I just got my hands on the 2011 All Gone. If you’re not familiar with All Gone, it’s kind of like a year book for the most sought after street culture items of the year. The book usually sells out before it’s even released and becomes a collectors item itself. This year I photographed the Harmony Korine + Supreme collaboration. There were many concepts thrown around and a completely different setup was planed to be shot, but when the models, props etc. didn’t show up on time, we had to improvise. This is definitely a departure from most of my work, but we had a blast shooting it and I’m really happy with the way it turned out. If you’re interested in grabbing a copy before they sell out, you can do so here: or drop by one of the launch parties going down this month.

This past July I spent 9 days in India roaming around two of the finest hotels in the world for Travel + Leisure. I’ve done travel stories before but this one was unique because I didn’t leave the hotel for the entire trip. The best way to describe it would be Lost In Translation meets The Shinning. (Not the redrum parts, just the being isolated in a large hotel parts)

My brief for the job was to “do what you do” which is always the best brief one can receive. First thoughts after receiving the assignment were, how the hell am I going to shoot one hotel for four days? Well, I sure was wrong. As the sun was setting on day four I was franticly running through the halls of the hotel trying to get to the ideal vantage point to capture that perfect closing shot.

Even though the rooms, views, food and pools were amazing, my best memories from the trip were the times hanging with the young porters (aka my assistants) bs ing about motorcycles, music and cricket. Being in a hotel for 9 days solo can get kind of lonely, so it was nice to run around these massive properties with my new friends who were as excited as I was about finding that good light.

This assignment was one of the best of my career, but the real icing on the cake was getting the January cover. Thanks again for giving me a shot Whitney.

Here are a couple outtakes and a tear.

A couple of months ago a rare thing happened, the opportunity to photograph some of the world’s most talented chefs literally landed on my doorstep.

Food is one of my top five passions/obsessions and I must say I was just a little excited when I found out this years Le Grand Fooding event “Equisite Corpse” was going to be held in my studio’s common area.

Minutes after the chefs finished preparing their four course tasting menu, I ushered them into my studio and photographed them still sweating from the tiny makeshift kitchen they’d been cooking in for hours. The dinner ran consecutively from Friday night at 9pm until midnight Sunday and I spent most of the weekend camped out in my studio shooting around the clock.

Next time you are in Paris pickup a copy of the latest Le Fooding, or take a look at the images here:

You can also check out this video to get a better idea of the event and some behind the scenes action from the chefs here:

This August I spent four days at the Indianapolis GP with my father. The Moto GP series is the most prestigious platform for motorcycle racing in the world. The riders, teams and officials travel to 14 countries and compete in 18 races.They arrive on a Wednesday, unload and build the paddock Thursday, practice Friday, qualify Saturday, race Sunday and break everything down that night and do it all over again next week.

My father raced Moto GP in the 70’s and I spent a lot of my childhood in racing paddocks. This was my first GP in 5 years and it was planned as a father and son weekend not a photo project, but after arriving in the paddock and being consumed by the energy of the bikes, media and fanatics I knew I had to shoot it.

Having no media pass I snooped around as much as possible and focused mainly on the action that took place before and after the race. The fans and media are relentless (you must remember, in Europe these riders are up there with Footballers and Rock Stars) so I decided to take a step back and capture the frenzy. In the afternoon when the fans left and things mellowed out, I photographed the mechanics and racers.

These are some photos I shot while I was in Indianapolis having a great four days with my pops. Enjoy.

http://dustinaksland.com/the-indy-grand-prix/

In addition to shooting stills for the September issue, I also shot and directed my first video for Dwell.

I recently spent the day photographing NYC architect Jeff Sherman and his beautiful Brooklyn brownstone home for the September issue of Dwell. It was inspiring to see what hard work, patience and a lot of creativity could produce on a limited budget. Check out Jeff’s great story here:

Last month I headed back to SF to shoot Saul Griffith for Details’ feature story “The Makers”. It’s always great when you are invited into a designer/inventors workshop and allowed free reign to snoop around and shoot whatever you like, while chatting about the important issues of the day, like renewable energy and creating electric bicycles that have enough power to pop wheelies. Here are some outtakes from the shoot. You can view the story here:

If you’re in the neighborhood…….My latest series Sounds of the Soil will be showing at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago. The opening is Friday July 15 and will run until Sept. 3 The show is part of their new Ctrl+P series that brings work found online to gallery walls:

Ctrl+P: Photography taken offline is an exciting new venture at Catherine Edelman Gallery inspired by the hundreds of photographs we see on blogs and online galleries. Started in January 2011, Ctrl+P provides further exposure for new artists we find while searching the web, exhibiting a small selection of one person’s work every two months, taking the pictures offline and putting them on the wall. It is our goal that Ctrl+P will provide further exposure for these photographers away from the glow of a computer monitor and without the temptation to click to the next link. We hope you will join us by unplugging from the internet and visiting CEG to see these photographs the way they were intended — in print.

Make sure to check the previous shows by fellow photographers/friends Emiliano Granado and Matt Eich.

A couple of months ago I headed down to the Leifsdottir HQ in Philadelphia, PA to photograph founder/head designer Johanna Uurasjarvi for Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People In Business 2011 issue. You can view the article here:

Shot Hub SoMa, Intersection for the Arts and TechShop in San Francisco for Fast Company magazine. You can read the story here: and see outtakes from the shoot here: