Bret Grafton Creative

visual branding
Fashion

Ricorso

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Swim Editorial

 

 

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Joffrey Ballet Editorial

 

 

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Ricorso Branding

 

Working with Rhea for the initial branding for Ricorso was such a pleasure.  Ricorso is the evolution of the Kirk James label, and the hallmarks of their company are classic silhouettes with a modern edge for elegant and sophisticated style.

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Press Kit for Letta

Letta is a singer/songwriter that flew to Chicago to work with me on her first album.  We decided on a bohemian chic look for her branding, and used the Catalyst Ranch as our location.  I was fortunate to book an amazing crew for this production, and my stylist Beth Berlin, was able to pull a huge collection of clothes and accessories for Letta to try.

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Fashion Photography featuring Lara Miller designs

 

Lara Miller is an incredible green designer and all her hand-loomed garments are crafted in the USA from sustainable fabrics.  I photographed her Spring 2012 collection at Macy’s and worked with model Valentine.  Lara also has a habit of naming her designs after people she knows – so check out the “Bret necklace” here – which is fairly cool.

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Editorial Photography featuring Mondo Guerra and his fashions

My shoot with Mondo Guerra was my last shoot with MintMale, and it was incredibly involved.  We were at Maxine’s Salon in downtown Chicago.  The actual location was a loft type living space on the roof of the salon, and the stylists were wonderful.  Mondo was going for this”Blade Runner” meets meets slick mannequin look, and I had the models do a lot of stylized poses while leaping in the air.  The eye-visors  Mondo also designed, and the white wigs were shaped by the people at the salon.  A film crew was following me as I was working. Forward Motion Media was creating a mini documentary as a commercial for the salon, and we did testimonials as well on the collaboration with MintMale, Mondo, me and the salon.  To see my Celebrity Portraits of Mondo himself click here. And check out MintMale for additional photos and the upcoming video.

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Fashion Photography: Kirk James Collections at Dana Hotel Chicago

I loved shooting at the Dana Hotel, the space is this incredible marriage of texture and impeccable design.  The fashions were the perfect counterpoint to the space.

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Fine Art Photography: Gothic Carnival

I’m incredibly proud of this series.  I art directed the concept and handmade most of the props and sets.  Heather Bear was a wonderful asset as my make-up artist.

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Fashion Photography featuring suits from Zeglio and Hart Schnaffner Marx

This was one of my favorite fashion shoots for Mint Male, the suits were flown in from New York with the shoes.  I was really going for this 50’s election party scandal thing, and it came together in a great way.  I also like the subtle Chopin vodka branding.

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Celebrity Portraits: Hannah Aitchison

Hannah was a cast member for three seasons on “LA Ink“, and she’s an incredible artist.  She also does all my ink personally- we were really going for some classic pin-up inspired photographs.  I built the heart in my studio and screen-printed the flowers onto it, and the lights are just old christmas lights.

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Fashion Photography featuring the 2009 Kirk James Collection

This shoot had one of the biggest crews I’ve ever managed, but I think the styling turned out amazing.  Kirk James is one of my long term clients, I love their clothes because the models are always very happy.  The taxidermy animals were just a bit fun.

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Fashion Photography featuring Richard Dayhoff underwear

This was my first shoot for Mint Male Magazine and I really wanted to do something high concept.  At one point I had twelve models going through hair and make-up, in this empty mid-construction condo building.  I’m a big fan of manga, and I dreamed up this story about a post-apocalyptic ninja fight club.  Richard’s underwear is a very high end product and it looked great on the models.  The props and concept came together in an amazing way.  The motorcycle was especially fun, we had to idle it into the space and it helped make the perfect cover image.

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Celebrity Portraits: Lady Starlight

Lady Starlight is Lady Gaga’s DJ.  She was in Chicago spinning at Lolopolooza and we decided to do a cover and feature on her.  She has a very cool (Joan Jett) vibe, and her music set is kind of classic hard rock.

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Fashion Photography featuring the 2011 Kirk James spring collection

I’ve been shooting collections for Kirk James for a few years now, and we recently have moved to working with a model in the garments at my studio for their lookbook.  I really like the diptychs as a design element, it’s sort of a mini fashion story.

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Fashion Photography featuring American Apparel underwear

Another editorial spread for Mint Male. I wanted the photos to have a retro 50’s sun-drenched look, the underwear from American Apparel and the Adidas gear finished it nicely.

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Celebrity Portraits: Ronnie Kroell

Ronnie was a contestant on a Bravo show called “I want to be a supermodel”.  The feature we did on him was inspired by the movie “A Single Man” and I was really going for this underlying tension between the models.  There’s never a moment when they’re looking face to face.  The fashions were provided by Cram and Goorin Brothers.

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Celebrity Portraits: Scott Herman

Scott is starting his own fitness empire.  His fitness videos are crazy popular on youtube, and he was a cast-mate on the Real World: Brooklyn.  These photos were originally shot for the November 2010 Mini Mint and I was going for a retro underwear ad look.  I’m especially happy about the shot with the Calvin Klein underwear.

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Model Photography: Kyle Krietemeyer in studio

Fashions from Aldo, Levi’s, Pandelton, Heritage 1981, Joseph Abboud, Zara, French Connection and Diesel.

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Model Photography: Mike Muldoon

 

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