L10 x Elton

Issa Rae for #CreatorsOfColor

www.instagram.com/creatorsofcolor/

Jussie Smollett & Jurnee Smollett-Bell for #CreatorsOfColor www.instagram.com/creatorsofcolor/

All images by Elton Anderson

Another fun, high energy shoot with the hilarious and talented vine superstar, King Bach. This is my 4th time working with him so it felt like we were old friends on set! We shot in and around Downtown LA for the latest issue of Dopeness Magazine. We had a ton of cool props but I learned one very important lesson that day: Never spray a fire extinguisher indoors unless there is a fire!

Sunset Soccer on Ipanema Beach, Brazil. This is a picture I've dreamed about capturing for over 4 years... finally got it on a recent trip to Brazil. 

*ChevElle*

Outtake from my Dallas Buyers Club - inspired Editorial

An outtake from a recent denim-inspired shoot I just did. 

Model: Levi Stocke 

Stylist: Apuje Kalu

Model: Milan

I'm back to shooting with my film camera and my friend Tiffany is my most recent subject. She's funny, fashionable, beautiful and most of all she inspires me, so I wanted her to be a part of my latest project. Now, I still have yet to fully define this project but basically it involves a medium format camera (Mamiya 645 AFD is the camera du jour) and 5 rolls of 120 film per shoot. 

This time around I headed to Arizona where Tiffany manages her wildly successful (and growing) fashion blog, The Werk Place. She started it about a year ago and it showcases her sublime sense of fashion. She mixes prints, pieces, hi/low buys, accessories, colors... you name it! And believe it or not, she still maintains her full-time career as an Engineer. 

Of course, good times were had by all in that desert heat but this really served as another growth experience in my journey in film and photography. I'll save all that for another post... for now just enjoy the images.

Click Here for the full story. 

9/17/2013

I’ve been taking a lot of chances lately since I moved to LA but my shoot with Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolBoy Q was probably the chanciest chance of them all. Here are a few reasons: I wasn’t even supposed to be there, I only had 5 minutes and for the first time ever I decided to use a medium format film camera. The hell was I thinking.

So, I was hired by Monster Headphones to capture some images at the Day 1 taping of the BET Cypher (an event where different rap crews spit their best bars over a non-descript hip hop beat and its played during the BET Awards show). The Day 1 roster was filled with a lot of fresh, new talent but it wasn’t until I saw the Day 2 roster that I knew I had to be there. The Day 2 crew was the TDE camp comprised of Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolBoy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock. Kendrick, of course, is the most popular but over the last year I’ve had all of their albums, mixtapes, EP’s and features on repeat. This was pretty much my dream shoot so I had to make it happen… and I had to make it happen on a medium format camera.

Why film? Well, there is nothing more timeless than Black & White film. It has a realness that you just can’t get from even the best Digital SLR and I knew that was the look I wanted for this shoot. 

To make a long story short, I used a little charm, a FAMU connect and whole lot of persistence to get my 5 minutes with Kendrick on Day 2. I was there, he was there, the film was loaded but I was nervous as hell! I rarely get nervous on shoots anymore, even if I’m a huge fan of the subject, but I was shaking in my boots because I had never used the Mamiya 645 system in my life. In this quick moment of fear I decided to just boss up and trust that that it would work out. Luckily it did (with a few triple exposure mistakes) and I even got a chance to sit front row at his concert later that night.

Two things I learned: 1.) Waiting 2 days for some film to be developed is an agony I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. 2.) ScHoolBoy Q is my spirit animal. 

  Check out the pics plus mistakes here: http://eltonanderson.com/black-hippy