This past season I collaborated with photographer Eli Schmidt and tag teamed NY fashion week with him on the photos and me shooting video. I don't usually like working with others in fast paced, high pressure situations but Eli and I got along really well and were able to put together videos of four different shows. The first one of the Sally Lepointe show was just released today with IDOL Magazine. Check it out, more coming soon...
I've been to Marfa before, a few years back while on a cross country road trip. I remember finding it to be a really charming and therapeutic stop on our long journey. A few weeks back I was in Austin for a shoot with Nissan and decided I was going to stay in Texes for a few extra days and drive up to Marfa for a quiet little vacation by myself. If you aren't familiar with Marfa here is a bit of background : In the 1970s, Donald Judd, an important U.S. minimalist sculptor, after inventing loft-living (the appropriation of industrial space for urban residential living) got bored of SoHo, married a Texas oil heiress and bought a former air force base and several old agricultural warehouse buildings in a small town in Texas, pretty much because it was the furthest from NYC in transportation time he could find.
He took the walls out of the buildings and put in his best work and the work of his best friends, and created one of the most spectacular twentieth century art installations and collections in the middle of the desert. That was the start of what is now a pretty interesting art scene.
A bunch of iconic American films have been shot there as well including Giant, No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood.
There is also a mysterious appearance of mystical lights called the Marfa Lights which werent so impressive but still very creepy - aside from that this area has the most amazing night skies I have seen - there is zero sight pollution.
If you have never been it is definitely worth a weekend trip if you are out in Texas, hit me up for any recommendation or have questions about it.
Here are some photos from the trip.
This year I want to take more road trips. It's easy for my to forget how much I enjoy them. I've lived in big cities all my life, surrounded by tall buildings and overwhelming amounts of people so its nice to get on the road and drive places that are completely flat with no one in sight. I was in Arizona for a week and spent a good chuck of that exploring the landscape.
Visuals in Sedona are so dope. I did not think I would enjoy the outdoors as much as I did.
#doubleexposureonahikeintheforestselfie
Got to the Grand Canyon in time to catch the sun set over it.
Canyon Selfies
Ran into this Flinstones inspired camping ground and jumped around for a bit.
Had to top off the trip with late night IN-n-Out OFCOURSE.
Always good to touch ground in NYC no matter how great your trip was.
-A
This last week I was in Arizona, on break, with every intent to relax and explore. First thing I had planned was a visit to Tuscan to kick it with my homie from undergrad, Dan. After catching up for a bit we dove right into it. We both got on his bike and head out into the mountains to to ride around, explore and end up on a hiking trail. This was an awesome trip and I was able to fit in a whole lot in a short amount of time. More photos to come but for now here are a few snaps from my time with Dan.
I hate to admit this but I was watching an episode of Scandal while I got the idea to do this project. The episode, in a somewhat Edward Snowden style, revealed the NSA's efforts for complete surveillance of US citizens including being able to tap into the camera on their phones and laptops. Creepy, and probably not far from the truth.
If all of our real life and online activity are constantly being monitored I thought it would be an interesting to create a space on the web that was looking back. A sea of eyes staring back at you with different ranges of emotion and movements.
I didnt want to think too much about it and just wanted to go ahead and do it, so I quickly reached out to my friends on Instagram and asked them to submit video of their eye for a project I was working on with the following guidelines :
-Video must be uploaded to Instagram (not DMed to me) with the hashtag #igotmyeyesonyoudotcom and/or @atifateeq. -Your eye must be centered in the frame. -Have fun with it and be creative!
Since then I received a handful of responses that got the boll rolling and started putting the site together. Take a look www.igotmyeyesonyou.com
I take all the project I work on very seriously and this time around I wanted to be a bit more playful and lighthearted so it only made sense for the websites soundtrack to be Drake's "Hold On, We're Going Home" in which Drake repeatedly says "I got my eyes on you".
I don't have enough Eyes yet so there are a bunch of repeats but the goal is to have a grid of many different eyes. I would love for you to participate and submit, it's fairly simple, just follow the guidelines above.
If you have questions, suggestions or comments about this please let me know below or email me directly.
-A
This year I really had no NYE plans. I didn't really want to goto a party at a club or some dingy warehouse in BK. I figured that if no attractive option came up I would just stay in. Then Kirill hit me up about shooting NYE at the Sands in PA which was being hosted by Pauly D. What? I could ring in the new year with my favorite Jersey Shore character? Done!
A long form video is on its way but check out the preview I posted on Instagram. Pauly D posted this on his instagram as well and got 21.6k likes in less than a day. Amazing.
First mean of the year. Waffle House!
It's been a while since I saw a moment happening and got really excited to capture it. These two ladies were sitting right in front of me on the B train and made me think about the concept of worship. We now do live in a society where some raise their hands and other their phones to guide them, inform them, and to bring them a sense of satisfaction and peace. We all just want to feel liked and accepted. Can our phones satisfy our need to connect to something higher that one day we grow so close and dependent on our phones that we move away from religion and God?
Maybe I'm overthinking it...
Anyhow, I posted this photo on my Instagram and it got a lot of likes/comments so I thought I'd post the full photo here.