Cover and feature photography for Maryland Leaf magazine's February 2020 issue

Eric Kayne February 4, 2020

I hope your week is going well because it’s about to get a lot better after you check out the pics I made for my first Maryland Leaf assignment! We toured the grow operations at gLeaf Medical Cannabis in Frederick, Maryland for the February issue.

On Assignment: Laura Jo Degan for Newsweek

Eric Kayne May 20, 2016

On Assignment: Travis Arnold for MD Anderson Cancer Center's Conquest Magazine

Eric Kayne May 17, 2016

I'm proud to have another great-looking tear sheet from an assignment I completed for MD Anderson Cancer Center's Conquest Magazine. Travis Arnold, a 17-year old from Spring, Texas, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia - a fast-growing cancer of the white blood cells. With the help of the doctors at MD Anderson Childrens Cancer Hospital, a half-match bone marrow transplant was performed. Travis recovered and is now a top-rated golfer on Klein High School's Bearkat golf team.

Page 28 and 29, Spring 2016 issue of Conquest magazine

JLabs at the Texas Medical Center for Houstonia Magazine

Eric Kayne April 21, 2016

In a former Nabisco cookie factory near the Texas Medical Center stands a futuristically decorated science and technology incubator called JLabs. The project, "part of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LLC, is a network of incubators providing emerging companies with many of the advantages of being in a big company without the capital investment. Residents have access to turnkey, state-of-the-art infrastructure, including singular bench tops, modular wet lab units and office space on a short-term basis." - http://www.tmcinnovation.org/jlabs/

An assignment from Houstonia magazine that began as a request for interiors for a quarter page turned into a full-page portrait and multi-page display after ad pages were added to the magazine near the end of production. Working with the talented and versatile art director Tanyia Johnson, we turned out some tear sheets I'm quite proud of.

Francisco Sanchez for Emergency Management magazine

Eric Kayne November 5, 2013

In the United States' fourth largest city, emergency management is crucial. Emergency Management magazine recently published a profile on Francisco Sanchez, the liaison for Harris County Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Having shot at the TranStar facility before, I already knew what the interior looked like and what to expect. Wanting to do something different, I suggested we go to the roof of the building. I saw a nice bank of clouds from an approaching cold front I knew would make a good foreboding background, and my gut was telling me the roof was likely filled with antennas, which it was. Having been photographed many times before, Francisco told me this was the first time anyone had suggested photographing on the roof. Once I knew I had a decent shot, I showed him the back of the camera and he was as pleased as I was.

Tearsheet from Emergency Management magazine

New work: August 2012 edition of The Texas Observer

Eric Kayne July 30, 2012

Earlier this month, I was contacted by Kate Iltis of EmDash, the company contracted to design The Texas Observer. I met Kate when she reviewed my portfolio at the Texas Photo Round-up, my first gig that was a direct result of attending the gathering.

I was excited when she contacted me about doing a story in Freeport, Texas, where I had lived for a year as a staff photographer at the local newspaper about ten years ago. The story was about Gulf Chemical, a poorly regulated chemical recycler that was found to have been dumping massive amounts of waste into local waters and the air, among other concerns. Kate really wanted smoke coming out of the stacks, but the company would only go full bore during the cover of night or during rainstorms. Freeport is an hour and ten minutes south of me. I left very early to try and catch smoke emitting from the stacks. However, when I got down there, there was no smoke to be seen. I made do with what was there and then decided to check out the shrimp boat docks that are about a mile away to photograph a shrimper that I knew was half-submerged in the Old Brazos River (I knew this because this same boat has been rotting away in the canal at least since I was a photographer at the local paper ten years ago). As I was working the half-sunken shrimp boat, I saw a yellow fishing boat heading in the opposite direction. I decided to track it and as I spun around, I saw a big plume of yellow, sulfurous smoke come out of one of the stacks. I started hammering away on the shutter, silently muttering prayers of thanks to the photo gods. According to writer Forrest Wilder, "Those brief "puffs" are due to the "rapping" units at Gulf Chem. It's an inherent part of the system there and allowed by TCEQ. A former executive with the company explained it to me."

I've found environmental stories to be some of the most challenging assignments I've had to shoot. Pollution is rarely something that can been seen with the naked eye, so it was a nice surprise.

The only real moment of drama was something that I had halfway expected and something that I'm unfortunately used to from working as an editorial photographer in Houston for the past five years. Whenever I pull over to the side of the road on a public thoroughfare to photograph a chemical or oil refinery, a plant security guard almost always drives out to where I am, parks behind my car, writes down my license plate number, and asks me a lot of questions. Even though what I'm doing is perfectly legal, it's their job to make it as uncomfortable an experience as possible. This time, I did have someone park behind me while I was photographing the plant from a different angle from what's in the tearsheet. However, he never got out and engaged me. It was, after all, drizzling and the air was thick with mosquitos.

I've added a couple of out-takes in the end. One is of a 84 year-old barber who has been cutting hair in the same building since the mid-1950's. He was born next door. Despite being downwind from Gulf Chemical since it's inception, he is completely healthy and has no complaints. The guy repairing nets is Tom, who owns and operates Tom's Net Shop. He spends his days repairing nets used for shrimping. I found it amazing that his job hadn't been replaced by machines.[gallery link="file"]

New tearsheet - Harvard Business Review

Eric Kayne July 3, 2012

I was recently contacted by the Harvard Business Review to drive up to New Waverly, Texas to photograph gymnastics coaching legend Bela Karolyi. Few have the reputation for coaching champion gymnasts like Karolyi. I wasn't sure to expect, but in a way, it seemed like a pilgrimage. Many of my favorite Houston-based editorial photographers had, at one time or another, made the same drive out into the woods of the Sam Houston National Forest to document the silver-haired Hungarian. When I got there, a film crew from Yahoo was just wrapping up. The threesome told me they were traveling around the country interviewing athletic greats. Man, what a great gig that is. Then they asked me about living in Houston, and then moved on to wonder out loud why anyone would want to live anywhere other than Los Angeles. Being a media grunt, I could see his point. There is definitely more action on the coasts. But I digress.

I wasn't sure how much time I'd have with Bela, so I made sure to set up with a quickness. To say that the gymnasium was warm would be an understatement. By the time I was finished setting up for the first shot, I was drenched. I let the maintenance guy know I was ready for Bela. Two minutes later, he arrived by golf cart and strode over the padded gymnasium floor and asked me where I'd like him to stand. I didn't really have to give him much direction. I'm sure this was the 1,237th time he'd been photographed. He feel into a relaxed stance, and we got busy. I'm glad I did all the sweating for us.

The only restrictions I had were knowing that the final image would be black and white, and that the designer needed about 1/3 of the frame available for text. Being able to control the light indoors was a plus. We were the only people in there so I had all the lights turned off and could actually use my modeling lights, which I'm almost never able to do. Another plus was Karolyi's silver hair and mustache, which I knew if I lit well, would draw the eye right to his face.

Bela stood calmly while I sweated and worked the first set up. We eventually moved to a second set-up, the uneven bars, where I made a few more pictures. My personal favorite is the shot by the uneven bars. HBR liked the vertical shot.

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Fall 2010 Print Promotion is ready to start!

Eric Kayne October 10, 2010

There's nothing like the smell of 815 promotional booklets in the morning! This weekend will be spent stuffing and stamping a 16-page CD booklet format that premieres work I did over the summer for indie band Arcade Fire.

It was designed by Greece-based designer Michael Karakostas and coordinated by photo consultant extraordinaire Jasmine DeFoore. It took about 10-12 weeks or so to complete from beginning to end. The printing was done by Jakprints and they did a phenomenal job.

It will be sent to 815 art buyers, ad agencies and photo editors across the nation.

What do you think?