#dylan singleton

Duke loses Dylan Singleton to season-ending fractured ankle

Duke’s secondary took a significant hit from this weekend’s game against North Carolina. Junior safety Dylan Singleton will miss Dukes’ final two games and likely bowl game due to an ankle injury that occurred during the first half of the game on Saturday.

Singleton reportedly underwent surgery on Sunday to take care of a fractured left ankle, according to a medical update from Duke on Sunday.

ART BLANCHE: Matthew Wignall

Matthew Wignall calls it the “trifecta.” It doesn’t always go this way, but occasionally when working with a band, he’ll record their album, design the artwork, and photograph the band.

When he goes all in, he goes all in. 

“I started off, I guess, right out of high school. I’d always done photography in high school so probably around 19 years old I started getting a few little paying gigs here and there -- I was shooting bands,” Matthew said. “I had [also] been playing in bands... and I was starting to learn how to record also. So at the same time that I was doing art, I was recording, I was playing, I was doing everything involved in music.”

Delta Spirit - Delta Spirit (via Matthew Wignall)

It was then, just out of high school, that he had an admittedly rare moment of pragmatism: “I always thought to myself, ‘Well music is kind of a lottery, it’s a little bit tough if you think about how many bands there are and how many people actually get to make a living at it.’”

In an effort to find something a little more stable, he decided to keep active not just playing music, but recording, producing, and photographing it as well.

His foray into design soon followed.

“Everything else in my life has been short-sighted probably including that, but I was not going to college -- I was more the self educating type,” Matthew said. “[So], I just kinda thought to myself: ‘I can do a photoshoot for a band and get paid x amount of dollars, and I’m usually unhappy with how people design my photos when I hand it over to somebody for an album cover or what it is. It usually comes back looking horrible… Well I guess I can do the design as well, I can get paid a little bit more.’”

My Brightest Diamond (via Matthew Wignall)

“It’s kinda funny, in the beginning I don’t think I was aware that I had a knack for it or anything like that…  but anyway at the beginning I had no concept of what I was doing really, other than I thought I could do it better than what I was seeing,” he said. “So then over the years, I kept kind of doing all of it: I kept doing photography, I kept doing design, and I kept recording albums for people and writing songs, you know the whole package. It just kinda evolved into this thing where I do all of the above, it’s sort of odd.”

Being so involved with music has become a hallmark of his approach when working with a band. It’s the artists that Matthew’s been able to foster a relationship with that he finds the most rewarding to work with. Oftentimes, this comes from being in contact directly with the band throughout the process, whether he’s involved with only one thing or is bringing his full trifecta of talents.

“I would say that the best work that I do tends to be with people who I have some sort of relationship with and they’re willing to work with me. I find that if I work through a manager or record label, it always starts to convolute the process too much. It’s not to say there’s not great people at record labels and great managers and people with a lot of vision, but it’s just like the more cooks you add in the kitchen, the more it starts to change… I think that when I get to work like that, that’s when I have the best work. When I have to deal with back and forth with record labels second guessing, and the artist doesn’t really have an opinion on it kind of stuff, it sorta ends up looking like the artists didn’t have an opinion on it and a whole bunch of [other] people have too many opinions.”

J Roddy Walston & the Business (via Matthew Wignall)

One recent successful project where Matthew was able to bring his full bag of tricks was working with J Roddy Walston & the Business. For it, Matthew produced the record, recorded it, mixed it, designed the artwork, photographed the band, and shot their music video. While he recognizes being so involved in this way is pretty unique, it’s also the only way he knows how to do things.

“At the end of the day it’s not ‘I do all this stuff and I think I’m good at it,’ I would say I’m just more desperate than anyone else to not get a job,” Matthew said. “So I work really hard at all these things so I can continue making a living and not have to work for somebody else because I am not suited for it, I am not wired that way.”

ART BLANCHE: Malibu

The metaphor practically writes itself. Anderson .Paak’s music fuses together different genres and influences into one swirling, beautiful concoction. The end result: a sonic collage.

So says even the man himself.

Dewey Saunders, meanwhile, frequents in more literal forms of collage, preferring paper and scissors (and occasionally Photoshop) to Anderson’s microphone.

As collaborators, they have brought together the metaphorical and the literal, with Dewey’s compositions adorning the covers of Anderson’s records.

Anderson .Paak - Malibu (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“I’ve actually been working with Anderson for a couple of years now. I did his Venice album cover… in 2013, and was doing stuff for him even before that,” Dewey explained. “It’s funny because I used to listen to him when he was Breezy Lovejoy still. I was first a fan and then we got connected when I started doing these rapper portraits and posting them on Instagram, he wanted one so I did it and it eventually turned into like this poster series. That was when he first released his single ‘Drugs’ so I did the single cover for that and then Venice came out that year.”

“I’ve actually been working with Anderson for a couple of years now. I did his Venice album cover… in 2013, and was doing stuff for him even before that,” Dewey explained. “It’s funny because I used to listen to him when he was Breezy Lovejoy still. I was first a fan and then we got connected when I started doing these rapper portraits and posting them on Instagram, he wanted one so I did it and it eventually turned into like this poster series. That was when he first released his single ‘Drugs’ so I did the single cover for that and then Venice came out that year.”

Most recently, Dewey created the artwork on Anderson’s critically lauded record Malibu. Just like the album, Dewey’s art has also earned a deal of critical acclaim. But for Dewey, the process of working on Malibu was different than past collaborations with Anderson. 

“So Malibu came around and that was different than Venice because he had gotten this art director named Cory Gomberg and Cory basically art directed the whole campaign for Malibu,” Dewey said. “It was a pretty long process of back-and-forth even though there was... a pretty hard deadline we had to meet. And it just, we dialed it in so precisely... working with Cory made my work get tighter and just added a level of polish, I think, just by having so many edits and having everybody look at it and critique it and everything. So it was definitely a group effort.”

Anderson .Paak - Venice (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

In total, Dewey worked with Anderson and Cory to put together art for Malibu’s cover, gatefold, singles, and various other associated pieces. Strangely enough, Dewey’s work on the project didn’t start with the album or singles, but with the European tour poster.

“I actually had done the poster and then Cory came onto the project and we redid it and [then] did all the singles for Malibu,” he explained.

Redoing the poster allowed Dewey and Cory to build a cohesive aesthetic for the art that matched Cory’s vision for the record cover, which they would then use as a blueprint for the rest of the artwork as well.

“Cory’s initial inspiration that we were kind of looking at was this 10cc cover from the 70s I guess. It was this diver with a diving helmet and he was carrying this girl out of the water… That just kinda sparked the idea [that] we wanted it to have it this 70s classic LP feel to it. So that was the jumping off point as far as the composition.”

10cc - Deceptive Bends (Via discogs)

Originally, they used a photo of Anderson merging from the water, carrying a woman, just like on the 10cc record, but a last minute decision -- due to the photo being, as Anderson put it, “a little too Fabio-ish” -- had them change the image to Anderson at the piano instead.

Looking back, it “was [a good decision] in retrospect but at the time was a big change for the cover,” Dewey said.

Surrounding Anderson on the cover are a myriad of images that relate back to the record’s lyrics. As Dewey and Cory were initially working on the artwork, they would listen to the album, digging into the music for imagery to pull out. Dewey would then look through old and rare books and magazines for material to use, scanning them into his computer and compiling the piece together digitally.

Some of the images they used were overt: the car, the suffer, the “Cali-beach feel”; but many of the things they pulled out were hidden deep within the art, ready to be discovered by those willing to hunt for them.

Anderson .Paak - The Season (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“The picture of Anderson in the top hat is really surreal and absurd in a way, so we added all these other elements that go with it, but also are kind of popping out: the ship and the whale and everything happening at once is just this epic scene that would never really happen but it’s this alternate universe. That’s what’s so great about collage is that you can make this semi-believable thing happen, this magical moment.” 

“A lot of thought went into the imagery. So everything was very specifically placed and there for a reason,” Dewey said. “And a lot of little elements that are there for the people that are really looking, especially if you get the printed versions of the record -- a lot of little, hidden little elements.”

To match the cover art, Dewey and Cory then worked on the record’s gatefold, which they would also use for a poster that accompanied some of the physical releases.

Anderson .Paak - Malibu gatefold (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“That’s a scene with Anderson underwater on the piano again with all the naked girls surrounding him and there’s all the divers and fish swimming around -- so it’s a pretty complex scenario,” Dewey said. “So the whole concept was very beach-y and then going into the underwater, very psychadelic as well and just having the collage elements made this a very surreal atmosphere.”

Key to art was Dewey and Cory’s ability to capture Anderson’s aesthetic and create visuals that felt authentic to his unique musical voice.

“It was an interesting process because I wasn’t really used to working with such close art direction and we were just able to spitball and brainstorm and create really specific feels of imagery that [feels] cohesive with the music… [We made] this psychedelic landscape that was for Anderson that was kinda a unique aesthetic that [matched] his,” Dewey said. 

“I think that’s a thing that I kinda pushed [for, and] that Cory kind of pushed me to do, to really create this perspective and depth through so many layers and so many different things happening. ... it elevated my collage game, I would say.”

ART BLANCHE: Ryan Duggan

A degree in advertising and copywriting as well as a career in design has led Ryan Duggan to this common scene: Ryan, seated in his booth at any of the usual art fairs, is ready to sell some prints when a potential customer walks in. The customer comes over to Ryan, introduces himself, and exclaims, “You’re the sh*tting dog guy!”

 It’s a legacy -- Ryan will freely admit -- that’s his own doing.

“Last year I was doing a series that was all these picturesque outdoor scenes, but somewhere in the image there’s a dog taking a sh*t,” Ryan explained, laughing. “…So that’s a bed I’ve made for myself.”

(Courtesy of OMG Posters)

The idea behind the project, he explained, was to “[make] this beautiful image and then [ruin] it.” He ended up making 12 of the images, one for each month that year.

“[Now,] if you google ‘Ryan Duggan sh*tting dogs’ something will come up,” he added, laughing again.

This unconventional series perfectly captures Ryan’s humorous approach to his work; a mindset that holds true for the majority of his catalog, including his personal projects (like the defecating dog designs) as well as most commissioned assignments.

Aside from his infamous poopy pooch pictures, Ryan has built a successful career creating screen-printed concert posters for a variety of local and national acts.

His foray into screen-printing started in high school, where he learned how to print onto t-shirts. While this interest fell off during college, Ryan revisited screen-printing after graduating “because a bunch of [his] friends were in bands and [he] was in bands, [and his] friends started approaching [him] to draw posters for shows and [he] started doing that.”

“They were using other people to print them and I thought that, ‘Oh I used to know how to do this, I could probably figure it out again.’ And then I got back into screen printing at that point,” he said.

(Courtesy of Ryan Duggan)

For about six years after college, Ryan worked full-time at a design firm that specialized in publication design. During the night and on weekends, he used his free time to continue doing his freelance poster work. Roughly three and a half years ago, he decided to quit his job to go freelance full-time.

For Ryan, one of the most exciting parts of concert posters is the creative freedom they provide. Most clients, he explained, know what sort of image they’re getting when they approach Ryan for a poster, which means there are less restrictions on what they want from him. Simply put, concert posters let Ryan get a little “weird” with his work.

That said, he prefers to keep his posters aesthetically simple, preferring to let the wit of the image be the focus of attention.

“There’s a lot of poster artists…[who are] these incredible illustrators that just spend hours and hours and hours and hours on a drawing and that’s never been my approach. I always come up with an idea first,” he said. “I can draw, I can illustrate, but I don’t spend those 20 hours at a desk [to] make an some unbelievable illustration, I’d rather have something that communicates a humorous little message and then have the image be simple.”

“I tend to pare down my images… three colors or four colors at most, whereas a lot of other guys do like 10 colors on a poster. It’s rare that I do that especially in concert posters. [Whereas] I’ve been making art prints more in the last 4 years so I’ve gotten a little more fancy with some of that stuff. In general, I like to have a stripped down appearance and have it be funny.”

(Courtesy of Ryan Duggan)

Additionally, Ryan prefers to avoid using digital technology as much as possible when working – a notable feat in this day and age.

“Pretty much everything is screen printed unless it’s something where I’m just providing a digital file, but in general though my whole aesthetic is all hand drawn, so pretty much everything starts out the old fashioned way,” he said. “If it’s going to be a concert poster, I usually don’t use the computer at all because I make my own films by hand. It was something that was a necessity at first because I didn’t have access to a printer that I could print films on -- so it started off as a necessity and then over time sort’ve became my style. I still do a lot of this stuff by hand with regard to the screen-printing process. Most all of it is printed by hand as well.”

“Whenever I can I like to do the whole thing by hand -- you have to see it in your head as you’re working along because I’m pretty much only working in black because I’ll make each film in black and then I have to in my head think about what it will look like when it’s done.”

(Courtesy of Ryan Duggan)

Recently, Ryan has been interested in studying vintage gag gifts for inspiration. Their appeal to his humorous side is clear, but he’s also found a deep, visual intrigue in them as well.

“Honestly, these days my inspiration is old product design and old advertising and stuff like that. I spend a lot of time on eBay just looking at old novelty gifts, old gag gifts, that kind of sh*t. Like all the old Franco-American hilarious stupid dirty joke things -- the packaging is always amazing; it’s always hilarious and really nicely illustrated. I tend to look at a lot of stuff like that from the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s and I keep little inspiration folders on my computer of all of these funny little images.”

Looking back through his career, Ryan can point out different phases that he’s gone through with his art. For a few years, it was a lot of  “animals doing something they wouldn’t normally be doing,” followed by a period of very typography-heavy designs. For a while, he only used primary colors. Even though he’s branched out with his color palette, there’s still a certain shade of red that his wife (who is also a screen printer) is constantly pointing out that he uses. 

No matter the era, though, Ryan explained, “the one thing that carries across all my stuff is humor.”

Crapping canines included.

ART BLANCHE: The Women’s March on Washington 

Yesterday, millions around the globe marched in solidarity for women’s rights. Following the flagship march in DC, 9:30 Club hosted an after party with 100% of proceeds benefitting Planned Parenthood. Earlier this week, we caught up with the artist whose iconic imagery came to symbolize the march and the movement.

For many, the Women’s March on Washington represents strength and unity in a time marred by uncertainty and fear. It provides amplification for the voices of countless people who feel that their values have been shouted over for the past year or more.

Per its own mission, the march aims to “send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.”

For one participant -- Nicole LaRue -- the opportunity to design a logo for the Women’s March provided a head-start on participating in this platform, even if her involvement started as just a small favor for a friend.

Courtesy of Big Monocle

“[Initially,] the Women’s March organizers kind of had their branding all over the place -- just all over the map. When I first learned about the Women’s March it was you know some crazy, neon-y... I don’t know what their branding was,” Nicole explained. “But some woman from Intel -- a gay woman named Teresa Herd -- she thought, I’d really like to get involved with the March and do something about making super visually impactful, so she called on several design agencies.”

One of the agencies that Teresa reached out was Big Monocle, whose founder and CEO, Amy Stellhorn, was Nicole’s friend. Amy, in turn, asked Nicole if she was interested in helping with Big Monocle’s pitch for the March.

For Nicole, her role was “an overnight process, seriously.” When Amy first reached out to her on Facebook, asking if she’d be up for helping out with some branding, Amy also gave Nicole a strict deadline: “We need it today.”

“I was like, ‘Today? You’re messaging me at 11am, what does that mean, today?’” Nicole remembered, laughing. “So by the end of the day I stayed up a little bit late [working on it], but not terribly late because in my mind I was just sort of helping out and it wasn’t going to be any big deal.”

She was a little wrong there; it became kind of a big deal.

Nicole’s design was one of several variations that Amy and Big Monocle submitted, but ended up being the one chosen by the organizers. The logo as we all know it remains pretty close to Nicole’s initial submission, with only a few simple changes.

Courtesy of Nicole LaRue

“We played with a few color options... one of the silhouettes was a bit more pink so we kind of kneaded it a bit. And the ‘W’ in ‘Women’s March’ we changed, it [originally] had a cross in the middle. We changed it -- just a tiny little thing. That’s pretty much [it].”

“From there we just made a whole mess of products and posters and banners and social. Media icons and things like that. And then I got to design some extra merchandise… the ‘Wild Feminist’ tshirts and ‘Girl Almighty’ posters and they’re going to have bags and buttons and stickers and things like that. 

One of the most pleasant surprises for Nicole, and something she calls “surreal,” has been the growth that the march has taken on since she became involved.

“I think it took a bit of doing for it to gain traction, and I actually honestly think that getting the branding out there was [helpful.] It just created some crazy movement that I don’t know that anybody really expected -- you just don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “[And then] suddenly Amy Schumer posts the logo on her Instagram and just crazy things, and you think, ‘Ok this is going to be real now… it’s gaining some traction.’”

“I’ve never done something that’s been so visually big. I mean I’ve done some awesome projects and had some really rad clients. But this just seems -- I dunno it’s kinda twofold, right? It’s like yeah Amy Schumer, and actually Saturday Night Live totally joked about the logo on Saturday Night Live, saying like, ‘Of course the white woman’s in front’ and then kinda like ‘Oh I’m sure we’re going to get some flak for that.’ But for me that’s awesome press, I couldn’t care less if they’re joking about it.”

Courtesy of Nicole LaRue

Looking back, Nicole wonders how different her work would have been had she realized how big the march would become. One day is not a lot of time for a project in the world of graphic design, and in hindsight, maybe being so rushed and somewhat nonchalant about her initial design worked to her advantage.

“Maybe it works out better that way, I dunno. In hindsight you can say that you didn’t have a chance to just overthink it. And it’s just a fairly simple, iconic logo. It could’ve been a really stressful and difficult process and for me it was just sort of like, ‘Ok here’s what I’ve got, this is all I can offer’ and that’s great.”

Despite not being from the DC area, Nicole is in town for the march and is staying with a friend she hasn’t seen in years who offered up a place to crash.

“A lot of people are being awesome like that, lending their space.”

Still marveling at the whole experience, she seems hopeful about the march and the voice it can provide.

“I’ve never been any kind of patriot to America, I’ve never felt any sense of ‘This is my country’ and yet this, for me, is a bit of a turning point,” Nicole explained. “I just think that right now we need a bigger voice than ever -- a much bigger voice than ever. And to be a little part of that, it’s kind of exciting. I’ve never had the chance to be a part of something so big.” 

“Since I don’t have this crazy ability with words, graphics is what I got, and I think that’s nice... nice right now.”

16 IN ‘16: Dylan’s Picks

Reflecting on the year with the 16 songs - new or old - that soundtracked our respective 2016s.

2016 was certainly an interesting year, and by “interesting” I mean “I would like to have used a different word, but this is a family-friendly blog so use your imagination.” That said, 2016 did have its ups, and it did have its downs. If your year was like mine, then somehow those ups and downs often seemed to come hand-in-hand.

For instance, I am a big Radiohead fan and had never seen them in concert before. Earlier this year, I was finally (FINALLY!!!) able to see Radiohead live, up in NYC. It was an amazing show that lived up to all expectations, but also happened put me at risk for having my identity stolen. Classic 2016.

Anyways, here are 16 songs that helped keep me sane during the many, many “classic 2016” moments that this year brought.

ART BLANCHE: Live at 9:30 Show Poster - Episode 6

Inspired by the creative freedom she was given with the assignment, Cassidy Kapson wanted to make sure she got the most out of the poster she designed for Live at 9:30’s sixth episode.

“I really enjoy drawing women and psychedelic landscapes, so I drew up a few sketches with those themes. This was a good opportunity to make something that I was really into without much outside input,” she said. “This is one of those cases -- which is really nice in my experience -- where I was kind of left to do whatever I wanted with the poster… I felt very free and uninhibited.”

Courtesy of Cassidy Kapson

As free and uninhibited as the assignment was, it did come with a few rules here and there. Most important was the list of bands that were to be featured in the episode, and therefore on the poster.

“I was sent a list of bands that were going to be playing for my episode, but I was also told not to make the design specific to one of the bands or artists. And then there were other, obvious rules like [that] it has to be relatively appropriate for a wide audience. But that was pretty much it… other than that I just had total creative freedom.”

Cassidy first became involved with the project in early 2016 as a senior at Columbia College Chicago (she’s since graduated). Because the show hadn’t yet been publicly announced, she knew very little about what she was getting herself into when she first entered the contest.

“I had a professor who saw [the contest announcement] and thought of me immediately because it was exactly what I do,” she explained. “But there weren't really a lot of details at that point. I didn't really know exactly what it was for, I just knew it was going to be music-related and for a TV show. So I applied and got a response that I was accepted which was really exciting. I slowly got more details over time. Once I found out what it was for real, that was really cool and very exciting.”

As she was given more and more information about the show and the episode, Cassidy began to put together ideas for the poster. She feels the final image is “a little darker and more mysterious,” a decision that was at least loosely inspired by one of the episode’s bands.

“I sent like 3 sketches and then I got a response letting me know which one they wanted to go with. And that was pretty much it,” she said. “Once the sketch was approved I just went in and did the whole thing. And even though it wasn't based off any of the bands, from the beginning I knew I had Deerhunter on the episode and I knew of them and had seen Bradford Cox at Pitchfork but I think it was his other band Atlas Sound. So I knew of him.”

Courtesy of Cassidy Kapson

“I kind of saw [the woman in the drawing] as almost a goddess of sorts -- like very high elevated,” Cassidy explained. “And you've got this like ancient roman-looking column and these very interesting trees that don't match up with anything that you see in real life. So I wanted it to be very mystical and ethereal.”

As she is wont to do, Cassidy used a mixture of analog and digital techniques to put together the poster, favoring both the tangible feeling of ink and the convenience of a computer for her process.

“For 95% of my posters now I do a pen and ink drawing and scan it into Photoshop and from there I'm able to color it digitally and I can change the color of the lines and everything like that. But I really like the look of pen and ink. I used to make posters completely digital and I just feel like there's something that you can't really get on the computer with your line-work that you can get if you do it traditionally and scan it in. But I also like the flexibility with the color of doing it digitally.”

Courtesy of Cassidy Kapson

As far as changes go, Cassidy was only asked to make a couple here and there. Of those, most had to do simply with changes in the episode’s lineup.

“There were a couple tweaks -- they asked if I could make the text colorful and lighten the background a little bit. So those were pretty easy fixes to make. That was it so I sent it off. And then a couple months later, I think, I had a change in the bands for my episode, so I just edited them and sent it, and that was it. It was an easy process on my end.”

ART BLANCHE: In Close Contact

Not one to let a good opportunity slip by, photographer Jacob Blickenstaff envisioned In Close Contact as a way to interact with musicians that he admired by interviewing and photographing them. Billed as an “independent documentary project on music, musicians, and creativity,” the series will turn three this January, and has featured the likes of Yo La Tengo, Puss n Boots, and, most recently, Rufus Wainwright, in that time.

“I think the main motivation at the time of when I started it was just that I wanted to be doing one-on-one portraits more regularly and I was just like, 'How do I get the access to do that? What's the reason for doing this?'” Jacob said.

“So I had a relationship with Mother Jones and just sent them an email and said, 'Hey, would you be into a series where I did a portrait and did a quick interview with somebody?' And they said, 'Sure!' cause I wasn't getting paid for it and they need some arts and culture content,” he added, laughing.

Buffy Sainte-Marie for In Close Contact (Courtesy of Jacob Blickenstaff)

A noted self-starter, this level of drive wasn’t out of character for Jacob at all, having previously developed a close relationship with Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and their label Daptone, all through his own resolve.

To set In Close Contact, Jacob culled through press releases as well as reached out to some of his contacts to start coordinating interviews. Even with the series still in its fledgling state, he was more than happy with the guests that he was getting.

“It was a challenge I gave myself and then it started to take on a little momentum… kind of quickly, even within the first 4-5 profiles, somebody offered to let me talk with Benmont Tench who is a great session musician and also a member of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers since the beginning,” Jacob said. “I was kind of like 'Whoa, I can actually get face time with some of these people that are really fascinating' so I just kept doing them.”

Benmont Tench III for In Close Contact (Courtesy of Jacob Blickenstaff)

“The interviews became longer because I do like talking with these people -- you know the whole project is just about interaction.”

Even as Jacob found himself talking to his interviewees for longer, most sessions clocked in at total of 90 minutes for both the interview and the portrait session, meaning that Jacob had to get things rolling quickly, and to work as efficiently as possible.

On top of that, he decided to use an older Hassleblad film camera for the series – it would give the whole project a stylized and cohesive look, while adding another fun wrinkle into the whole adventure.

“I mean I think a part of the original challenge was to shoot it on film and using the Hassleblad camera that I had… because you have the limit of 12 frames before you have to change your roll. So most of these [sessions] I was only shooting two rolls or something,” Jacob said. “So it was part of the process to come to a decision quickly about how to you want to photograph somebody and work within these limits.”

Declan O’Rourke for In Close Contact (Courtesy of Jacob Blickenstaff)

Despite the challenges of choosing an analog camera, Jacob found that using his Hassleblad actually brought some of its own unique benefits to the shoot that a different setup would miss.

“I really do like using that camera and I've found that whether it's an older artist or a younger artist, they're kind of curious [about it] or they remember them from back in the day when more people used them, so it helped in establish a connection,” he said. “The problem with digital for most people, including myself, is that you spend a lot of time looking at the back and making little adjustments and then you lose a connection with the subject which is ultimately much worse than a minor technical detail.”

Rufus Wainwright for In Close Contact (Courtesy of Jacob Blickenstaff)

That said, things didn’t always go off without a hitch.

“But you're definitely going to make a few mistakes. I think there's some great photos of Jackson Browne that don't exist because I didn't have film loaded in the film back for the Hassleblad,” he said, laughing.

“But I've never had any real disasters. And each time, you know, you pick up the roll of film and like, 'Ahh there it is, and it's in focus and it's what I imagined it to be.' …It gives you some faith in the materials and the process.”