Hugh Hamilton's portarit of Rove is EVERYWHERE!!!!

"Despite a reputation as being a bit difficult, Rove turned out to be the consummate professional, turning it on for the cameras so well that Foxtel snapped the images up to promote Rove's new LA show....."
Hugh Hamilton

I don't think there would be a single person in Sydney who has not seen Hugh Hamilton's portrait of Rove by now!

SUCCESS for our two Hughs at the International Photography Awards

Hugh Peachey received an honerable mention in the Professional Self Promotion category for his Red Army shot. Hugh originally did the shoot for his entry into the This Is Red exhibition we did last November.



Two works by Hugh Hamilton received honorable mentions. His LA Roller Derby series received a mention in the Professional Sports category, and the Achieve It campaign he shot in Sydney was mentioned in the Professional Advertising category.

Hugh Hamilton for Good Weekend Magazine

Hugh Hamilton has been busy in LA. He has recently shot two covers for Good Weekend magazine. One featuring Aussie talk show host Rove McManus, and the other Tom Kuntz aka the man behind the HILARIOUS Old Spice add.

Hugh Hamilton for the NY Times

Hugh Hamilton recently shot Meir Doron, left, and Joseph Gelman who have written a book about Arnon Milchan - millionaire spy come Hollywood producer. The story, New Book Tells Tale of Israeli Agent at Home in Hollywood, appeared in the NY Times July 17th.

The National Portrait Gallery purchases work by Hugh Hamilton

The National Portrait Gallery has purchased Hugh Hamilton's portrait of Nobel Prize Winner Dr Elizabeth Blackburn for their permanent collection.

Hugh Hamilton's LA Roller Derby

boy these girls have some tattoos....

Achievit! campaigne shot by Hugh Hamilton

Hugh Hamilton flew out from LA to shoot the latest campaign for INova's weight loss shakes - Acheivit! All the talent were shot rigged up and floating in the air suggesting feelings of weightlessness.

Here's what Hugh had to say about the shoot:

"Apart from the actual shoot we did the whole thing over the internet. Cast it, quoted it, retouched it. I only came to Sydney to sit in a studio. We actually didn't have locked in layouts, but rather a series of scenarios- we shot every scenario with each talent and then worked out which was going to work best for the final images.
The talent were fantastic and worked really hard - its much harder than it looks being strung up on those wires (thats me in the red shirt finding out the hard way) and it would be so much more difficult with the extra pounds these guys are carrying! The riggers (Spider Monkey Constructions) were quite concerned about the amount of weight were going to be lifting but in the end it went off very smoothly and he was just what I wanted.
I was really looking for the kind of big guy who would surprise us with his co-ordination. I had this image from the old movie The Hustler in which Jackie Gleason (as Minnesota Fats) had the elegance of a dancer in spite of being, well, really fat. Lucinda ( the female talent) too, had the grace of a ballerina up there on the wire.
Once the day was done I spent Thursday and Friday shooting the background plates, briefed the wonderful Claudia Fitzpatrick about the retouching on Saturday and I was back to Los Angeles first thing Sunday morning! Then the emails went back and forth until we were all happy...."

And here are the final results plus some behind the scenes shots - Look out for Hugh hanging out in the red t-shirt.

Elgin James shot by Hugh Hamilton for the NY Times

Hugh shares a bit about Elgin and what it's like shooting for the NY Times:

"Adopted and raised by quaker marijuana farmers, Elgin James turned vegan at the age of eleven after seeing an animal slaughtered on the family farm. He ran away from home at 17 and wound up homeless on the streets. He joined a gang in Boston called FSA (two of the letters stand for well, you can guess), notorious for avoiding alcohol and drugs but also for preying on and stealing from other drug dealing gangs. Somehow he managed to pull himself up from this background and make his way to the Sundance labs to write and direct his first feature film, Little Birds which debuts at this year's Sundance festival.

The New York Times always sends you out with the instruction "to make it look like LA" which I guess means palm trees and sunshine, but Elgin had a minder attached who wouldn't let me leave the vicinity of the cafe...a shame, since we were only a mile or so from the Griffith Observatory which has awesome views of LA and which is of course, iconically LA having been featured in movies beyond count. So in and out of the cafe we were.

I became obsessed with his tattoos since they were literary quotes from people such as John Steinbeck and Arthur Rimbaud. I didn't realise the shot where I had him show me the arm tattoos looks very like he's about to be handcuffed. I'm kind of glad they didn't use that one since it must be noted that Elgin pleaded guilty last year to a charge of extortion in relation to his gang activities. He is actually awaiting sentence at this time."

Building an Alliance to Aid Films by Blacks shot by Hugh Hamilton for NY Times

Hugh Hamilton for The New York Times

Ava DuVernay at a screening of her film “I Will Follow,” which will be the first to benefit from a campaign to widen the distribution of black-themed films.

More at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/movies/08urban.html?_r=1&hpw

Hugh Hamilton's portrait of James Caan for the New York Times

Read the article here.

Check out what Hugh says about the shoot on his blog.