Emmaus to EXAMEN - A Technical Reboot

When Chris reached out to me and let me know we were a go for this project, it really got me thinking. After taking on a big project - you get to thinking: What could we have done differently?

The place and time here was different, but the goal was the same - how do we tell a cohesive story, both of the men and of the community? Now here, in 2020, I think we did a great job. But it wasn't without its wrinkles.

Since Chicago was a few thousand miles from LA, where I needed to stay to sustain my business - the challenge shifted a bit. We executed an extremely flexible game plan, where this project required structure and to be in and out. Weather was an issue - the 2018 Polar Vortex was my first time in weather under 0º. Finally we needed to handle building relationships with a community a week at a time throughout a year in a productive way.

I think that's the biggest lesson I took away as a priority from Emmaus: building relationships. But that was easy enough - how do we do that in Chicago?

What could we have done differently? Well, light could have been blended a bit better - Los Angeles sun tends to be a little overpowering unless you have full control as a photographer. I think a couple of the images were a little more ambiguous than I wanted, so some more direct imagery would have been good. Finally, as a tourist in Chicago, I wanted to share the city in a more direct way. 

Stay tuned as Il take you through the technical journey of EXAMEN. See you in a couple weeks!