Guest Speaker: Josh Lehrer

Advanced Studio Lighting Class (asl) enjoyed a special guest speaker last week, my APA Success Team member and pal Josh Lehrer.  When Josh began his career in photography a few short years ago, he claims he did not know the difference between a Mapplethorpe and a Leibovitz photograph.  Today, in the tradition of Mapplethorpe, Josh’s work is being honored with a one person show at Robert Miller gallery, exclusive dealer of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography in the late 70s.  Although it is a difficult challenge to succeed as a commercial or fine art photographer today Josh continues to stealthily achieve significant recognition in both areas.  A recent APA meeting with Josh reveals a recent assignment to shoot Elton John, plus a peak at one of many times square billboards exhibiting Josh’s colorful images. During the past year this powerhouse artist has completed a major installation of exquisitely produced murals for the Mandarin Oriental Spa in Las Vegas, and his virtuoso cyan-rendered portraits of transgender teens have been featured on the NY Times photography blog.  After studying at
Boston University's School of Fine Arts, Josh enjoyed a career as a theatrical producer in NYC.  It was a natural transition to then sign on for seven years as Director of Photography at Showtime. There he produced television network branding projects and was able to hire and collaborate with notable photographers including Avedon, Leibovitz and David LaChappelle.
Josh graciously agreed to visit our class last friday to discuss his transition from Director to Photographer and further, performed a virtuoso live demo of four basic lighting patterns sans light meter and sans modeling lamps.  He is that good !