chip simons photography, artist, photographer, image maker, art director, film director, conceptual consultant,comedian.funny,Americana,creative,beautiful ,original,conceptual,wide angle,fisheye,colored lighting,light painting,surreal,editorial and advert

 

My various series all have a story behind them.

 

My "Bunny" series is a strange and sad fairy tale about the ending of a world...for some very innocent creatures that lived along the Rio Grande river valley in New Mexico...once upon a time.

 

The "Postcard" series is a pop art surrealist comedic approch to the classically bad postcards of the 1930's in America. I also toss in shadows, B-movie creatures and horrible color shifts, just for fun. They have to be bad...to be good.

 

The "I Am A Dog" series is about color and fun and the act of being a dog thru my camera. It was my way of coping with living in New York City once upon a time. It is about animals and nature and photography and anthropomorphism. It became the vehicle that I based most of my commercial work on for 25 years. It was a study in how we react to color, before we respond to content.

 

The "Monsters" series is about people and society and my friends...and how everyone is a monster deep down...if they are tempted.

 

My "Light Painting" began in graveyards as a fun and theatrical play. It was a way to light huge scenes with one flash. It was a great and psychodelic and fun,mistake filled cubist modern dance. It is also a simple and practicle way to work fast without a bunch of lights to deal with.

 

My "Scenics" are very painterly and classic and emotive. I am a colorist.

 

All of the techniques and lenses, like the fisheye, spilled over into my commercial work...but essentially, it is all personal work. I continue to produce about a thousand images a year.

 

I like to see what something looks like when I take a picture of it...or about it. I like ideas and concepts and I like to play. I want to see something I have never seen before and I like to stumble on new ways of thinking about and illustrating emotions.

 

I like consulting, concepting, and directing and lighting film and TV. Ideally, I would move into more comedy and applying my eye and mind and ideas and lighting concepts, to commercials. I am the only funny photographer on the commercial stage that I know....as hard as that is to believe...it is true.

 

Unfortunatly, the media and stock industry are over as we knew it....and everyone can look like a photographer or an artist these days. Not that 6 billion people competing with me is a big deal , but it is harder to cut through the noise. Therefore,  I have moved into selling prints and trying to be in art galleries and licensing my work to hotels and business  and card companies.

 

I have done 6000 assignments.... and I have been published over 10,000 times.

 

I would like to be "the Far Side" of photography someday. I would like to stamp my personal brand on TV and fim projects.