Damn Ugly Photography – Brad Trent

Don’t get confused by the title. I really don’t think any of these photographs are ugly. Quite the opposite actually.

Damn Ugly Photography is the website of a New York based photographer with a great sense of humor – Brad Trent. Growing up in Western Canada he, like many great photographers, began shooting at an early age and later moved to NYC where he started shooting for the Life magazine at the age of 25. Since then he’s done work for major magazines like Time, Newsweek, Esquire, The New York Times and photographed everyone from Barack Obama to Steven Spielberg to CEOs of some of the largest corporations in the US.

Over time as he started shooting with more complex lighting setups, he began a great series he calls “The Artificial Portraits” where he shoots his subjects together with the lights and all gear to show the unreality of the portraits we all see every day. In another series called the Light Tests he shoots his subjects with gray cards and color checkers. Absolutely love these ideas. He also documents some of his shoots on his blog, some of which I will be covering later in the future. Be sure to check out his website for higher res images. More photos inside the post.