USM MIDTOWN
A working studio, not a neutral set
We photographed USM Midtown inside Office Ben Ganz's offices. The props were purchased and found around the studio, so the space stayed present in the pictures instead of disappearing behind a neutral set.
USM's chrome grid is exact. Pool toys, books, roses, silverware, fruit, vegetables, and the other objects let that precision meet the funny, messy life already moving through the room.
The arrangement that kept falling
The fruit and vegetables became their own construction problem. We friction-fit the pieces into an arrangement that fell several times and took hours to rebuild.
Once it held, we left it sitting overnight. The final photographs were made the next morning.
Two cameras, two speeds
I photographed the series on Mamiya 645 and Toyo 45AX. Large format slowed the room down. Medium format let it move a little more.
My role also included visual direction, so the work was about more than pressing the shutter. It was deciding how chrome, color, reflection, scale, and negative space could hold the frame without cleaning all the personality out of it.