Benjamin Shipley

Baby Olive

Ben Shipley — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:56:50 +0000

Music lover, traveler, and most excellent of friends, Heather Cramer, had a baby girl in February, and named her Olive. This is the first of what will develop, I’m sure, into a huge body of portraits I shoot of this little girl. She’s going to be a big deal someday, so I figure it’s best to cash in now.

Zac’s & Julia’s Wedding

Ben Shipley — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:06:46 +0000

This June I had the pleasure to photograph the wedding of two great friends, Julia and Zac. I’ve known them both since college, and it’s great to see how all our lives have changed since those days! They’re a truly incredible duo, so I was so happy to shoot their wedding for them. Special acknowledgement goes to friend and fellow artist Laura Cooperman, who served as a thoroughly adept second shooter! I think I might like her shots better than my own at times.

Zac’s mother offered to hold the wedding at her house in Leesburg, VA. Great choice! Plus, the wedding was a collaboration of friends and family for the most part–from the dining area to the food to the flower arrangements, so it, like my friend Heather’s wedding, was refreshingly homegrown and intimate. It was a beautiful day, in spite of a torrential downpour and the typical humidity/heat factor of June in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area. So combining beautiful people, scenic setting, delicious food, and plentiful beverages, this wedding will go down as one of the best I’ve experienced, I’m sure.

Update: Knife Thrower

Ben Shipley — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:45:39 +0000

After a couple of months’ toil, I’ve hung my show at Common Ground, including these ten images from the Knife Thrower series. Enjoy! And expect some more posts soon, as I’ve been busy recently!

Knife Thrower

Ben Shipley — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:41:06 +0000

Way back in 2005, I shot a series exploring…well… Americana in a sense. It focused on images describing a narrative I developed about a carnivalesque knife-throwing act; but it was ultimately more of a study on archetypal personae and imagery from the history of cinema and American style than anything else. In addition to a preoccupation with storytelling, I have a fascination with the attempt to illustrate something resembling imagery culled from people’s sense of the past–as if telling a story from the perspective of the viewer, instead of myself.

I’m working on scanning the negatives and producing a short run of the images for a show in July at Common Ground Cafe in Baltimore. Stay tuned for more details. Here is the first image from the series.

Revisit: EcoSevi

Ben Shipley — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:21:15 +0000

Here is a more comprehensive look at the images I shot for the EcoSevi women’s product line in late 2009!

The Swimmers of Johnson Lake

Ben Shipley — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:41:13 +0000

At the culmination of my time at the Maryland Institute College of Art, I designed an installation about a rite of passage in which men in a family swim across a lake. I am in the midst of trying to figure out how to make a flash file that’s interactive, but here’s an installation shot from the show, just to whet your appetite!

Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons

Ben Shipley — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:07:56 +0000

My apologies for the delay in content! For now, I’m bringing you another look at a musician I’m into these days. Enjoy!

Business Cards

Ben Shipley — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:21:01 +0000

My business cards came in the mail today! It’s one of my first forays into design, and I’m pretty happy with them—I wish I had sprung for a more expensive printing, thicker stock, smoother colors, but they’ll do for now!

Snow

Ben Shipley — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:56:03 +0000

It snowed a lot in Maryland over the weekend. The news was talking about this storm being the biggest storm in Maryland’s documented history, although who knows whether that’s right. All I know is that there is suddenly somewhere between 2 and 3 feet of snow on the ground, it took an hour to uncover my car, and now there’s a huge pile of snow at the end of my dad’s plowing path.

All in all, though, it has been pretty easy, and the power never went off.

Monave

Ben Shipley — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:09:05 +0000

I’ve also been doing some work with Baltimore-based mineral cosmetics company Monavé. They were looking for color-accurate spill shots of their various hues and tints, and I provided! I am also working on some product shots, which I’ll post once they’ve been approved!