Rangefinder Magazine
June 2005

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Insight/On the Cover by Bill Hurter

Editorial photography, that which is created for books, magazines and newspapers, is a highly specialized field. These experts know how to cover a story in visual terms that result in an enticing variety of images that lend themselves to the layout and page-design process. An editorial photographer is, by necessity, part storyteller, part graphic designer. Add to these qualifications the aspect of competition among photographers for the best assignments and editorial projects, and you have the ingredients for a high-stress occupation. Nevertheless, most editorial photographers will tell you they wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. These photographers and their work define our times. Chris Rainier’s latest project is a striking book about ritualistic tattooing and scarification. He has traveled around the world several times in an effort to unearth images and reveal the motivations for such behavior. His book, Ancient Marks, is a visual feast that will enchant and shock the reader. We celebrate his fascinating quest in Peter Skinner’s article beginning on page 14. Jerry Burchfield is an innovative former commercial photographer who finds incredible natural beauty in the Amazon. Three trips there culminated in the publication of Primal Images: 100 Lumen Prints of Amazonia Flora, a book of breathtakingly beautiful images unlike any we’ve ever seen. For this work Jerry refined an alternative process he calls lumen printing, a basically cameraless and developerless process (although Jerry does fix and wash the prints for permanence). Unlike the photogram, which the lumen print resembles, these images are made with expired black-and-white enlarging papers in contact with the flora, producing images with brilliant color. See page 8 for Larry Brownstein’s story about Burchfield’s “floating studio.” Fernando Escovar is a Los Angeles-based editorial photographer who has photographed the upper echelons of the celebrity scene for magazines around the world. A recent assignment to photograph international superstar David Beckham on location in Madrid reveals the inner workings of a celebrity shooter at the top of his game—it’s problem solving by innovative thinking. See page 26 for Fernando’s story.

Bill Hurter, Editor

PHOTOGRAPHER: Fernando Escovar
SUBJECT: David Beckham
Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds
ISO: 100
MODE: RAW
Exposure: 1⁄100 at f/16
Lighting: Profoto Ringflash, Photoflex circular reflector
COMMENTS: The assignment to photograph David Beckham was for PLAYER magazine’s first anniversary issue. Beckham came prepared for the shoot, bringing four racks of clothes and 20 pairs of shoes, along with jewelry and glasses.

For this image I was lying down on the floor against a curtain with a Photoflex circular reflector at Beckham’s feet. Beckham was intrigued by the ringflash and asked a lot of technical questions about how it worked, and his questions kept things moving and lively. As the shoot progressed, I showed him the images on the camera’s LCD so he could get an idea of what we were doing. I was scheduled to only have a half-hour with him, but in several instances he overruled the publicist so we could keep shooting. Later in Photoshop I added mini sparkles to his earrings and cufflinks for a “bling” effect. I also smoothed David’s face and removed some slight imperfections in his collar.

For more about Fernando’s shoot with David Beckham, see page 26.