I can ready this rodeo clown’s thoughts – he’s thinking “Oh #$%&”

This is the production “Women Behind Bars” by my friends at the Nightingale Theater. All I needed was one good shot for the Tulsa World. Set up the lights, within minutes I’m done.

I had the chance to shoot some promotional portraits of Jonathan Fowler of Fowler Volkswagen. He has this sweet VW bus, well I think he actually sold it recently

This is Master Gardener Barry Fugatt of the Linnaeus Teaching Gardens. Hard to make a bad picture in this lush environment.

This shot of Johnny Polygon was in the previous post, but I thought I should show the layout.

These dear ladies were WWII WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots), photographed at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum.

The following shots were featured in Oklahoma Magazine’s Best of the Best issue. This is my beautiful daughter Lillian. My hot wife’s legs can also be seen in the issue.

I’m not what it means, but I like it.

Thanks to expert food stylist (and Graphics Manager at OK Mag) Mark Allen, this shot really came together. Carrots were levitated.

I was thrilled to be able to shoot Tommy Allsup, a legend in the genre of Western swing. Interesting fact – Tommy was supposed to be on the flight with Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper that famously crashed. Waylon Jennings traded spots with Big Bopper, ‘Allsup told Valens, I’ll flip you for the remaining seat. On the toss of a coin, Valens won the seat and Allsup the rest of his life.’

Kind of a funny story about the shoot – Tommy accidentally ran over the guitar he brought. He left it behind his truck when he decided to move it in the parking lot. We were close to his place, so he ran home to get another one. Luckily the damaged guitar wasn’t one of historical importance.

My friends Erin Turner and Carolyn Deuschle were inspired to create an outdoor sculpture addressing the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. ‘The sculpture evokes an ancient symbol, Orusborus, in which a creature infinitely consumes itself.’ Read more about it here.

I again had the opportunity to photograph the furniture of my friend Eric Fransen of Ebb n Flow Woodworks. Eric’s a true artist.

The accompanying article was also about Oklahoma’s First Lady Kim Henry. So I went back for another shoot, this time at the Governor’s mansion. Brad and Kim were happy to show their affection in front of the camera. I could tell they were still truly in love, and probably looking forward to the future without the burdens of Oklahoma on their shoulders.

I always want to do something different, but as with most photographers, they stuck me in the usual spot, but I did talk the couple into a few outdoor shots on a very humid summer afternoon.

It’s a special place with one foot in the past, one in the present. Businesses that cater to cowboys still hang on in a small section of Oklahoma City known as Stockyards City. Custom hatteries, tack shops, boots and western wear stores, the famous Cattlemen’s Restaurant. The whole place smells of cow pies, leather, diesel fumes, and grilled steaks. It was a project I was excited to work on – my Grandpa was a part-time rancher and so is his son, my uncle Robert. I grew up around the culture, the sights and smells, the kind folks. Cow crap even smells nice to me. This project was a chance to connect with my Grandpa, now long gone, and remember those times, those ways.

It’s premature to show you these photos, as this a book project that is currently in the works. Many of these shots will likely not be used. But I tend to sit on shots far too long… so anyhow, enjoy the preview.

These are shots of UFC fighter Gerald Harris. Like many fighters, he’s a totally calm, nice guy in real life, but becomes a ferocious warrior when he enters the ring.

Below is Trey Houston

This is Levi Avera.

I have a lot of shots in this month’s edition of Oklahoma Magazine http://www.okmag.com/, including the cover and features on the Philbrook Museam of Art, and the characters associated with the new ONEOK Field.

Below is Tulsa Drillers owner Chuck Lamson. Of course it HAD to rain on the days I shot.

Above is Bob Jack of Manhattan Construction, below is sports historian Wayne McCombs.

Below are shots from the feature on Philbrook’s new face. Board president Bill Lobeck is below.

Above is baby Lark.

Above, Ben and Noelle Kilgore – who own Shoe Gypsy in Tulsa, OK for the Urban Tulsa. Below is sports chiropractor Michael Van Antwerp, a great guy and a healer who can apparently make kinesio tape levitate.

Above: Tina Fey performed at the Tulsa Convention Center. No further comment.

This is an old friend Chris, a marketing manager for the Cherokee Nation, who wanted to do some cool headshots.

Stay tuned, more posts are coming soon…

While the original mock-up was sinister, I wanted to create a literal interpretation of the expression “You are what you eat” with a bright palette, beauty lighting and emphasis on makeup and costume. What you see here, aside from some minor retouching, was all shot in-camera. I knew I wasn’t able to pull it off alone. I needed the right team. So I called up my old friend George Miller who has experience with costume makeup for movies and music videos. He brought in a wonderful makeup artist Re-Becca Carleton to help us put it together. We had originally intended to have one of the people cited in the article as a model, but it proved difficult to convince them to be plastered with green makeup and spirit-gummed-up with vegetables. So, my assistant, the photogenic Mia Babcock helped us out. It turned out to be a great decision.

These are behind the scenes shots from the shoot. We attached leafy romaine to a foam cap with hot glue. I carefully sculpted the lips and eyebrows from bell peppers. Mushrooms for ears. A necklace of radishes and baby carrots. “Veggie Woman” came to life before our eyes.

The lighting was very straightforward – beauty dish above camera with two rim lights. After 3 + hours in makeup and costume design, the shoot itself took less than 10 minutes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jeremy Charles focused on the characters of the farm, such as Juan whose family has worked with the Lopez family for generations, the funny ‘El Vaquero’ who’s nickname came from his stylish cowboy hat.

The exhibit opens on Monday April 5th, from 5:30pm – 8:30pm at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Gallery (PAC Gallery), and will hang from March 25 – April 27, 2010.

Light hors d’oeuvres, wine, and of course Topeca Coffee will be served.

More about the Exhibit

I got to know John ‘Chip’ Gaberino III and Margarita Lopez Gaberino by way of my former job, a place where we drank a heck of a lot of Topeca coffee. I was familiar with the rich history of the company, a family-owned and operated coffee business dating back to the 1850s. So when they invited me to visit Las Fincas Ayutepeque and Manzano in El Salvador, I was naturally ecstatic.

Once I settled into the farm and saw firsthand the intricacies of coffee agriculture, I felt a tinge of shame knowing I had too often taken for granted  this substance I consumed daily. The complexities of coffee cultivation were substantial, the process arduous, but I got a sense of something larger happening. After witnessing the driving passion Emilio Lopez had for his family’s legacy, for his farm, for his dedication to growing excellent coffee…it was then that I truly recognized it as Art.

Topeca isn’t just another coffee farm. They practice a “Seed-to-Cup” approach, a term they coined to describe their business model. Topeca coffee starts as a seed, grows in rich volcanic soil, is processed, roasted, and packaged for sale all in the same spot in the valley of the Santa Ana volcano. The same hands that planted the seed are involved throughout the entire process. Those were the hands that interested me.

And so, I decided to focus on the characters of the farm – the people whose lives where intertwined with the very coffee I drank every day. I wanted simply an honest, straightforward look at the folks who make it all happen. And they were good folks, gracious and graceful, always at ease, without pretension. Many of them have worked for Topeca for decades, and their families before them. When they looked into the camera, it was a real moment. And that’s all it needed to be.

About Jeremy Charles

As a photographer, I am fascinated with people, especially those with strong personas. Portraiture is a way to describe my subjects – to create an interpretation of their personalities. Although I’m perhaps best known for my work with artists, especially musicians, I do a wide variety of commercial and fine art photography. I love the split second decision-making of journalism and concert photography, as well as  the meditative process of photographing architecture. But I’m at my best when photographing conceptual editorial portraiture.

The above and following shots are projects shot for the architectural design firm CR Forma. They do amazing work.

Above left is a home renovation designed by CR Forma. On the right, and following two shots are the restaurant Yokozuna

Below is the office space of Creative State.

I got the chance to shoot a promo shots for Garage Media’s Halloween-night-only performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Below left is a version of the cover shot for the Urban Tulsa Weekly , and below right appeared in advertising for the show.

My friends at Route 66 Marathon needed to show off their unique medals – probably the coolest medals I’ve seen for a race. I utilized a layer of fresh pavement in front of the studio to bring context to the shot.

Below is a customized Air Stream trailer that belongs to my friend Micky. He needed shots of his construction and design projects, from restaurants and homes t0 this sweet sweet metal egg. I’d love to take this baby for a roadtrip. We pulled the trailer up to Chandler Park just in the nick of time as while the last of the sunset dissipated.

One of my last few assignments for Oklahoma Magazine involved profiling craftsmen still practicing “Dying Trades”. Below we have a ferrier, or a horseshoer, a chimney sweep, and my favorite seamstress Miss Anne.

Over the past year, I’ve found I shoot less personal work than I used to, which is regrettable. Here is a shot of an uncovered highway overpass at sunset. Nearly all of the overpasses in Tulsa have looked like this lately. It’s kind of surreal to see them, posed like dinosaur skeletons surrounding the city. We won’t see something like this for another 30 or 40 years. I should be covering it better.

This is artist Daryl Gilbert shot for Oklahoma Magazine.