Sophie Blackall, the one artist that I stumbled upon while on my trip in NYC that I had to shoot. I first saw her work (below) on the train, and something in me wanted to know the stories behind all the characters.



Thankfully, a friend directed me to a video about Sophie and the print she did for the New York Subway. (Which you should watch here, it's only 4 minutes)

I'm assuming half of you didn't click on that link, because let's face it, most of us can't be bothered clicking on a video link and watching it. So this is me forcing Sophie's story down your throats.

Sophie runs a blog "Missed Connections". Missed Connections is a section in craigslist for lovestruck individuals to write to that drop dead gorgeous girl on the bus but never got the chance to talk to her because she was busy reading her book. What Sophie does is she draws these couples that write to each other in her own special way.





Yeah, now you want to watch the video don't you? Go ahead, click here.

Check out more of her work at

http://www.sophieblackall.com/
http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com/


One thing that I really look forward to when I meet new people (and eventually friends) are their stories, and these guys have the raddest, Derek claimed he was a giant dickhead that bullied everyone when he was younger but when I first met him I thought he was the second nicest guy ever. Went on to doing displays for big stores like Levi's and Diesel, touring with his band and recording for younger bands too. And that's also how he met Lauren (yes, you should have figured it out by now D is for Derek and L is for.... yes), Derek helped record Lauren's band and then all of them started jamming together. Fast forward a couple of years, they decided to start the DL skateboard project, Derek shapes and cuts the board and Lauren paints them. 

You know what you should do now? Go check out their stuff at http://dl-skateboards.myshopify.com/, my personal favorite part of the entire site is the FAQ.






The Safehouse Studios houses a collective of yet again, very talented artists, also a small art school, they have a space above the studios where workshops and classes are held. These 5 individuals were terrific hosts, sharing jokes and wine, it was hard not to be too comfortable while shooting. Unfortunately, not everyone working at Safehouse was around for the shoot, but do check out everyone's work on their website.

from top: Jeremy Mann, gypsy queen Layil Umbralux, Ryan & Carla, and Heavy-weight champion Zach Oldenkamp