LOVELY MOLLY Premiere at TIFF

September 14th, 2011 was the premiere of LOVELY MOLLY at the Toronto International Film Festival. It screened as part of the Midnight Madness program and fortunately I was able to attend and support the film. There was a huge turnout on opening night and thus far it has gotten really positive reviews (links to some below).

Here are some pictures from the night of the premiere:

Click here to view the film's website.

Reviews:

Screen Daily

The Hollywood Reporter

Variety

Crave Online

Shock Till You Drop

Twitch

Dread Central

The Substream

Bloody Disgusting

Other Articles:

Indie Wire

The Hollywood Reporter

Variety

RESTIVE website online

A feature I shot in February of '09 is now finished and making the festival rounds. Jeremiah Jones, the writer & director, recently put the website online complete with a teaser trailer, clips, and photos.

You can have a look here

"Fire & Dynamite" Music Video

Below is a SUPER low budget video I DP'd in Nashville mid January of this year. The only crew was the director (Aaron Greenberg), myself, and the B Camera Op. I ran around and set up all the lights myself - all 3 of them. It's not the way I usually like to work but it's what needed to happen to make the video and ultimately it was a fun shoot. We shot on a PL mount 7D with Zeiss Super Speeds lenses, another 7D w/ Canon lenses and 2 5DmkII's with Canon and Hasselblad lenses. The B Camera Op and myself set each camera up for a different configuration (sticks, handheld, slider, tilt/shift, etc.) so when we switched modes we could just set one camera down and grab another.

Here is the video:

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors "Fire and Dynamite" from JOHN W. RUTLAND on Vimeo.

Familiar Strangers Closes Today

My photography show entitled Familiar Strangers opened at L'ASSO in New York City on December 14th, 2010 and closes today. We had a great opening night party and got a bit of press coverage: NPR // BroadwayWorld.com.

Here are some photos of the show from Getty Images:

Portraits on display at L'ASSO in Nolita, NYC.

Me at the opening night party.

Greg Barris, comedian and part owner of L'ASSO, and myself at the opening night party.

The portraits from the show can be viewed here or in an iPhone / iPad friendly version here.

A little about the show:

Familiar Strangers, a portrait series by John W. Rutland, explores the anonymous relationships at the periphery of our daily existence – the people we frequently encounter but rarely engage.

Artist's Statement:
Public Radio International recently aired a feature on the iconic photographs of the last decade. In the program, photojournalist Eamonn McCabe commented on the democratization of photography and photojournalism in this age of the digital and cellphone cameras. “We’re all taking pictures,” he said. “But not many of us are taking great photographs.” This quote perfectly summed up a feeling that had been growing within me for some time. It was the seed of this feeling that drove me, a few years prior, to purchase a Hasselblad medium format film camera to get away from the digital “snapshots” I found myself taking. Owning a digital SLR camera, as many do these days, I found myself shooting hundreds of pictures and upon reviewing them would often be disappointed to find not a single photograph that really spoke to me. I wanted to regain the pause and thought before each click of the shutter and strive to make every frame count. As a result, I made the decision to get back to classic portraiture. I chose black and white film to remove the distractions of color and put the emphasis on the landscape of the face. I chose to work in a square aspect ratio that, I feel, frames the head and shoulders of the subject nicely and places them at the center of attention. I got physically close to the subject with the camera, shooting the portrait so tight that the environment the subject inhabits becomes abstracted and insignificant and the emphasis is put solely on the person within the frame.
These portraits are incredibly simple at first glance but quite intimate at their core. Familiar Strangers, for me, is about taking the time to notice those around us in an effort to make our daily interactions more meaningful. That said, my hope is that the personal connections I made with the subjects shows in the final photographs. For inquiries on ordering prints, please email prints@johnwrutland.com

Bright House Networks Commercial

Tarsha from JOHN W. RUTLAND on Vimeo.

on b+w photography

Here is a photo I took of my wife the other day. She was talking on the phone in the dining room around magic hour and the soft light coming through the large window looked incredible. The walls in our dining room are fairly dark so they just went black in the photo.

Technical info: Canon EOS 5D @ 500ASA, 1/50 sec shutter; Canon EF50mm f/1.4 USM lens @ T1.4

first post

I was in NYC the day before 9/11. My flight returned to Orlando, FL, where I lived at the time, on 9/10/01. I was standing on top of the world trade center on 9/07/01. Significant events happen in our lives, but life keeps moving on with or without us and we don't fully realize the impact they had on us until much later.


I shot this super 8 footage on that trip to NYC and when I returned home I put the film on a shelf in my closet and it sat there for 4 years. Then I moved to LA and it sat in my closet there for another 2 years. I finally got it developed and then telecined on 9/10/2007. I don't know why I sat on the film for so long, I honestly have no explanation for it.

WTC 09.07.2001 from JOHN W. RUTLAND on Vimeo.