Every year I split my South By Southwest adventure into two parts. The second week, which starts today is music week and total hell. I work 20 hours a day, take thousands of photos and never sleep, but I tend to make more money than any other week of the year. But the first week is sort of a vacation. I work for the Village Voice, who let me do whatever I want, and I get to shoot movie stars, eat BBQ and watch a bunch of movies. After 10 years of this I have so many friends in Austin and the SXSW Film Fest is pretty much my favorite event of the year.

For my Voice gallery I set up a bunch of mini photo shoots with actors and directors and then I also shot a few red carpets. I will get the red carpets up this week if I have a minute to do so but I wanted to get these portraits up because I am really happy with them and I think you will dig them. My insanity starts tonight but I have a few hours before I have to start working.

The highlight of this gallery is actually for a SXSW Interactive but it features a bunch of movie/tv stars so I am keeping it in this gallery. It’s the cast of JASH the comedian run new YouTube channel from Tim & Eric, Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera and Reggie Watts. I am a fan of all of them so it was great to get a chance to shoot them. I knew Reggie back when I first moved to NYC. I didn’t know if he remembered me but when he realized I ran Driven By Boredom he started talking to me about the naked girls I shoot and told Tim & Eric they needed to see my site. It was a pretty good look and I have loved Reggie’s stuff for years so maybe he and I can do a real shoot because he is the most photogenic human alive.

I got to shoot the stars and director of Milo a film about a monster that lives in Ken Marino’s ass. It sounds completely terrible but I have heard nothing but amazing things about it and I cannot wait to see it. Evidently it is absolutely hilarious. My friend Joe Swanberg (who’s film Drinking Buddies seems to be the talk of the festival) told me that the director Jacob Vaughn was really good and it stars hilarious people in Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Steven Root and another comedian I know and love Kumail Nanjiani. Ken Marino was of course on The State, the last great sketch comedy show and directs pretty much the greatest thing on the internet, Burning Love. Gillian Jacobs is on Community which is one of the weirdest and best shows on TV. She aslo happens to be totally not ugly and was the nicest person I met all week.

My favorite photos I took were for the film Short Term 12, another movie I hear great things about. I got to shoot Brie Larson, who is in pretty much every film at SXSW, and John Gallagher Jr. John is one of the stars of The Newsroom which is the best new show on TV. If you haven’t seen it stop fucking up and steal someone’s HBO Go password immediately. I got to shoot them by the river and it made for some lovely photos.

I got to shoot M. Blash and Chloë Sevigny for their film The Wait. I have had a crush on Ms. Sevigny since I was 15 and I actually was kinda star struck around her which hasn’t happend to me in a long time. I shot her in a plant. It was really important. The first photo I took all week was of Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere. There is a documentary about him called “We Cause Scenes”. I have been an Improv Everywhere fan for a long time and I noticed him at the convention center right after I picked up my badge. I also got to shoot Paul Walker and the director of Hours. Paul was really excited and knew all about my 35mm camera which I was not expecting. You don’t expect the star of Fast and The Furious 6 to be a camera nerd. I shot my friend Davy Rothbart who runs Found Magazine with two of his Medora documentary stars. He spent a season with a high school basketball team in a dying town in Indiana. The film looks really phenomenal as well. I also shot Josh Duhamel, the star of the film Scenic Route. He seemed like a really good dude unlike Adam Brody from Some Girl(s) who pretty much acted like I didn’t exist. His co-star Mía Maestro was lovely though and I very much want to see the Neil LaBute film.

So yeah, that’s a huge write up, but I really like these photos so you should look at them.

Click here to see all my South By Southwest Film Festival portraits!

Comments (1)