We live in the age of high resolution. Millions upon millions of pixels are being captured in micro-seconds. What started with the megapixel race, has continued into the quest for ultimate Dynamic Range (the capability of a camera to capture detail in both highlight and shadow). The original digital enthusiasts flocked to cameras that offered more megapixels, and when that importance waned, Sony and digital Medium format offered 16-bit RAW. All the while, film photographers continued to tout analog as being the ultimate resolver of detail.

The argument still holds. While many believe that digital has finally surpassed film, true old-school players know that an 8x10 film scanned in a drum scan provide something in the realm of -over- 1,000 megapixels - 15x more resolution than any digital camera to date.

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Now that you understand the backstory, I’d like to bring up the more important question: what do we DO with all this digital real-estate - all of this space, which ultimately (in many circumunstaces) will be viewed on a screen, tablet, or the couple square inches of Instagram’s virtuosic platform?

The truth is, few make prints anymore - and the photographers who do print work rarely have their work seen primarily in that medium.

Printing offers the ability to take an image and blow it up to a size where one can really see the details.

On platforms like instagram, or facebook where you can’t zoom - the photographer is left with a debilitating choice: do you alter the composition by cropping in order to reveal the details, or do you leave the image as is, where one can view the entire picture but none of it’s magical minutia. 

Take a moment and look at the image below, and then look at it’s crop. Were the image to be printed, one could simply step closer and look at the small details (for instance the lettering on the man’s jacket, or the individual snowflakes) and then step backwards to take in the picture as a whole.

It is a necessity that has become far less relevant to the art of photography. It is mildly ironic that as technology provides us a greater ability to capture detail, the evolving systems have no way to showcase those details to the greater public. Only the photographers themselves have the ability to look at images in their full glory - zooming, panning, and printing. It really is a totally different experience to have a FULL image, and to be able to zoom and manipulate it. It in many ways reflects the impossibility of modern society: the general public “can” do so much more, and yet the grand majority does so much less. We have all the details, but we spend so little time looking at, and considering them.

Check out my feature of NBC The Wiz Live’s star Shanice Williams on www.broadwaystyleguide.com

For the article and images click the link above - or if you just want to see the shots, check them out in the gallery below:

Had the pleasure of checking out the old TWA terminal at JFK. Built in 1962 by architect Saarinen, the design is evocative and functional, sensual yet utilitarian. With hundreds of thousands of hand-laid tiles covering every surface, a sense of aesthetic and cultural influence is immediately apparent. There’s no doubt: the space flows and has a certain elegance - a quality supplanted by “efficiency” in most modern constructs.

Here are a handful of images from the day - all toned in black and white, which I feel best represents the “vision of the future,” from a 20th century perspective.

I had full access press coverage at Jon Batiste’s headline concert at Webster Hall - and shot both off-stage and on-stage with the band. Check out some of the shots below.

With a super-wide angle lens, you can shoot from the hip and never miss a shot. Holding the camera at a low angle makes for added drama, and b&w accentuates details and interactions between people. Panning shots, when you have such a wide field of view, makes for some interesting and artsy results.

Short photo article featuring my photography backstage for Les Miserables on Broadway - check it out in the link below:
http://www.broadwaybox.com/daily-scoop/12-striking-photos-of-life-backstage-at-les-miserables/

I was recently brought on by WeWork to shoot their Summer Camp event. WeWork, which is a rapidly growing office space provider, hosts a once-a-year weekend takeover of a summer camp in the Adirondacks. I shot nearly 72 hours straight and over 7,000 images. (Going through them has been a decidedly full-time task.)
The weekend was packed to the brim with things to do, and lugging two cameras and slew of lenses around on the beach was at times difficult, and well.. sandy. Myself and two other photographers slept in a tent near the stage - which was built over the course of the week, and featured full state-of-the-art lighting rigs to host Girl Talk, Michael Franti, St. Lucia and other top-notch performers. It was an incredible and exhausting weekend. With music going till 2am, at the 36-hour mark, ear plugs and my most comfy pillow kept me sane. Check out just a small selection of the images below! For more info about WeWork, visit their website at www.wework.com

I recently shot in the studio with designer Tomas Reyes for his new hosiery line: TRAMPS, which aims to corner the niche market of fashionable compression-wear. Check out his site here http://www.tomasrey.es/ to see more images from our shoot. Images below show the progression from the studio shot to final product on the shelf.

I’m photographing new blog images for designer Emily Tillery. Here are a couple favorites from our first shoot - keep an eye out for more to come. Emily: www.fashifyme.com

I have finally joined the ranks on Tumblr - focusing my posts on broadway and entertainment backstage. Recent work includes photography backstage for Ave Q, Chicago, Pippin, and Les Miz! Check me out here: maxgordonphotography.tumblr.com