Charlize Theron
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Publishing
Charlize Theron
When I originally photographed Charlize Theron in Milan, I was introduced to her by the make-up artist I was working and traveling with at that time Christan Burran, who wanted me to meet and shoot with Charlize.
We spent the next day shooting, and when I got back to New York, Gear Magazine recognized her as an emerging artist.
I later was asked to produce a short book based on that shoot which I designed, laid out, and produced.
Blues Musicians
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Media
Blues Musicians
When I was in Italy, I proposed a overview story of Blues Musicians to editors at Italian Vogue. I didn’t necessarily think that it would have an angle at Italian Vogue, but L’Uomo Vogue, Vanity or one of their smaller publications might have an interest.They turned it down, because they didn’t see how it could be produced.
Believing that this niche story had value, I flew back to Chicago, where my family was still living, and for three weeks, photographed and interviewed Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, Lefty Dizz, Junior Wells, Sugar Blue, Lonnie Brooks, Son Seals, Sunnyland Slim, and then back in Italy, as I was finishing the writing, Albert Collins and B.B. King in Pistoia. My interviews were wide-ranging and free-flowing touching on how their music and the musicians they met, guided their lives, framed their views on race, and war, and society and relationships.
Producing the finished interviews and photographic story, Conde Nast picked it up as they tried to decide which one of their publications would run with it.
Gear Magazine
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Media
Gear Magazine
Gear Magazine was a publication that emerged when Maxim and FHM made their way over from Britain and their explosive success revealed latent markets in America.
Gear was different, but couldn’t brand itself differently. Gear was started by Bob Guccione, Jr. who had launched Spin Magazine earlier, and who’s father had brought Penthouse to America from Britain.
Edgy, offbeat, but serious about a new crop of artists, actors, musicians, emerging and defining a new culture, Gear recognized my informal, direct and honest approach matched their perspective with my photographs of Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron, and brought me onboard. They asked me to pitch personalities and story proposals.
As I saw how they developed layouts, graphics and content, I quickly saw the potential in his vision.
But they couldn’t keep up the financing, marketing, or production necessary to continue competing with Maxim, FHM, GQ or Esquire at the same time, technology was changing digital publishing.
German Playboy - Jeff Koons - Martina Moculescu
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Media
German Playboy – Jeff Koons – Martina Moculescu
The first time I returned from Europe, I was contacted in New York by German Playboy to shoot a scene with the Playmate of the Year and work with Jeff Koons.
I had been in Europe when Koons was becoming notorious for his work with his wife, Ilona Stadler.
He had a studio in a building on Broadway and Houston, and I agreed to work with him and a crew of people German Playboy had assembled. Koons had pitched an idea to the editors who wanted his name involved based on postcards of two paintings: Jean Honore Fragonard’s Girl Playing With A Dog, and Francois Boucher’s Resting Girl. He loved the lushness of the 1700s ambiance, and I was looking at focusing on Martina Moculescu, whom I had just met, but as a Playmate of the Year, I thought the qualities that made her special, should be brought out.
I loosely followed Koon’s desire for lushness, and the framework of the artwork on these postcards, and produced the three images here. (She was also shot by two other photographers in other countries.)
A number of years later, Jeff Koons came out with his “Gazing Ball” collection which used the Boucher painting, and then a collection which featured “Pot Rack” in which my photograph of Martina, based on Fragonard’s painting, was the foundation behind the Koons painting.
I thought the dog was lost behind a flurry of pans.
Männer Vogue - Nina Siemaszko
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Media
Männer Vogue – Nina Siemaszko
The production company of Zalman King contacted me as they began the promotion of a new project they were working on. They wanted to use my contacts across international media to promote the production, the players, and whichever angle might raise interest with the public.
I contacted editors at publications globally. Männer Vogue in Munich, Germany expressed interest in the project and the star, Nina Siemaszko.
On our usual tight timeline, we had arranged to shoot in Montauk, New York, but the day before our location shoot, a hurricane swept up the coast and downed trees on the road out to Long Island. We made it out to Montauk with only a few hours of daylight left. Nina had her Dalmatian with her, and when she let it out of the car, I found a building that had collapsed at the end of a pier, set up a chair we did our shoot there.
I didn’t actually know anything about the production that she was in, so Männer Vogue’s angle was a profile of Nina Siemaszko.
Pellice Moda - Young Love
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Media
Pellice Moda – Young Love
The focus of this editorial story for Pellice Moda was a new generation of young fashionistas. I always had issues with the fur industry, and there was always a conflict between my moral values and what I was good at.
Often, the values and content of what we believed in, did not converge with what we were commissioned for.
Producing on location and raw empty space, focusing on subject matter, and directing attention of an audience was what I was good at.
Young Love was used both in the Italian and Chinese media (as Simply Elegant). But it shows the value of visual imagery in crossing cultural and linguistic boundaries.
The stylist was Persian, the models were British but of Asian descent and Italian, the make-up artist was Italian, the hair stylist was American, the photographer was American of Asian descent, and the media platforms were Italian and Chinese.
Blitz Magazine - Brands
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Media
Blitz Magazine – Brands
While I have worked for established publications and designers, I have also sought to work with smaller, newer, developing and potentially influential magazines.
In London, The Face, ID, and Blitz came from the street to make influential statements in graphic design, photography and styling. The editors and graphic designers at the emerging publications shaped the publishing of France, Italy and New York as their work was recognized.
Neville Brody, at The Face, commented on my choice of framing and composition, as editors from all three publications called when I went back to Milan, and they wanted content from the Continent.
Branded was conceived by Blitz in London, but as all these publications were constantly on a tight schedule, they gave me a day to plan, shoot and send the material back to London.
I was given a handful of branded items, booked friends who were available that night, shot everything on black and white Polaroid film, turned everything around in hours and had it going back to London by morning. It reminded me of spot news photography in speed and production.
The graphics on the vertical page sides echoed the the extreme sharpness of lighting and starkness of the black and white but was done in London.
Pellice Moda - Rail Yard
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Publishing
Pellice Moda – Rail Yard
In working with luxury goods, and in luxury environments, I’ve always been aware of contrasts between the most valuable of items, the people who wear them, the people who create them, and what creates the idea of “luxury.”
Contrasting the luxury of furs and the Old World that embraced that idea of luxury, with the age and romanticism of that world – I convinced my editors at Pellice Moda, that the editorial story would have beauty, interest and appeal. They introduced me to Nadya Khamnipour, a stylist who’s work I loved – lush, whimsical, contrary, resisting cliche, her combinations of accessories with textured clothing created a balance with my need to focus on the evocation of emotion, or a stark, textural landscape.
Italian Vogue - Intense Silhouette
Phillip Wong Productions
Photography/Publishing
Italian Vogue – Intense Silhouette
I used to describe the difference between working for European publications with America publications like this: In Europe, as a photographer, an artist, a creative, someone outside, with a wide mix of influences and resources, I could propose something, and while editors might not understand completely, they trusted in that background and allowed me to produce the piece.
In America, I described publications as having a “Donald Trump mentality.” The people in offices, cloistered and separated from the trends and developments and people on the ground, dictated that “this was the way it was.” This was the way it was going to be. And because I was simply hired with a camera – I would do what I was told. (I was defining this “corporate” way of looking at the world, in the 1990s).
Italian Vogue editors didn’t always understand what I was trying to describe (a cross between imperfect Italian and overly complex English), but they often let me go ahead. They had products or trends or parameters which they wanted to cover (they had writers already working on an article), but they were looking for “creative,” “different,” “interesting,” visual images. (Not surprisingly, those were some of the first words I learned in Italian.)
I had been looking at textile shops and in New York, found some stretchy tubular material (I later found was used for undershirts), and bought a few rolls of it. In Milano, I tried wrapping it, and liked the form-fitting quality of the material – but didn’t see what I could do with it.
Alberto Nodolini, and Luca Stoppini, handed me off to Vogue Pelle to shoot some handbags for a story. I saw the stark composition and silhouette of the bags, and wanted to contrast it with the forms, shapes and curves of the human form.
The difficulty of accessories has always been the proportional difference between any accessory and the human body. When other items are added to the mix – they can create distractions.
They let me run with this:
Wine Tasting Event for California Vineyard on New York Rooftop
Phillip Wong Productions
Events
Wine Tasting Event for California Vineyard on New York Rooftop
A large California vineyard wanted to do a luncheon wine tasting event for international press on the rooftop of a New York hotel.
They commissioned us to design and construct an airy, sectioned space that would suggest a vineyard, as well as creating the table designs for the luncheon part of the event, and a separate tasting part.
Many vineyards have their own stemware for tastings and vineyard events, but since this event was across the continent, we also provided a line of Reidel stemware that would accommodate their multiple offerings.
