06/19/2018
Winged Women in Tartarus Magazine
Just published in the June issue of Tartarus Magazine is my Winged Women series of images. I’m not sure why they titled it Harpy, however grateful that this series is getting some exposure.
From their website,”In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld. In ancient Orphic sources and in the mystery schools, Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the cosmos are born. Tartarus is a primordial force, a deity, a place for the wicked. The place for those who are misunderstood and are far too progressive to fit. The magazine has a commitment to be a platform to profile and publish talent who are representing artistic vision in the marketplace and who can both encourage and provide role models to other men and women. Tartarus, through its magazine and editorial content, will be a vessel for talent that is all about the artistic principles, the high end, haute couture fashion story books and editorials.”
See more images below or go to Tartarus Magazine‘s site to see the entire beautiful magazine for free.
Read More
04/27/2017
Visionary Alchemy Exhibit in Tribeca
This Saturday April 29, 2017 The Guardian will be shown in the Visionary Alchemy Group Exhibit in Tribeca. The show is sponsored by the Society for Art of Imagination and is opening Saturday April 29 from 6 to 9pm at One Art Space, 23 Warren St., New York, NY 10007. It will be a great show of mostly paintings, The Guardian may be the only photographic work present. There will be work from H.R. Giger and Alex Grey on view as well as wonderful works from a huge collection of international artists all working in the realm of the imagination. The following quoted from the Society for Art of Imagination’s website:
This art may be called by many names – Fantastic Realism, Surrealism, Magic Realism, Visionary Art, Cosmic Art and Inspirational Art, however the work is neither purely abstract nor rigidly realistic. Members of the Society work independently of one another in various countries yet their work shows a consistent ethos.
Read More
01/04/2017
Wired Magazine Documentary on Red Bull TV
Red Bull TV just released a short documentary about the improbable creation of Wired Magazine by four unlikely individuals, Louis Rossetto, Jane Metcalfe, John Plunkett and Barbara Kuhr. As Red Bull TV states, “A group of prophetic technophiles fuse art, design, and technology to become the mouthpiece of the digital revolution. Wired Magazine rides the bleeding edge of new age media and transforms scientists and nerds into the new rockstars.” I was a frequent contributor to Wired in those early years and was thrilled that they included me in the documentary for a few seconds and also featured some of our best collaborations. See it here. I appear at 1:23 and 11:00. The mini-doc is from a Red Bull series called, The Ripple Effect, which takes its title from the following definition, “Like a proverbial pebble dropped in a pond, some individuals have an influence so profound it ripples across oceans and through time”.
Read More
09/10/2016
James Porto-CNN interview about Burning Man
Through a random series of events, namely, commenting on a post on White Ocean’s facebook page which detailed the vandalism they suffered while at Burning Man this year, CNN International reached out to request an interview. They read that I was a veteran burner and apparently that was the only qualification they needed. I agreed and appeared on Richard Quest’s show, Quest Means Business. You can view the short clip here and it includes some of my Burning Man images; it was a blast to be on live TV.
The issue was that White Ocean camp, who gift a massive sound system and incredible lineup of DJ’s had their camp vandalized at this year’s Burning Man. My position is that this type of behavior goes against all the Ten Principles around which the entire event is organized and has no place in magical Black Rock City. Many burners complain that White Ocean is aloof and exclusive however that is a completely separate issue and they do not deserve to have their camp vandalized on account of these complaints.
Read More
12/03/2015
Showtime-Jacobs vs. Quillin Poster
What a thrilling assignment from Showtime! The challenge was to create a photorealistic composite of Daniel Jacobs and Peter Quillin portrayed as giants battling high above downtown Brooklyn. Billed as the Battle for Brooklyn, these two warriors are poised for a legendary face-off to settle the score once and for all. Capturing the background was accomplished with a helicopter charter at sunset over the East River and the contenders were photographed in a makeshift studio in the Times Square Millennium Hotel. I am deeply grateful to Showtime and creative director Ethan Callender for calling me in for this exciting and satisfying project.
Read More
09/21/2015
New York Magazine-The Age of Iron
If you live in NYC you must have noticed the seemingly hundreds of skyscraper projects rising in every neighborhood. This photorealistic composite that exaggerates this trend features many of the current projects and is running this week in New York Magazine (Sept. 21, 2015 cover date, page 107-8) leading the real estate feature. Check it out, I had a lot of fun creating the Unreal perspective
Read More
03/17/2015
At-Edge interview-Is it REAL or is it Porto?
At-Edge, the monumental photo industry sourcebook that features only 155 select photographers in their illustrious collection of global photographic talent, has honored me with a blog interview. It features the latest major project I was involved with, The Real Cost, a nationwide anti-smoking campaign awarded by FCB NY ad agency and their client the Food and Drug Administration. It also delves into several other projects that I’ve been involved with lately (Powder, Overload, and Rockettes); this is some serious eye candy folks, don’t miss it, feel free to check it out here, and of course share if you are inspired.
Read More
01/13/2015
Anti-Smoking Monster Campaign
When Jackie Anzaldi and Mike Lubrano from FCB/Garfinkel NYC called us for FDA’s Nationwide Anti-Smoking Campaign it instantly seemed a strong possibility for a great project. I am thrilled to share the final results of our collaboration; The Real Cost Campaign is running in most major markets across the country as large posters in Bus Shelters and in Subways. It is designed to dissuade young people from starting cigarette smoking and to remind others how toxic and dangerous nicotine addiction is. The Monsters were created by the most amazing effects company I’ve ever worked with, Legacy Effects.
Read More
10/17/2014
Blacklight and Centaur at Photoplace Gallery
I will be exhibiting two prints in the Dreams, Fantasies and Illusions Show at Photoplace Gallery in Middlebury, Vt. They chose one of my images for the banner. The jurors for this exhibition are the amazing photographic team of Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick. After years of concentrating on work that is published in books and magazines I’m making a greater effort to exhibit my personal work in galleries. If you’re nearby, stop in and check out all the work.
Read More
01/13/2014
History of Photo Compositing 1983 edition
Back in 1983 before the invention of Photoshop it wasn’t quite as easy for a photographer to illustrate his dreams and visions as it is today. The process of making the image shown here involved shooting the elements to scale on 4×5 film, mounting each element in position on a sheet of 11×14 exposed, processed Kodalith film (essentially a piece of solid black film) that was punched with pin registration holes, making photographic masks of the city, cutting a frisket by hand and opaquing all the city detail but leaving the edge photographic, and then once all that was prepared, exposing the elements in sequence followed by their masks on Ektachrome 6121 Dupe film, balancing the exposure and color balance of each element. It’s actually much harder than briefly described here because getting perfect masks and perfect image registration was an art in itself. The reward was making an image that stood out for its uniqueness in its time.
Read More