Penn Jillette and Teller

Easily the two most beloved magicians of modern times, likely because their style is filled with mischief and fun. These portraits are made of thousands of images, arranged to enhance portraits that Craig took of the two men.

Penn’s portrait is made up of images from mid-20th Century magic books, the source of much of the information he chooses to give up willingly in pursuit of demystifying the tricks of other magicians he feels are unworthy of the art of prestidigitation.

Teller’s portrait is made of similar images, but this time only from books about card tricks, as this is Teller’s specialty.

The Eiffel Tower and The Louvre

The source of so many indelible memories, it seemed appropriate to create this image from pictures of hundreds of View-Master slides. Combining several techniques into an innovative result, we start, naturally enough, with a shot of the tower from close to one of the legs, enhancing the perspective and filling the frame. From there, the circular images of the View-Masters are changed in size, depending on the average brightness level of the pixels underlying those circles. Finally, an aligned color halftone is applied underneath the circles, revealing only the border of those color circles, highlighting the various sizes of the image components.

For the Louvre collage, a straight-line technique was applied, which, given the inherent angles present in the image, tends to give the viewer a slightly disconcerting view. All View-Master slides are the same size, and this time we use shading (luminosity) to give hints of the two structures in the shot.

The Corvette and the Veyron/Duesenberg

Made up of over 2,000 of Craig’s Corvette photographs, as well as 2,000 of his other automotive shots, this image of America’s fsvorite sports car was a commission for the Creme de la Creme Auto Show, where it was used for an entrance banner. Measuring 120 inches by 80 inches, this work represents both the variety and the homogeneity of car shows and auctions.

The Duesenberg was considered the absolute pinnacle of automotive engineering when it debuted in 1921, all the way through its end in 1937. Contrast this with the Bugatti Veyron, considered to be the absolute pinnacle of the same pursuit when it debuted in 2005, and you get a wonderful juxtaposition of design and functionality. Craig photographed over 4,000 Hot Wheels cars in order to provide the basis for this mosaic, built with techniques similar to those used for the Eiffel Tower mosaic.

Adele Arakawa and Corey Rose

Part of a series of mosaic-based portraits done by Craig between 2010 and 2020, the idea was to garner attention by highlighting local celebrities, in this case news anchorwomen from Colorado. The effort did not garner the attention desired.

Adele Arakawa was, and is, an ardent Porsche enthusiast, driver, and driving instructor, as well as a part owner of High Plains Raceway. The base image was taken during an event at that track, and the rest of the images were taken during track time, for the background, and show cars, for the foreground. All foreground shots are of Porsches, and all background images were taken at the track.

Corey Rose is an ardent traveler, so Craig decided to use various shots he had taken around the world as the basis for this treatment.