazine states, "Their research has launched a new era in memory research and can someday lead to new treatments for medical and psychiatric afflictions such as depression, post traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer's disease".

They conducted tests on mice that showed the mice reacting to situations in a way they would have if they had lived the experience before. They placed a mouse in a box and instead of sniffing around as it normally would, the mouse froze in terror, recalling the experience of receiving a foot shock in the same box. The thing is, the memory was fictitious; the mouse had never received an electric shock in the box before. Rather, it was reacting to a false memory implanted by the scientists. Not only were they able to identify the brain cells involved but they could also manipulate those cells in order to create a whole new fictitious memory. There are certainly a lot of ethical questions when it comes to this kind of scientific advancement. You can read more about it in the November issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

What are your thoughts on all of this?

Here is how it ran in the Magazine.

Dr. Xu (right) Steve Ramirez (left)

Down East Magazine Drive-in Behind the scenes

Last month we had the pleasure of collaborating with Down East Magazine to create an image for their Best of Maine issue. We teamed up with Down East's visuals Editor Mark Fleming who came to us with the concept for the shoot. Mark is a great photographer in his own right, so it was great to have him on set art directing since he didn't only know what he wanted visually but also understood what it took to achieve it.

I wanted to share a short behind the scenes video of the drive-in shoot. We were hoping to have clear skies but this being Maine, we weren't that lucky. So we had to improvise and make it happen regardless of the weather. At the end of the day, we were happy with the results rain and all.

I also want to thank The Saco Drive-in for allowing us access, Motorland Vintage America for providing the vintage car and our models Emily and Mike for their help. The video was shot by Kevin Sennett. We look forward to collaborating on future projects with Mark and the crew we had that day at the shoot.

Hope you enjoy the image!

 

Old Port Magazine Premiere Issue

If you are familiar with my work, you know that I have been a regular contributor to Maine Home & Design Magazine and also have contributed to Maine Magazine. Well, the creative team over at the Maine Media Collective, publishers of these two fine publications have done it again. This time with the launch of Old Port Magazine, a publication dedicated to showcase all the amazing things Portland, Maine has to offer.

Old Port Magazines editors trusted me with the task of creating an image for the cover of the premiere issue. The image for the cover had to be shot in a horizontal orientation so the image could wrap around from front to back cover, something that I found particularly exciting.  I was also asked to contribute in creating images for a hotel feature. The focus would be on some of the best hotels Portland has to offer, including three hotels that are scheduled to open their doors soon.

Aside from some of the great locations we also enjoyed photographing four of the hotel developers. We shot the image on location in South Portland with the Old Port in the background and couldn't have been happier with the results.

To commemorate the launch of the premiere issue of Old Port Magazine we will be giving away a 27x17 inch print printed on metallic paper. To be entered in the drawing all you have to do is "like" the Irvin Serrano Photography Facebook page. The drawing will be on Friday June 13th. So head over to our page and you may see this image hanging on your wall.

We look forward to creating more content for this magazine and continue collaborating with the great team behind it. Special thanks to Art Director Heidi Kirn who put so much of her creative talents to work in not only designing the cover but conceptualizing the direction of the visual content over several phone calls.

Here is the cover.

This is the full frame image which includes what would be the front and back cover.

The opening spread for the hotel feature.

Portrait of hotel developers.

The Hilton Garden Inn, Portland, ME.

The bar at the Westin has some of the best views overlooking Portland,ME.

A detail from the new Hyatt Hotel.