NYC's Chinese Community Celebrates the Roast Pork Bun Blog...

...Or vice versa. But instead of the pork bun, we celebrate the New Year.
Check out the following images from this morning's New Years celebrations in Chinatown (still going on as I post, so head on downtown if you can):

This Past Week's Events...

Breakfast event for AVEENO beauty products at Skyline Studios


Detail shot for client (AVEENO / Rpr Marketing)


Detail shot for client (AVEENO / Rpr Marketing)


New York Times Inauguration Ball @ The New Museum


Yale Jewish Society Initiation - Special guest speaker,
Mayor Cory Booker (Newark, NJ)


A young member of the prestigious Yale Jewish Society


Ahh yes, and a self-timed photo of my Sevilla
posse. Taken during the first study-abroad
reunion of 2009, by far the most exciting
event of the week.

Two Things I Cannot Escape in NYC

1) Newly constructed condos lacking in taste
2) Those crazy ladders that were originally used for hanging laundry



(Photo taken this morning from my kitchen window in Brooklyn)

Published in Edible Manhattan - Winter Issue

Back in November, when it was warm enough for me to walk the city streets without worrying about my camera freezing, I went on assignment for Edible Manhattan - up to 116th st and Frederick Douglass Blvd - to shoot what's now known as Little Senegal. A big thank you to Michael Harlan Turkell (Photo Editor), for including some of my images in Katy Keiffer's article about the rapidly growing West African strip.

You can find the January/February 2009 issue of E.M. at places such as Whole Foods, Chelsea Market, Dean & Deluca, Gramercy Tavern, 5 Ninth, Ill Buco, and countless other fine eateries, wine shops, and markets in NYC.

Mosco Street Storefront - Chinatown

More Photo Updates Coming Soon, I Promise...

Between the holidays, new years, event shooting, and moving into a new apartment, life has been beyond hectic. Just wanted to let everyone know that some new work will be going up within the next few days, so keep on checking in. I have some BIG things coming in for 2009...Hope everyone had a great new year!

-M

Photoshoot w/ Michael Spies - Asbury Park, NJ

Christmas Eve in Red Hook

Stamford, Connecticut....Who knew?

Charity : Ball 2008

Charity:Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Last night, the organization threw a massive 1000+ person benefit at Chelsea's Metropolitan Pavilion to raise money for building freshwater wells and supplying clean water to impoverished communities. The event was hosted by Entourage's Adrien Grenier. Other guests included Jenna Elfman, Cee-Lo Green, Olivia Palermo, Whitney Port, Model - Summer Rayne, and many others, whose names I probably shouldn't know so well.


Event host and fellow Brooklynite, Adrien Grenier



Charity:Water set up a runway where guests carried two containers filled with a combined 10 gallons of clean water (40 pounds each).



For every person who walked the runway an $80 donation was made towards a well on behalf of iGoogle and Kodak. The event was part runway, part gallery, and part auction. The "gallery" exhibited some compelling large scale photographs taken in various countries where entire towns have been completely devastated by natural disasters, and attaining clean water is extremely difficult.

If you'd like to make a donation to Charity:Water, please visit their website here: http://www.charitywater.org


Jenna Elfman talks to press before hitting the party

Chinatown: December 12, 2008

Anna Goldman Does DUMBO

After a long awaited lunch date with my old pal Anna, I was able to sucker her into posing for a quick, five minute shoot...Any longer and she would've pried the camera from my hands and destroyed it (she's vicious).




(Update)

I've been receiving a great deal of criticism from people voicing their concern that I actually forced Anna to do this shoot. Sure, she looks pretty unhappy in the last photo - but that's only because she's a human being, with real human emotions. That, and she's quite the versatile model with a rolodex of facial expressions. To prove myself, here's an image of Anna looking happy as a clam.

Hangin' Out w/ Steve Behar

I was asked by a democratic political group from Milwaukee, Wisc. to meet with an attorney/candidate for City Council in Bayside, Queens (whom they so thoroughly support). The job entailed meeting the candidate, Steve Behar (District 19), at a Bayside diner where he eats breakfast every day at 9am, then proceeding to photograph him interacting with friends, locals, and neighborhood business owners. The photos were to be used in a forthcoming newsletter for Behar's campaign, as well as for his website.





We ended up spending a few hours together, cruising the neighborhood where my mother grew up, talking about his campaign, hanging out at his brother's bagel shop, and expressing our distaste for Jerry Seinfeld. Steve has an incredibly strong grasp on local politics, which ties into the fact that he's been an active force in his community throughout the duration of his life (he's lived in District 19 since the age of 5, and his parents have lived in the same house for 38 years). It turns out that he's also quite down-to-earth (he's a big fan of Lily Allen and Nascar) and is a pleasure to work with.

The following are a few more images captured throughout the morning, along with a couple of shots I took for my own pleasure.


Because Steve represents the District 19 area, which
happens to be right on the water near the Throgs Neck Bridge,
we felt this would be an appropriate place to capture him in an
environment that defines the area he's been serving for
so many years.


Manning the counter at his brother's bagel shop






Bayside locals and their morning eats


Bagel-making at the bagel shop

Around Chinatown..

Some Corporate Headshots

...from the law offices of Skyer, Castro & Foley, NYC