grianghrafadóir – noun, photographer
Michael Patrick O'Leary – blog
The Great American Canyon Band
Paul and Krystal Quickly became two of my favorite people to photograph. Krystal with her long, long red hair and Paul with the award winning beard asked my to photograph them early this year for the upcoming promotions of their new venture together, The Great American Canyon Band. I just love working with such creative people. Paul knows exactly what he’s after, brings it all to the table, gives me some references, and lets me execute. It’s such a fun collaboration. I knew when paul wanted to wear a lambskin out in the park in the snow we were headed in the right direction. More from the shoot coming all week.
Paper Fish
Paper Fish is an installation that Kathey Fahey put together based on the making of a music video we shot this past February. Kathy and I were approached by Andy Stack of Wye Oak back in December about making a music video around the idea of a shadow puppet show. Andy had much of the concept laid out in his head based on Jenn’s song Fish” off of the recent “civilian” and left the rest of the “execution” up to kathy and I. Andy and Jenn were so generous to let us work in this way and we had a blast doing it. They gave us broad ideas of what they were after and let us run with it. We met weekly as Kathy (with help from many friends) began cutting figures out and developing the characters. At the end of about a month and a half of prep, we shot the video in a (14 hour) day and the very talented and patient Owen Lang cut it together in record time. The Metro Gallery show of Paper Fish was the debut of the video and all of the Characters currently hang in there to show the viewers a little better what exactly went into it. I’ll post the video here once merge records does their official release. Until then visit The Metro Gallery if you’re in the Baltimore area for a more intimate viewing of an incredible work of art.
Beat the Bug
Flu season isn’t over yet
Here’s the first image I did for the Ladies at Wellness in a Box. “Beat the Bug” is the first kit in a line of homeopathic remedies being provided online here.
CIVILIAN
Jenn and Andy of WYE OAK asked me if they could use the canon ball shot from way back here for the cover of their latest album,civilian, out today. I am Honored to be a small part of this amazing album. I also love how perfectly the title fits the image. All that plus such nice words from Jenn and Andy via spinner.com back on Feb 28
Spinner.com:
What’s the origin of the ‘Civilian’ cover art?
AS: It’s a photograph that was taken by our good friend Mike O’Leary, who is a Baltimore photographer. He’s got a magical quality to a lot of his stuff. That was an underwater photograph, and we actually had that cover selected before we stepped in the studio.
JW: It was really odd because we had been talking about Mike’s photography as potential cover art for awhile. Andy just happened to see that on Facebook, and we both immediately said, “That’s it.” I had the cover and the image floating around in the back of my mind pretty much the entire time I was writing the record. I strongly associate it with this batch of songs.
If you haven’t heard the music, listen here and buy it here.
one more..
another shot from the same morning featured in the urbanite way back in September. Read the whole article here.
Tidewater Brewing Company
I did some work last October for my new favorite Craft Brewery, Tidewater Brewing Company. They’re located right in Baltimore City, and Tyler’s Vanilla Coffee Stout is by far the best Coffee Stout around.
grianghrafadóir - noun, photographer 