STUDIO VISIT: TODD BAXTER

I know I've posted about Todd Baxter before, specifically the embroidery work that I did for his Owl Scout series. But I could not do a studio visit series without doing a visit with him. A commercial and fine art photographer based in Chicago and now in Los Angeles, he is one of the people who has helped me a lot in getting to where I am today.

I started out working for Todd as an intern while attending SAIC and went on to work as his studio manager after I graduated. Everything I learned about being in the photo business I learned working for him and I'm happy to count him not only as a mentor but a friend as well.

I was lucky to have gotten the chance to shoot his Chicago studio before he moved to LA. His process is a very involved one. There is a great amount of research and prepping  that went into both the Owl Scouts and his new upcoming Astoria series and there is evidence of it everywhere in his studio. Props, costumes, binders full of reference material, miniature models of sets and characters that will be either composited or simply used as models for the final images have to be made before a single image is shot. He draws upon the talents of a number of people to collaborate with him to create his vision.

 And so every single image he creates is actually comprised of many (many many) images, composited seamlessly together.  I would not be lying when I say that almost every plant in a forest scene was originally  its own image. It is a process that is completely on the other end of the spectrum compared to my own but it made for one of the most interesting studio visits I've done.

A few select images from the visit below. Check out the entire set on VisitVisit.us !