Chad Michael Ward

The Walk

This morning, I made this impromptu little piece during my sunrise walk to test out my iPhone 11 Pro and Osmo Mobile 2 gimbal.

Ultimately, I want to make a short film for my HUSK masks, but trying to shoot with a full gear setup by myself with no crew seems a bit daunting, so I wanted to see what I could do with the just the iPhone, the Filmic App and my Osmo Mobile 2. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. This was shot in 4k at 240fps which gave it a great smooth feel...

BEHIND THE SCENES: The Making of "Husk: Clown"

Here's the 27 minute BTS look at the making of my "Husk: Clown" mask, from design and painting to the photoshoot (with a hilarious dancing moment from Sophie that I had not seen until I started editing) and the final edits in Lightroom and Photoshop. Enjoy!

HUSK: "Clown"

The latest mask from my HUSK series has been completed and shot!

This masks marks a departure from my other masks in that I changed up the materials I was working with during the mask build. All the previous masks were done entirely in newspaper; "Clown" has a 2-layer newspaper base, but all the "sculpting" of the face details were done in paper towels. This allowed for far greater flexibility in the shape of the mask--especially in the nose and mouth areas. With the mouth, in particula...

A look at HUSK

Earlier this year, my partner Sophie started making "clothing" made of paper maché (if you look closely at the "Mother" and recent sci-fi portraits I posted, that neckpiece is made of paper maché using paper towels and lace!)

I decided to see if I could make some masks doing a similar method and from there, the HUSK project was born.  

I've done seven masks so far with varying results, and wanted to share some of the resulting photos. Im not 100% sure what I'm going to do w...

A Behind-the-Scenes look at shooting "Husk: Mother"

"Husk" is my latest personal series featuring masks I've handmade. I'm not 100% sure where this series will eventually be collected (there's talk of a "Quarantine Magazine" one-off that I may do with fellow photographer Kyle Cassidy) but in the meantime, I'm having a blast shooting them.

Originally, "Husk: Mother" was shot on an empty suburban street here in Cleveland in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, I wasn't super happy with the results. I re-crafted the mask and brought...

The Artrepreneurs: Ep. 08 - "Blown Away"

In this episode, Sophie and I brave the worst storm of our lives to journey to Chicago to check out some inspiring art, gorge ourselves on incredible food and to take in the sights of the Windy City.

This was the first time I'd ever been to Chicago and I absolutely fell in love with it. After nearly a year in the food-desert that is Cleveland, we had some of the absolute best food I'd had in a long time. The museum was putting on an exhibit with Virgil Abloh which we both really enjoyed...

The Artrepreneurs: Ep 07, "Disappearing Act"

It's September 2019. 

We've taken a break from travel to spend some time among the trees at the gorgeous Holden Arboretum in the neighboring town of Kirtland, OH. There, we climb the 120 foot tower, play among the canopies and reflect on what's happened and what's to come.

Re-watching this is both difficult and enlightening. 7 months ago we were happy and had such a bright future ahead of us. We had some incredible plans and ideas about where we wanted to go with our life and...

The Artrepreneurs: Ep 06 - "Paradise Lost"

A few weeks after coming home from London, we headed to Pittsburgh to check out The Mattress Factory Art Galley. Things did not go as planned...

The Artrepreneurs: Ep. 05 - "Finding Space"

Our last day in London changed everything. 

After a week of misadventures, misfires and mayhem, we trusted our instinct and went and got lost on purpose. We were completely unprepared for the grand adventure we were to have on our last day, and the beautiful epiphany that would go on to shape not only our company, but our life as well.

This was my absolute favorite day in London, and the start of what I've since coined as "Dreamspace", which I want to write an essay on in the...

THE ARTREPRENEURS: Ep 04 - "Tourist Trapped"

Our misadventure continues in London as we battled crowds and struggled to work remotely while the clock on our trip counts down. Will we find what we're looking for or will we fail our first international test?

The Artrepreneurs: Ep 03, "Digging Deep"

The first few days in London were rough.  

We were still trying to figure out how to do this whole "shooting a web series" thing while juggling my then-day job, which I was trying to do remotely while enjoying everything London had to offer. Coffee and internet were harder to come by than we imagined. 

We tried to work at museums and other interesting locations, but the crowds and noise made it difficult to get much done. By day 3, we made it down to Camden and I got a t...

The Artrepreneurs: Ep 02, "London Daze"

In episode 1, Sophie took me on a surprise trip to see Detroit for the first time.  While we were there, we shot a bunch of footage for what would become the first Artreprenuers episode.  

Less than a month later, I found myself on a plane to London after Sophie decided she wanted to travel home to see her family. I had never been overseas, and London was high on my list. In was an absolutely incredible trip filled with site seeing, soul searching and a major epiphany.

I...

STRANGE BLOOD - The Original (Unseen) Movie Trailer

Waaaay back in 2013, I directed my first feature film, STRANGE BLOOD (released on DVD in 2015).  

One of the first things I did after we wrapped was to cut a trailer for our sales agent, Bleiberg Entertainment. 

It took me nearly 2 months to cut this trailer--my first movie trailer ever--and in the end it never aired, as the distribution company (XLRator) made their own trailer and that became the official trailer.

You can see the version XLRator r...

The Artrepreneurs - Episode 1, "Getting Lost"

2019 started with a shock. Together, my new partner--Sophie "Stardust" Jane--and I had planned to start a business–a photo studio in the arts district in Los Angeles, and had spent months excitedly scheming, planning, and decorating it in our heads. But the night before we were due to sign the lease, our third business partner pulled the plug. The timing was devastating; we absolutely couldn’t afford the studio between just the two of us. Our dreams were shattered. 

Sophie had ...

Getting weird with Courtnee Fallon Rex

Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of working with a new client, traveling performer/musician/artist Courtnee Fallon Rex, who came to town to collaborate on a variety of images and ideas together in the studio.

As we talked over email about the possible things we could shoot together, she mentioned that she'd be more than happy to shave her head for something weird. 

Of course I said "yes!"

After shooting several different series of portraits, we decided to get to the weir...

Getting Weird with Amanda Jones

Sometimes you're bored on a Friday night at home and your friend pitches you a weird idea to play with a torn pair of nylons and you end up with these oddball images.

2017-12-02 18:37:48 +0000 UTC View Post

Chinatown Nights with Countess

Back out on the streets at night, this time with Countess as we walked around Chinatown in search of interesting lighting.

One thing that I'm learning as we explore night photography is the use of a much, much higher ISO while shooting.  I think these were shot at ISO3200.  By comparison, my studio work is usually shot at ISO100 or 200.

Shooting at such a high ISO brings with it a lot of digital noise, which requires a lot of finessing in Lightroom while coloring the images, bu...

Back in the Studio with Amanda Sugar Jones

I got a Facebook message from designer Miss G last week with iPhone shot of one of her new headdresses.

"Just finished this headdress and it made me think of you.  Want to shoot it?"

Well duh.  

A few days later, said headdress was in my position and I knew I had to get Amanda in to model it.  Truthfully, though, I wasn't even prepared for how happy these shots would make me.

As I've mentioned before, I've grown a bit weary of studio work and h...

NEON NIGHTS pt2

Round 2 with Meghan Chadeayne and some neon lighting.  This time, we staked out a Psychic Reader shop front for our setting.

This time around I used a 100mm lens and was much happier with the results.

Tomorrow night I'm headed out to Chinatown to continue this neon series with Countess.

2017-11-28 01:16:17 +0000 UTC View Post

COUNTESS

Hollywood is a weird place.  

When I first moved here, back in 2002, there was an assumption that one could, and would, probably run into famous people on the regular.

I was married for the first 5 years that I was here, and for the most part, didn't see and meet any celebs during that time save for the one big one--Marilyn Manson--in 2004.  

After my divorce, and domesticated life, I finally got out into the city that was Los Angeles and ultimately started to run into a ...

Neon Nights

As mentioned previously, I'm currently focused on getting out of the studio and teaching myself how to shoot better on location.  One of the things I've been dying to do more of is night photography using neon lights as my light source.

My always gorgeous friend Meghan Chadeayne agreed once again to be the guinea pig for these photographic experiments.   We scouted a few shop windows the week previous, then set out to capture some images this past week.

Th...

Amanda Jones: Wicked Witch of the West

Here's some more shots from my recent shoot with Amanda Jones as the Wicked Witch of the West with makeup by Erin Nakashima.

It was really hard to decide on a final image for the artwork for the Monster VS Monster show last month.  As you can see, Amanda gave me a ton of great material to work with.

2017-11-08 18:01:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Photo Set: Fox Chalker

A few months ago, Seattle-based designer Alexis Devine of Squirrel Vs Coyote came through town and brought with her the lovely Fox Chalker, who modeled some of Alexis' unique chainmail paired with latex from Dawnamatrix.

I'm not typically a fan of latex, but Dawnamatrix's designs are absolutely otherworldly, especially with the addition of Alexis' chainmail.

Working with Fox was an absolute delight, and my makeup artist ...