THE CONTENT CAMPUSTCC Art Life
Behind the Lens

On Set

The camera turns around

Kyla Ray turns the lens on Max Luger, crouched low on a crosswalk and directing a 2020 test shoot, beside the crews he photographed on separate jobs.

Words: Onome T, Chief Writer · Photographs: Max Luger · Pictures of Max: Kyla Ray

Kevin Costner, in sunglasses and a black T-shirt, talks with his hands to Max Luger, bearded in a cap, as they sit on wooden benches in a grassy field, with the black Toyota truck parked behind them.
Kevin Costner and Toyota collaboration · The Content Campus Photography

Frame 15 puts him on the ground. Max Luger crouches in a crosswalk in a white T-shirt and patterned head scarf, camera aimed down a sidewalk lined with parked cars. He is low and close, and the picture is in black and white. For once, it is not his picture. Kyla Ray made it.

On Set is about what happens around a camera on a job. Kyla Ray made eight of these frames, numbered 14 through 21, and in every one of them the man with the camera is Max. They show how he works and nothing more: where he puts his body, how close he gets, who he talks to. Max Luger is the founder of The Content Campus, which publishes TCC Art Life.

Seven of the frames come from a 2020 fashion test shoot. The model wears a hat and a brown leather dress. Frame 16 is the crosswalk again, in color, and it shows what the black and white held back: a green-and-white head scarf, red sneakers, a cracked sidewalk, brick buildings in daylight. He is still crouched and still down at street level.

Then the room changes. In 17 he stands in front of a studio backdrop with a hand on his hip, facing the model. In 18, in a bare warehouse, he gestures toward her while a man in glasses stands behind her. That is directing, and Kyla Ray caught the gesture as it happened.

Frame 19 turns the view around: Max seen from behind, photographing the model as she poses in a tree-lined street. In 20 he is off the camera altogether, working on her hair with a stylist while the camera hangs around his neck. Frame 21 is the quiet one: Max checking his camera in a brick-walled studio, a clothing rack and a brown backdrop behind him. Look at where the camera is in each frame. It never leaves him.

Frame 14 is a different kind of picture, and it gets its own space. On 30 May 2020, during the George Floyd protests in New York, Kyla Ray photographed Max on a street with his fist raised and his camera on his chest. Max photographed those New York protests himself. This frame records that Max was among them with a camera.

The rest of On Set turns the camera back around, onto Max's own jobs. Each one was separate, and each gets its own space.

Max was the photographer on the Toyota campaign with Kevin Costner, hired as an independent contractor working with Saatchi & Saatchi. Frames 08 through 13 are that set, and the crew is the subject. Three men work around a black pickup loaded on a flatbed trailer on a lawn, one smiling at the camera with a white hat in his hand. A man with a video camera on his shoulder films three people beside a black overland pickup with a roof rack, hills behind them. A crew member lifts a canvas awning while camera operators film beside a bus. In 12, seven musicians on stools and amplifiers play drums, guitars, banjo and harmonica in front of a polished metal trailer. In 13, seen through a trailer window, two men sit holding phones while a third stands behind them.

Max photographed for Off-White with RSVP, the store. Frames 06 and 07 are his work with RSVP. Frame 06 comes from a test shoot: five people in layered streetwear on and around the open tailgate of a lifted pickup on a sunlit city street. Frame 07 comes from an event: a DJ working a Pioneer controller on an orange-draped table against a brick wall.

His RISD Class of 2020 editorial, as photographer and art director, was featured in Vogue and Paper magazine. RISD's own news story on its Collection 2020 book names him plainly: the book is "featuring the studio photography of Max Luger (The Content Campus)."

The class had its own year, and RISD said it plainly. The school wrote that "the Class of 2020 had to leave campus abruptly in the middle of their final semester," and that the graduates "missed out on the opportunity to show their senior thesis collections in the department’s annual spring runway show." RISD says the book "provides a backstage view of a virtual fashion show featuring the work of an international and globally conscious group".

In Los Angeles in 2016, Max shot the India Love / Life of Pablo photo shoot for Kanye West, with Ian Connor. The Life of Pablo is West's seventh studio album. On February 11, 2016, West premiered an early version of the album at Madison Square Garden during the presentation of his Yeezy Season 3 clothing line. The album was released on February 14, 2016, through GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings.

Which brings it back to 15. Most frames on this page show a set Max built or a crew he watched. Kyla Ray's frame shows the part that usually stays behind the camera: a man down on the asphalt in a crosswalk, waiting on the picture.

“Look at where the camera is in each frame. It never leaves him.”
Sources
  1. RISD: Ready to Reshape Fashion (Collection 2020)
  2. Wikipedia: The Life of Pablo

Onome T is one of TCC Art Life’s AI writers. Every story is researched, fact-checked and approved by Max Luger before it runs. How we work

In black and white, a bearded man in sunglasses, a patterned head scarf and dark clothes stands on a street crosswalk, raising a clenched fist, a camera hanging at his chest.
Max Luger on a New York street on 30 May 2020, during the George Floyd protests. He photographed those protests himself. Photograph: Kyla Ray
A bearded man in a green-and-white head scarf, white T-shirt and red sneakers crouches on a crosswalk, photographing along a cracked sidewalk beside brick buildings in daylight.
The crosswalk in color: Max shoots along a cracked sidewalk beside brick buildings, 2020 test shoot. Photograph: Kyla Ray
In black and white, a bearded man with a camera and head scarf stands with a hand on his hip, facing a woman in a hat and leather dress before a studio backdrop.
Max faces the model in front of a studio backdrop, hand on hip, 2020 test shoot. Photograph: Kyla Ray
In a bare warehouse, a bearded man with a camera and red sneakers gestures toward a woman in a pink hat and brown leather dress, while a man in glasses stands behind her.
Max directs the model in a bare warehouse, 2020 test shoot. Photograph: Kyla Ray
Seen from behind, a man in a head scarf and white T-shirt photographs a woman in a pink hat and brown leather dress, who poses in a tree-lined street.
Max photographs the model as she poses in a tree-lined street, 2020 test shoot. Photograph: Kyla Ray
In black and white, two men in a bare studio style a seated woman's voluminous hair, one wearing a cap, the other a patterned headscarf with a camera around his neck.
Max and a stylist work on the model's hair, his camera around his neck. Photograph: Kyla Ray
A bearded man in a patterned headscarf and white T-shirt checks his camera in a brick-walled studio, with a clothing rack and a brown backdrop behind him.
Max checks his camera in a brick-walled studio, 2020 test shoot. Photograph: Kyla Ray
Three men work around a black pickup loaded on a flatbed trailer on a lawn; one smiles at the camera holding a white hat.
Toyota campaign set: crew work around a black pickup on a flatbed trailer.
A man shoulders a video camera, filming three people talking beside a black overland pickup with a roof rack in a sunlit, grassy clearing with hills behind.
Toyota campaign set: a camera operator films beside a black overland pickup.
Under bright sunlight, a crew member lifts a canvas awning while a man and woman stand in a clearing and camera operators film them beside a bus.
Toyota campaign set: a crew member lifts a canvas awning while camera operators film beside a bus.
Outdoors, a gray-haired man in sunglasses and black T-shirt gestures while talking with a bearded man in a black cap holding wireless audio gear.
Toyota campaign set: a conversation beside wireless audio gear.
In black and white, seven musicians seated on stools and amplifiers play drums, guitars, banjo and harmonica in front of a polished metal trailer on grass.
Toyota campaign set: seven musicians in front of a polished metal trailer.
Seen through a trailer window in black and white, two men in black T-shirts sit holding phones while a third man in a plaid shirt stands behind.
Toyota campaign set: seen through a trailer window.
Five people in layered streetwear pose on and around the open tailgate of a lifted pickup on a sunlit city street beside a box truck.
Max's work with RSVP: a test shoot.
A DJ in a black tee works a Pioneer controller on an orange-draped table against a brick wall while a person in a gray shirt leans past.
Max's work with RSVP: an event.
A shirtless tattooed man in orange sunglasses and a gold chain faces a curly-haired woman in a white tee beneath a running shower, smoke drifting between them.
Frame 01.
A woman with braided updo, nose ring and jeweled teeth covers rests a tattooed hand at her lip, wearing a peach sweatshirt and layered necklaces indoors.
Frame 02.

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