well... can we?

movin' on movin' out.

2011-07-05T21:28:00.000-04:00

ok, yeah.. tumblr... canweplease.tumblr.com

canweplease.tumblr.com

2011-06-24T17:11:00.001-04:00

as is the trend these days, i am going to be gradually making the move over to tumblr.

canweplease.tumblr.com

check back here in the meantime, but do go ahead and start to follow me over there while i get situated and begin to post current work... then ultimately and inevitably cut the cord. i know i know.. memories and such! anyway... moving on! come with.

-b

maxim mag july 2011

2011-06-16T15:11:00.002-04:00

behind the scenes video of NFL photo shoot on maxim.com HERE

I shot all of this stuff for the current issue of maxim magazine. go get a copy!We shot Carissa Rosario at the office as the "new assitant"NFL superstars keeping busy as interns during the lockout and I went down to ATL to party for a night on the weird part of town with the boys in Black Lips you can see portraits of Black Lips on my website too.hereand here
yes please and thankyou.-b

that time we laughed for an entire day and didn't die.

2011-06-14T19:47:00.001-04:00

aftermath

2011-06-14T19:30:00.000-04:00

SEE YOU ALL SOON!!! thanks mercury lounge! -love, teenage angst.

memorial daze

2011-06-14T19:28:00.002-04:00

teenage angst

2011-06-09T01:56:00.001-04:00

soooo.. may have mentioned im in a nirvana cover band called teenage angst. we played the mercury lounge with our buddies mick's jaguar the other night. great night. here is some stuff...

jamie peck for the village voice did a really nice write-up about our set (illo by debbie allen). check it out here

and our buddy kate got a decent video of us playing breed on her iphone which you should go ahead watch here (i wanted to embed the vid here but it didn't want to work. whatever.)

anyway... if you were there; thank you, if you were there and sang along, thank you, and if you were there and stage dove, thank you, and if you were there and you were the guy that said "play pearl jam".. well come on guy, don't be that guy... and if you missed us i hope you know someone who was there because they probably had a lot of fun and will talk you into going to the next one. thanks in advance.

-b

look book for catherine fulmer

2011-06-07T14:46:00.002-04:00

Catherine Fulmer Website

model: ksenia golubeva / women model management nyc
hair: billy keith lawhon
makeup: alexandra kwiatkowski

camera phone

2011-06-07T12:30:00.000-04:00

crash, burn, get up, crash, burn, get up, crash

2011-05-27T13:19:00.000-04:00

interaction of color at vice style dot com

2011-05-26T12:16:00.000-04:00

This shoot is based on the Josef Albers book of the same name. click the image above to go to the set at vicestyle.com

Photos Ben Ritter
Creative Director John McSwain
Styling Annette Lamothe-Ramos
Hair Lena Ott
Make-Up Erin Green
Models Sam, Heidi, Rachel at Major

Some words from creative director john mcswain about his concept.

Well, where to begin? We thought that maybe this story could use a little history for those potentially unfamiliar with the subject instead of leaving it pretentiously wide open. The Interaction of Color is based on Josef Albers' influential color theory book of the same name. This book, its collection of images and its simple basic layout of colors and the way they, oh what's the word, interact with each other is a staple of introductory art school courses. A few years ago I became heavily interested in vibrating colors and the effects they can have on one's perception, specifically their potential for hallucinatory gain. I often used to head to the MoMA to zone out in front of the Yves Klein blue or the Dan Flavin neon. I once even lost total track of time just staring at some blue graffiti on a bright red wall at Max Fish. I ran through some old color theory texts to research this interest and kept returning to this book. I didn't receive a whole lot of info on the subject but there's just something so very elegant about the book. And so finally the idea arose to create an editorial based on a few images that stood out to us from the book. Ben, Annette and I began working on the logistics of turning colors, shapes and patterns into babes, colors, shapes and patterns. I guess some of you will recognize some images and for those that don't but have interest I highly recommend you look into the book and Albers himself. Art school or not I think many of us have so many shared experiences based on key texts, ideas and theories and it's fun to acknowledge the influence that they've had and to help spread them to new readers elsewhere. Enjoy!

i can tell you what isn't going on

2011-05-23T17:50:00.000-04:00

teenage angst

2011-05-16T13:50:00.001-04:00

this is the press photo for our nirvana cover band. shows TBA soon. you can follow us on twitter you may already be my friend on facebook or get info here as shows are announced.

UPDATE: MERCURY LOUNGE JUNE 4TH LATE NIGHT
http://www.mercuryloungenyc.com/event/6532

Teenage Angst is the greatest / only Nirvana cover band in New York. After a winter bender and an ungodly amount of time spent watching live footage the trio decided their lives would be nothing if they didn't begin playing Nirvana songs immediately. They quickly realized that 15+ years of sitting on couches noodling on favorite songs and eating pizza was actually just practice in disguise. And now here you have it: the best/worst thing to ever happen to / because of Nirvana.

twitter: @teenageangst_
or just follow me @thisisbenritter

i'll post all of the same info, natch.
-b

molly jong-fast, interview mag . com

2011-05-10T14:22:00.001-04:00

came across this portrait of writer and candidate for my favorite person i have ever met, molly jong-fast on the Interview Magazine website. she was interviewed about her new book 'the social climbers handbook'
Interview Magazine

nothing doin nothing new

2011-05-09T16:56:00.000-04:00

window shopping

2011-05-08T12:14:00.002-04:00

and by that you mean basically everything.

2011-05-06T16:01:00.000-04:00

amy's head on a shelf.

2011-05-04T19:13:00.000-04:00

if you know amy then the above image should freak you out and if you don't then nevermind.

japan rising art auction. milk gallery, nyc. april 28, 2011

2011-04-29T01:00:00.002-04:00

close call, long day, but i made it to the Japan Rising art auction www.japanrising.org benefit show tonight at Milk Gallery in nyc.. my series of 2 prints entitled "babes doing things that draw attention to their mouths" sold!!! really could not be happier. here are some crappy camera phone pictures that in no way do this incredible and very massive event any justice at all. Thanks and thanks and thanks to Mayumi Tatsuta, Erik Lavoie and Ben Pruess for putting the event together.

update: over 40k raised!!!

you're on fire aren't you

2011-04-21T17:19:00.002-04:00

2 fornicating dinosaurs, one wasted, and one just wants to leave this freaky apocoliptic party.

2011-04-20T20:46:00.001-04:00

japan rising benefit auction - milk gallery april 28th(600)

2011-04-15T19:03:00.000-04:00

599 Posts

2011-04-10T10:35:00.000-04:00

the next thing i post on this blog will be #600.. i agree that this is hardly a milestone number to acknowledge, but i didn't notice when 500 came and went and 750 is a little ways away...for now, a 4 year document of wins, losses, good ideas, good ideas gone bad and everything that gets me to those conclusions. to be continued..

The image above is the first photo I posted on canweplease. if you visit from time to time you may note that not too much has changed...but maybe just enough, yeah?

-b

i haven't said

2011-04-09T23:16:00.001-04:00

some stuff from my camera phone and others.

2011-04-09T14:42:00.001-04:00

big clothes at vicestyle.com

2011-04-03T03:13:00.000-04:00

big clothes @ vice style

photos: ben ritter

styling: annette lamothe-ramos

hair and makeup: erin green

models: mikhail at request; shiya at trump

art show

2011-04-01T01:41:00.001-04:00

see you there, punk.

four good vibes

2011-03-30T21:50:00.000-04:00

what if i actually don't.

2011-03-28T18:06:00.004-04:00

what's next is the worst question

2011-03-21T16:05:00.000-04:00

settle up, grow down

2011-03-14T16:25:00.000-04:00

ny1

2011-03-13T22:52:00.000-04:00

imagination untamed

2011-03-09T18:19:00.002-05:00

ghost train

2011-03-09T14:09:00.002-05:00

prefers blastoff to takeoff

2011-03-07T18:45:00.000-05:00

some maps

2011-03-01T15:02:00.002-05:00

all via google image search

living in the past from here on

2011-02-27T16:33:00.000-05:00

signs of life

2011-02-24T13:54:00.000-05:00

famous friends part 2

2011-02-23T14:17:00.000-05:00

happy birthday

2011-02-20T14:09:00.002-05:00

photo: by Jesse Frohman, 1994

famous friends and total strangers

2011-02-17T23:56:00.003-05:00

are we ok? you look as though i've seen a ghost.

2011-02-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

nyfw spring 2011

the illusion of 659 friends

2011-02-14T15:04:00.000-05:00

smile - nyfw february, 2011

2011-02-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

one day tk

2011-02-11T16:23:00.002-05:00

makeshift dolly - test

2011-02-09T17:34:00.003-05:00

the fader

2011-02-08T21:21:00.003-05:00

took me 2 years to discover that the fader.com ran a bunch of my shots of the antlers. into it. click here to go to there.

here's the thing..

2011-02-05T16:32:00.000-05:00

1.i don't really like competing in competitive sports. I don't completely dislike it, but certainly it has never been something i would be closely associated with.

2. i had high hopes for the second cookie, but alas.

3. it goes without saying that falsely claiming that i like something whether it is true or not does not a fortune make. it is a waste of paper when put inside of a cookie that taste horrible so this was just a total disaster.

2 hours spent

2011-02-04T00:27:00.000-05:00

arts and crafts.

phone pics

2011-02-02T17:59:00.000-05:00

1996

2011-01-28T14:48:00.001-05:00

from left to right: me, kate, sarah.

north creek

2011-01-24T17:40:00.002-05:00

more chloe

2011-01-20T19:08:00.000-05:00

enjoy some outtakes from my recent shoot with chloe sevigny.

a quick reminder that everything on canweplease.blogspot.com is ©ben ritter, unless otherwise noted. please contact me directly or production@retna.com for syndication requests.

freezing with a zero percent chance of springtime.

2011-01-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

1-4

2011-01-19T17:00:00.001-05:00

maxim - feb 2011 -travis pastrana

2011-01-17T15:19:00.002-05:00

maxim mag had me meet up with travis pastrana for a quick portrait in chicago at the big buck hunter world championships. big buck is apparently how he unwinds after back flipping motorcycles out of helicopters. many thanks to maxim for the call.

-b

profiles

2011-01-17T10:46:00.000-05:00

the boston phoenix

2011-01-13T14:46:00.006-05:00

chloe sevigny for the cover of the boston phoenix! I was there intern 8 years ago! Many thanks to Kristen G for thinking of me to do the shoot. I will post more images from the sometime soon. Lots of great portraits.

http://www.thephoenix.com

82 shots from the year 2010 that were posted on this blog over the aforementioned year in no particular order.

2011-01-13T14:20:00.002-05:00

tardy to the pardy

2011-01-05T19:44:00.001-05:00

mahalo for the tip

2011-01-05T15:38:00.002-05:00

hawaii vacay 2011

2011

2011-01-05T12:53:00.001-05:00

10 photos that i made that i like

2010-12-20T16:42:00.000-05:00

i entered a contest recently. there were no guidelines, no categories, no nothing, just a suggestion to submit a portfolio that represents your *best* work. how does anyone even win something like that? so anyway...i like these 10.

ksenia

2010-12-17T17:57:00.002-05:00

look book

2010-12-17T15:11:00.001-05:00

catherine fulmer is updating her collections on her website. We threw together a little shoot.

www.catherinefulmer.com

photos: ritter

model: ksenia golubeva / women model management nyc

hair: billy keith lawhon

makeup: alexandra kwiatkowski

i forgot where i've been

2010-12-14T18:23:00.000-05:00

moving photos

2010-12-13T11:27:00.002-05:00

these are some of my first tests, my goal is to enjoy some new ways of seeing and as well to stay progressive. I am interested in working on portrait type videos more so then documentaries or stories. I want to have this, for now, become an extension of my photo portfolio. I tell you this because I welcome you to discuss and collaborate with me.

my vimeo page

-b

memory lane

2010-12-09T17:26:00.000-05:00

this is my grandparents on the day they got engaged.

Dave J's autograph book. he had a good day that day he did.

russia

2010-12-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

first this then coffee

2010-11-30T17:04:00.001-05:00

hair

2010-11-09T07:24:00.000-05:00

memories

2010-11-03T15:00:00.002-04:00

from left to right: the bear vice murdered, me, the burger king king and johnny.

photo: angie

little lady.

2010-11-02T16:25:00.000-04:00

magazine cover.

2010-11-02T14:45:00.002-04:00

101 hairstyles magazine picked up this portrait i shot a while ago for their current cover. i was disappointed to find that the magazine actually featured closer to 140 hairstyles. I did not get an exact count.

-b

aspire

2010-11-01T18:23:00.000-04:00

i have film to get processed, i promise. camera phone again to tide us over.

2010-10-24T13:59:00.004-04:00

juice box bear, vice office. was killed on a shoot for VBS in alaska. it was in self defensee, the bear was being a dick.. story here.http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2010/08/26/our-bear-is-here/

this place has been open for years.

2010-10-21T10:17:00.001-04:00

Andreea Rosen had a bunch of stuff to say about pets pasta shoes and glasses and it was a good thing Vice Magazine was planning a comedy themed issue so she could have the forum to tell you all about these things. Doing a shoot with weird pets, Italian foods and farm animals is a market I am now trying to corner ..so back off my spot!
VICE

oh, hey there.

2010-10-18T19:49:00.000-04:00

phone

2010-10-03T13:54:00.000-04:00

save ferris

phone-tographs

2010-09-25T18:20:00.000-04:00

Bobbi Brown - Beauty Rules

2010-09-24T15:06:00.001-04:00

I have mentioned that I have done a bit of work for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Last summer I spent a good part of my time working on her current book "Beauty Rules". Above you can see screen grabs from the Today show of her promoting the project and some of the images I shot that ran on the TV.

10 years ago Bobbi published a teen beauty book and this is the updated version. For this project I handled all of the behind the scenes shooting and as well was trusted with many portrait and then even product shooting assignments. It was an amazing opportunity all around. Below you can see some more of my published efforts. All of the young women featured were a family friend of Bobbi's, a local waitress or a young lady found on the beach and so on. The project was really from the heart which made the work fun and effortless. Certainly teen beauty is not my day to day comfort zone, but when you are working with the best and the brightest and making work to promote positivity it is surprisingly really easy to connect and dive in. For Bobbi to have me capturing images of her family and present for events in her own personal life truly made this one of the more unique photo assignments I have ever taken on. The brunt of the portrait and beauty photography were handled by the ever energetic and talented Ondrea Barbe.

this is from the 10 years later chapter. Girls were featured in the original teen book a decade ago. I shot them in their original poses which were intended to run side by side which was the concept but they didn't do that. the shots hold up on their own though, so it's cool

backstage

We were shooting the makeup team doing pre prom makeup for the book and then Bobbi asked me to come to the pre prom party where all of the parents take photos and the kids get in the limos. no joke. shes funny like that, and honestly, this is the best kind of stuff you can get.

before and after type stuff

simple lessons for good health..

Bobbi backstage in feb 2010 NYFW with Rachel Bilson

her nephews at the beach. they shred, no joke.

Bobbi's son's Jr. prom date getting her makeup done by Bobbi herself.

Insert some nostalgic song reflecting on your own teenage years here.

Buy your little sister a copy.

Amazon.com

lets do this again sometime.

-b

Stylelist.com fall looks

2010-09-20T18:43:00.000-04:00

I shot the Fall beauty and fashion for stylelist.com recently. the articles are going up one by one over the next couple of weeks. This particular one is the "kate moss hair look" The article is complete with a nifty slider tool over the large photo to see the before and after. click on the image to go to there.

nyfw - september 2010

2010-09-15T15:29:00.004-04:00

ritter for estee lauder at blackbookmag.com

2010-09-13T17:37:00.002-04:00

very happy too see some of my coverage for Estee Lauder at the Derek Lam show this past sunday is already making its way its way out into the world. I was sent some other links but BlackBook was the coolest. No offense 'other blogs.'
BlackBook

-b

UPDATE:

allure

not familiar with temptalia.com, but it looks legit and i like that they led with a different photo.
there are more and more but, i mean, you get it and more than likely don't care.

almost.

2010-09-13T10:32:00.001-04:00

andddd ........ it's ... fall

2010-09-08T23:22:00.004-04:00

nyfw begins.. at the end i will post a big fat edit.
-b

need a priest

2010-09-04T23:21:00.000-04:00

phone

2010-09-04T19:09:00.001-04:00

mechanical bull vs. ritter

2010-09-02T13:02:00.000-04:00

mesmerizing, no? Anyways, this is a week later. In its early days it looked less like beautiful magical rainbow from outer space and more like i was hit repeatedly in the same spot with a blunt object until i finally admitted to whatever it was they were trying to get me to fess up to even though i didn't do it...or something like that.

With all of that said, please don't take pitty! this is what happens when you have a few beers, seek out a mechanical bull, sign a waiver (that should be enough of a red flag for intelligent folks) take a shot of jack while proclaiming "this is the blood of the beast, to tame it i must become one with it" and then proceed to ride the hell out of the aforementioned bull until the pain of my knuckles crashing into the metal structure and the inevitable whiplash were beyond the point of "too much" and my brain begged me to let go. But I digress. No pitty. I earned this one fair and square.
-b

lets get it together again

2010-09-01T18:58:00.000-04:00

elle magazine - september 2010

2010-08-19T18:58:00.000-04:00

... was looking over my girlfriends shoulder as she was scanning the pages of her "bible" and jumped when I spotted a photo i took of Bobbi Brown for the new "Beauty Rules" teen beauty book that will be out any day now. I worked on the book for a significant part of last summer. It was an incredible opportunity as a photographer to be able to work so closely with such influential professionals on such a major project. I'll have more to post about that as soon as I get my hands on a copy. Many thanks to Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and Elle for today's pleasant surprise. For now I'm just stoked that my lady thinks i'm pretty freakin' cool.

-b