Welcome to the Union: Joe Carabeo

After a few months of knowing Joe and following his Twitter, Facebook and blog, I've noticed this guy is a rock star. The funny thing about Joe, is that he knows it too. He's proud of his work, he's driven to do more, all the time. Carabeo is the director of Astray Productions, a film, photography and comic book production company and the head writer at Curls Studio, home of the Legettes and other cute, quirky, crazy comics as drawn by one of the nations premier lady comic book artists - Carolyn Belefski. Then there is the podcast and the panel discussions...and Comic Con and the list goes on. 

I thought I had a lot of energy, then I met Joe. 

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Joe was the winner of our first photography contest and is someone I have been picking the brain of for quite sometime about his work. Let's see what all that picking has exposed...(text modifications by me).

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S: As a filmmaker you draw heavily from film noir era as an inspiration, and it seems that it also carries over into your photography. How do you feel your passion for film has inspired your still photography?

JC: A main motif that I take from producing movies that I use in my photography is the creation of characters. To me character is king. Character is life. Whenever I create a film or write a new script, I always want to know what or who the character is. Knowing this, it helps me create a world around this character and invent situations, and this is something that I do use when creating photography. I make a story, a moment that we're capturing. The model becomes an actress and I become the director as well as the director of photography.

When it comes from visual ques that I like to bring into my photography from film, I'm very inspired by several directors of photography. Rodger Deakins and his use of emulating practical lighting sources and color correction, Robert Richardson's film stock experimentation, Jack Green's wild west color pallet and Janusz Kaminski, because he's sorta crazy and not afraid to make things get real dirty. There is a lot of experimentation that happens in cinematography. I use to study out of the American Cinematography magazines because they had lighting layouts for movies and would breakdown the creation of the image of major motion pictures. I learned more about photography in those pages than in a text book in photo class, but I was also surprised to find out that the elements and principals were very similar, if not the same for photography and film.

S: How relevant was the training you received as a filmmaker in your still photography?

JC: I would say that my film production training is EXTREMELY relevant. If I didn't have any experience on a film set, I would not have a full understanding of how to really control my light source.  At the end of the day, part of the fun of creating an image is being able to know how to paint with your light source, and knowing the right tools to make it happen. I do love that in photography I don't have to use a huge heavy HMI light, but instead use an adjustable strobe.

SS: A lot of your photographic work seems to emphasize "vixens." Beautiful women with attitude, alluring eyes and a tough persona - how do you bring this out of your models, and do you find working with actresses different then working with models? (Male or female actually).

JC: Since a huge part of me is a film director I can only really attack a project from that perspective and that type of progress. What that usually means for the talent that I'm working with, is that, before the shoot, I'm already going to be in conversation with them about who and what type of personae and world we're gonna be creating together. I send a bunch of inspiration, talk the world, whatever I can do to get the talent in the right mind set. I even go as far as to tell a model that she's gonna be portraying a model type character sometimes (If that makes any sense). My goal is just to have everyone on the same wavelength before going into the shoot. I think pre production is really important because it gives room to play around but also have a goal in mind. Usually while taking the actual photos I find my self doing a lot of small talk while throwing directions at the same time. I then lose track of what I'm shooting because I'm just enjoying being a "photographer", then when i look at the images I'm surprised a what I captured because I was more in the moment and probably saying funny things. I don't know if this process is standard or correct at all, but I find it fun.

I guess with working with both actresses and models, the main difference really isn't in them being an actress or a model, but really the difference in how comfortable they are and I really hold a lot of that responsibility on me. But I do love working with actors because they can bring out beautiful expressions and tell stories with just their faces. But that also doesn't mean models can't. I bet they can go toe to toe.

S: I often see dramatic effects like fog machines in your photos - can you provide any secrets to fellow photographers on how to work with such a moody and free moving substance?

JC: I would say, don't be afraid to fail. Majority of the time you only need one image of that moment.

S: Outside of film and photography you also write comics, can you tell me a bit about your involvement with Curl Studios and how you fell into writing comic books?

JC: Working in the comic book field was probably one of the first jobs I've ever wanted to have. I wanted to be a comic book artist. But of course  in elementary school every teacher will steer you away from any artist dream. But I kept drawing and dreaming until high school where I fell into photography, which lead into wanting to be a filmmaker. Flash forward to VCU school of the arts, I've made a bunch of short films, co produced and MC'd  a monthly film festival called Project Resolution, where people watch and critique your films, and one main critique for me was to improve my writing. Carolyn Belefski at the time was taking a course in sequential art (making comic books) and she needed to work with a writer. I wanted to become a better writer and the only way to do that was to write. Thus we teamed up and created the first ever issue of Black Magic Tales.

After graduation we continued to created new books under the banner of Curls Studio, Curls being the lead character in Carolyn's comic strip series. We continued with the characters that we created in "Black Magic Tales"  two characters named Roxy Monroe, Dean Casanova and their cat call Black magic and their journey to become the most famous criminals on the face of the planet. Even though we both had busy schedules, we hustled to find time to create the books. One of the main motivations was to take new books to comic book conventions like Small Pres Expo and the big comic cons. So we put deadlines on ourselves, and we're still making books to this day. I write three books under Curls Studio, Black Magic Tales, Kid Roxy and The Legettes.   (Ed. Note: This interview took place before Curls Studio's big visit to New York Comic Con where Carolyn and Joe sat on panels made quite an impact at one of the world's largest comic conventions.)

SS: You've done some work at Union 206 now, how do you feel about your relationship with the studio - what elements you have found the most important, your relationships there and how your shoots have went.

JC: So far my relationship with the union has been top notch. Its great to know that there's new blood and also that they're listening to their members and wanting to grow and become better as a studio. Knowing that that is on their mind, I know that the studio will keep getting better, even though its pretty awesome now.

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Thank you Joe and we look forward to seeing you at the studio to see what you create soon!

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