02/19/2013
What a wonderful and challenging assignment to combine a global array of landmarks into my beloved NYC, right at Washington Square Park. The image illustrates their cover story about how NYU is creating campuses all over the world but is getting a backlash from the students who are footing the bill.
12/01/2012
Don’t miss the epic showdown tonight at 9pm, Dec. 1, 2012, between Miguel Cotto and Austin Trout on Showtime! I met both of these gentlemen to do their portrait and tonight they will meet in the ring in Madison Square Garden. Anything can happen so don’t you dare miss it! I turned the corner at 33rd St. and 10th Ave. and happened upon this billboard. I have to say, even after 27 years of shooting, I still get a thrill seeing my pictures reproduced this massively.
11/14/2012
Back in 1996 I was commissioned by Daniel Carter at Wired Magazine to illustrate a Science Fiction story that takes place 100 years in the future after sea levels rose from Climate Change and flooded New York City. At the time we decided on this playful image with a Jet Ski messenger blasting up the rivers of water between the skyscrapers. The last thing I expected was to see this occur in my lifetime, let alone a mere 16 years later. The photos in the gallery below show the reality that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York, eerily similar to our fantastical sci-fi illustration.
09/05/2012
After much dedication and hard work, I am proud to announce the publication of Photoshop Masking & Compositing 2nd edition, which I authored with Katrin Eismann and Sean Duggan. This is a comprehensive guide to professional compositing in Photoshop and it’s a must have if you are interested in seamlessly combining images. The sections which I authored detail strategies and techniques for photography for compositing as well as a chapter on advanced Photorealistic compositing. It was a privilege to collaborate with Katrin and Sean on this venture; their combined experience in writing and teaching served to push me to more clearly articulate the techniques I’ve been exploring for many years. The book is available in bookstores and on Amazon.com.
07/31/2012
This image resulted from a collaboration with Hannah Thiem and Lily Blue. Hannah is a musician, photographer, and flame-haired beauty and she’s seen here wearing Lily Blue Designs. Lily Blue creates unique clothing that accentuate a woman’s feminine spirit as well as her form. The make up was done by Kayla Jo. The image was not made for any assignment but will be appearing in the upcoming book which I co-authored with Katrin Eismann and Sean Duggan, Photoshop Masking and Compositing. It will be released at the end of August and will encompass virtually every aspect of professionally combining images with Photoshop.
06/21/2012
San Francisco Towers is a luxurious senior living community located right in the middle of San Francisco. I was commissioned by Tim Paschke and Jeremiah Wright of Resin Global to execute their vision of an image that combined several of San Francisco’s iconic landmarks into a single image. What a great assignment it was to photograph my second favorite city in the USA and then solve the puzzle of this composite. It was both fun and challenging.
02/02/2012
This image, Subway Love, was made as a portfolio piece. Adobe Systems is featuring the image at Photoshop.com as the 4th image in the slideshow through February. I guess they thought it would align well with Valentine’s Day. I am honored and grateful that they chose my work because their software has been central to my image making for 20 years. I’m still amazed at what this incredible program can do with images; it helps turn my dreams into realities.
01/09/2012
The Silence cover and the entire Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush Hush series, for which I created all the covers, in collaboration with Lucy Cummins and Simon and Schuster, has won the 2011 Paranormal Cover Art Awards in 3 categories. Yee hah, cue the trombones and ice the champagne! To see all the winners and runners up, click here.
01/04/2012
You may have noticed posters and ads for Showtime’s new season of Californication. I was thrilled to collaborate with Michael Hathaway, the creative director at Showtime on photographing and composing the key art for this hit series. For more info on the show, go to the Showtime website.
11/17/2011
There is a brand new site update at jamesporto.com. You’ll find new, classic photography in REAL and fantastical, surreal, hyper-real photo illustrations in UNREAL. You are invited to take a look and enjoy all the new work. Thank you for your time and attention.