Living at the Ace Hotel New York for 5 weeks has the benefit of getting to connect with the amazing cross section of people & culture.
Enter: Reggie Watts. I’ve got a ton of respect for Reggie. He’s a genius musician in a comedian’s skin, who moved from Seattle to NYC a short while ago as his career exploded. The LA Times called him, “Deliciously strange.” New York Magazine called him, “Spectacularly original.” And in GQ’s Man of the Year Issue, they called him a “Comic Genius.” He’s been on Conan’s show, even opened for him on all Conan’s last tour dates.
Reggie and I have a lot of mutual friends, but hadn’t connected until Sunday after a surprise performance at Ace. I grabbed his 60 second video portrait. Although the concept is simple, I’ve found the results to be pretty interesting. At a fundamental level, the human face says a lot, even without the person saying anything at all. Hope you enjoy. There are two more photos I shot of Reggie, plus a behind-the-scenes snap after the jump……
Here’s a Polaroid out of my favorite 600SE. I just can’t stop loving the types of images that camera is capable of making. The…ahem…scanner I’m using here is a iphone shot of the print.
From the Polaroid 600SE
And I couldn’t help but break out the ring flash. 
Here’s how unfancy the setup was in my hotel room.
Lastly, here’s some of Reggie’s work on Conan. Likes to goof, but you can tell at his core he is very serious artist and a musical maestro.
Here’s Reggie’s site. And here’s Reggie on Twitter. And if you’re an adult who likes parodies and curse words like I do, than you’ll love Reggie’s latest video: F*ck Sh*t Stack.
Hilarious 🙂 Love folks that live at a different frequency – they wake me up!
Love these portraits. Reggie Watts is an insane talent! I found him randomly on youtube and have been a fan since!
the 60 second portrait, had that snorricam movement feeling, or maybe that motion behavior one can
do in after effects or motion.
And by Xhibit, of course, I meant Xzibit. haha
Now, I’m jealous. I’ve been trying to photograph Reggy for about a year now! Proof that you have to have a name to do greater things.
Not true. I shot Xhibit at the top of his game by just asking his manager at the time, and he didn’t know me from Adam.
Nice! But for the most part, the name helps. or the sense of $$. Unfortunately, I have neither at this time. But, good for you! It’s always good to hear when this kind of stuff happens. Can I see the images?