Night Sky

Two Pairs

photographs © Michael T Regan Photography, 2005

Dionte Christmas, the Philly B-Ball star hopin' for the NBA

photographs © Michael T Regan Photography, 2009

While I continue to work on a series of portraits that won't be published until the fall and aren't "blogable" at the moment, I stumbled upon this enjoyable shoot that I can share. I recently photographed NBA prospect Dionte Christmas, Temple's sharp shooting guard who led the A-10 in scoring for three straight years. James Beale explores Dionte's story going all the way back to when he couldn't make the team as a youngster. Read it in City Paper HERE. He showed up an hour late and his phone went straight to voicemail which left me wondering if this was going to be one of those shoots. He was humble and very respectful towards the photographic process. Athletes can be a mixed bag. Dionte, however, was accommodating to numerous ideas and excited to collaborate. It's inspiring to work with people who understand the value in what you do. The only strange moment came in the beginning when he called me "sir." I felt like turning around and looking behind me. Sir? I thanked him for the formalities but told him I prefer "Michael." He smiled and we got to work.


"Now, back in McGonigle Hall, Christmas keeps rising up and the shots keep falling down. If this skill impresses the right team and he ends up a first-round pick, great. If he doesn't (and he might not), he could end up playing for a minor league team or overseas in Europe.

For Dionte, you don't get the feeling that would be the end of the world. He'll have a degree, his family and the opportunity to make good money playing basketball somewhere. This is an opportunity he seems to appreciate. Christmas signs countless autographs after Temple home games because he remembers how seeing pros motivated him when he was young. And instead of wearing some cocky number on his back — say, 23 — he wears his 22 to honor Aaron Whitaker, a late friend of his who urged him to enroll at Temple. For Christmas, being a professional basketball player is a cool possibility, rather than a foregone conclusion or a fatalistic only hope"

Weathervane Music: East Hundred's "Hammerhead"

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The second release from Weathervane Music Organization is a song from East Hundred titled "Hammerhead." The local Philly indie rockers wax on how they met, how they work and why Philly is a good place for them to make music. In the age of bad internet video, its refreshing to see some thought put into a behind-the-scenes piece on music.

You can download the song FREE here by joining Weathervane Music Organization (its free, do it).


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Wandering Old San Juan for an afternoon while Johnny Depp sleeps on his yacht in the harbor

photographs © Michael T Regan Photography 2009

Last month I traveled to Rincon, Puerto Rico to celebrate a close friend of mine. With a 6 hour lay over in the San Juan Airport, I loaded the Holga with Velvia and hit Old San Juan with my good friend Will (check his design work here). We wandered up to the famous fort "El Morro" and through the brightly colored colonial streets. Clicking, talking, drinking, smoking. The beautiful white puffy clouds shining down. When we got back to San Juan Airport and hopped our 10 seater, I sat up front with the pilot and took in the landscape from above with my leica.

photograph © Michael T Regan Photography 2009

As I was doing research behind Vanity Fair's current cover shoot with Johnny Depp, I came across a behind-the-scenes slideshow detailing how the shoot came to be. The cover shoot was planned for Paris but Johnny Depp was on his Island in the Bahamas, preparing to shoot an adaptation of Hunter S Thompson's "The Rum Diaries." He offered an afternoon in Old San Juan (where they were shooting) so photographer Francois-Marie Banier began wandering the streets in search of locations. Johnny Depp slept on his yacht docked in the harbor and came ashore for the shoot once the location was set. Those beautiful white puffy clouds shining down. If only...

Check out the slideshow HERE:

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Weathervane Music Organization: {{{SUNSET}}}

Brian McTear & Amy Morrissey photographed at Miner Street Recording Studio

Congrats to Weathervane for the completion of their first project! They've worked hard and deserve your support. Follow them on Twitter HERE. Stay up to date with new projects HERE. Show your support and donate HERE.

The first in the 2009 Project Series from Weathervane Music. Sunset is the work of songwriter, artist Bill Baird from Austin Texas. The song “Fishtown” was recorded April 24 - 25 2009 at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia with Producer Quentin Stoltzfus and engineers Amy Morrissey and Brian McTear.

more about Weathervane's innovative ideas regarding the future of music: HERE



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First Friday Show: Portraits In Music

Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah photographed in his recording studio. May, 2009

Brian Isserman and Lawrence O'Toole, the two uber-creative directors behind the amazing design firm PRIMER Inc, will be exhibiting a selection of my music portraits at their design studio for the month of June.

Stop by and say hi:

PRIMER Microstudio
15 Byberry Road
Hatboro, PA 19040

Leonard Cohen Live

© Michael T Regan Photography

PHAWKER REVIEW BY JONATHAN VALANIA The Great Man glides onstage in black pinstripes and a fedora like a gangster cantor, double-breasted and tie-less, his crisp creamy blue shirt buttoned-up to the neck David Lynch-style. He seems to walk on air. He was born like this, he had no choice, he was born with the gift of a golden voice. Now his friends are gone and his hair is grey, he aches in the places he used to play. After all these years, he’s still crazy for love but he’s not coming on. At 74, broke and hat in hand, he is still paying his rent every day in the Tower of Song.

For the next three hours, he dispenses what amount to be prayers and we will need them where we are going. For he has seen the future, baby, and it is murder. Everybody knows the war is over, everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor. And, he says, there is a mighty judgment coming, though he might be wrong. But this much is true: we may be ugly, he insists, but we have the music. Because everybody knows the rich write history, but the poor write the songs. His mind is still sharp as a razor blade and he remembers them all: the one who gave him head in an unmade bed, the sisters of mercy with dew on their hem, the one in the famous blue raincoat who was gonna go ‘clear,’ the bird on a wire, the drunk in the midnight choir. All of them, the Great Man included, have tried in their own way, to be free.

We have paid dearly for this audience with the Great Man and he is eternally grateful for our sacrifice, humbled in fact. He delivers many a song on his knees, and doffs his cap with humility after every standing ovation, every exclamation of adoration from the back row of the highest balcony. “So much of the world is plunged in chaos and suffering, it’s remarkable that we have the opportunity to gather in places like this,” the Great Man says, his eyes scanning the Academy of Music’s gilded splendor. “I haven’t been here in a long time, it was 15 years ago and I was 60, just a kid with a crazy dream,” he continues, and we all laugh even though we know he is only half-kidding. “Since then, I’ve taken a lot of Prozac, Paxil, Effexor, Wellbutrin, Ritalin and double strength Tylenol. I also plunged into a rigorous study of religion and philosophy, but cheerfulness kept breaking through.” Which is another way of saying ‘there is a crack in everything, that’s where the light gets in.’ Hallelujah. Amen. Over and out.

SLIDESHOW:

Ace Spectrum, 1974

From the unfortunate vault of wonderful albums that nobody knows: Ace Spectrum's "Inner Spectrum" released on Altantic/Wonderbird, 1974. I stumbled onto "Don't Send Nobody Else" and I'm hooked. Get it HERE

From Dusty Groove America:

A tremendous debut from Ace Spectrum -- a harmony quartet who never cracked the charts as much as some of their east coast contemporaries, but who were every bit as great as the bigger names on the east coast scene! The album's got a soaring sound that's strongly influenced by Philly, but recorded in New York -- a warmly compressed style that's professional and focused, and beautifully put together with arrangements from Bert DeCoteaux and production by the team of Tony Silvester and Ed Zant. We love the group the best on the mellower cuts -- which have a quality that's deeply personal amidst the smoothness -- but even the more upbeat tracks are plenty darn great too! Titles include the sublime slow numbers "Moving On" and "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" -- plus "Don't Send Nobody Else", "If You Were There", "Pickup", "I Don't Want To Play Around", and "Me & My Love". Expanded CD features 3 bonus tracks -- "Don't Send Nobody Else" in both mono single and alternate versions -- plus the previously unissued "Runnin Out Baby"

One Minute with John Lennon

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Zoe Strauss: Art Under I-95, 2009

© Michael T Regan Photography

- Zoe Strauss presented over 200 photos on the concrete slabs supporting I-95 yesterday in Philly. The cold and wet day was a proper fit for the 8th annual exhibit of her raw street work. What stands out about her vision is how she cuts right to the truth of society's fringes. The almost forgotten people struggling with daily life are captured with an honesty and appreciation that speaks of Zoe's ability to connect with whats real. There's no bullshit in the work. Her new book America was available (Get it HERE) and the color photocopies were still selling for $5 a piece.

- Karen Heller wrote a great piece about Zoe for The Philadelphia Inquirer: HERE

Zoe Strauss photographed under I-95 for PRIMER Magazine
© Michael T Regan Photography

- From Photo Eye's "Election Day" feature on Zoe Strauss:

"Zoe Strauss (b. 1970) was given a camera on her 30th birthday and immediately began to shoot photographs around her neighborhood in South Philly. Since then she has received a Pew fellowship (2005), been included in the Whitney Biennial (2006), was named a USA Gund Fellow (2007) and received a major grant from United States Artists. Each May for the last 8 years she has held "Under I-95," an annual exhibition of her work hung on the concrete columns beneath the Interstate highway which runs through the heart of Philadelphia. Strauss differs from most contemporary photographers in her avid embracement of the inherent reproducibility of an image, never editioning her work and selling photocopied prints for $5.00 each. In lieu of maintaining a traditional portfolio website (though she does have one), she has an incredibly active blog which chronicles her working process and acts as a showcase for many hundreds of images. Her first book, America (AMMO, 2008), was just released this week, on Election Day." MORE

© Zoe Strauss

© Zoe Strauss

© Zoe Strauss

- Next up: Zoe Strauss "Nobody Has More Winners" June 5th-June 27th at Silicon Gallery, 139 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia PA.
Opens Friday June 5th from 6-8.30

Melody Gardot

© Michael T Regan Photography, 2005

Jazz vocalist Melody Gardot released her second full length album on Verve this week, My One and Only Thrill. It currently sits as #12 on the itunes list of top sellers, in between Katy Parry and Ben Folds oddly enough. I had the honor of photographing Melody for the first article ever published about her, May of 2005, by Pat Rapa. (check it HERE) Melody suggested we work at a piano on the 15th floor of the Sheraton hotel on 17th and Race. She used to sneak into the hotel and play, nobody seemed to know it existed. The window to the right had a beautiful view of the city and was a source of inspiration for her.

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Regarding jazz photography, a copy of Frank Wolf's book "Blue Note Jazz Photography of Francis Wolf" has made its home on my bedside table recently. His prolific documents of all the Blue Note sessions are very intimate and inspiring.

"An accomplished photographer at home (Germany), Frank came to New York without means. He secured a job in a photographic studio by day and reunited with his boyhood friend Alfred Lion to work on Blue Note records by night. His passion for jazz ran as deep as his love of photography, and soon he was completely immersed in the record company. By the end of World Ward II, Francis and Alfred were able to make a living solely at Blue Note. Two men running a small, struggling business in an all-consuming affair. For Frank, photography took a back seat to the demads of Blue Note (which, in that era of 78-rpm single records in plain brown sleeves, did not require artwork or photographs).

Still he took his camera to each Blue Note session, taking candid shorts of the proceedings while Alfred produced the sessions."

Miles Davis © Francis Wolf/Blue Note


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Robert Capa: Inside The Mexican Suitcase

© Tony Cenicola/New York Times

A wonderful article in The New York Times about Robert Capa's (and others) lost film from The Spanish Civil War, around 4,300 frames to be exact. They arrived mysteriously in cardboard boxes at The International Center of Photography last year.

Click HERE for a slideshow

Although the "Fallen Soldier" controversy hasn't been put to rest, the mere appearance of these negatives 70 years after they were taken is a testament to documentary photography and its ability to out live time. Click HERE for Richard Whelan's essay "Proving That Robert Capa's 'Fallen Soldier' Is Authentic," published in Aperture Magazine No. 166, Spring 2002.

Discovered in The Mexican Suitcase:

© Robert Capa/ICP

Flatiron Polaroid, 2002

© Michael T Regan Photography

I found myself agape, admiring a skyscraper — the prow of the Flatiron Building, to be particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the late-afternoon light. – HG Wells (1906)


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Wandering Haridwar, India

Haridwar is considered the gateway to the four pilgrimages in the Uttrakhand region. The Ganga leaves the Himalayas and enters the plains, Haridwar being the first major town. Though the Ganges does not lose its rapids completely, it becomes very quiet and calm here. The water is clean and people prefer taking baths on the numerous ghats built on the river shores. It is said that bathing here purifies the soul and opens the way for the ultimate freedom, Nirvana.


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