Freedom’s Road

January 24, 2007

Some of you who know me know that I do some photography for John Mellencamp now and then. I got a call on January 18th around 7:00 pm asking if I could do a photo shoot with John for the New York Times art section the next day at his house. Luckily my schedule allowed for it and off I went to Bloomington for the shoot! Always excited about doing stuff for John and his awesome wife Elaine I was trying to get all my excited energy out of my system on the way up. I know if I went in there blowing up like a hard core fan it would probably not go over too well! I got to his house around 12:30 and was directed to go to his art studio to get set for the first shot. His art studio is really cool with his paintings all over the place including one that was about 20 feet tall and maybe 25 feet wide. I’m guessing that will not be leaving that studio anytime soon because of its size unless he breaks it down to get it through the doors! When John arrived I was ready to go. He said he had a few ideas of where he thought we should shoot and I had few ideas myself.

Photo by Wendi Chitwood
As it turns out what I thought would be about an hour long shoot lasted over 3 hours. We went from his studio to his old house where I shot him with an old Chevy Nomad in the driveway, then off to his recording studio where he strapped on his telecaster and sang through his new song, SOMEDAY, on his Freedom’s Road album that came out yesterday (1/23/07). It was really cool to be sitting there taking photos as he sang a song that had not even come out publicly yet!

We ended the shoot with a few of him walking down the road with his
guitar case in some really nice light. I’ve been shooting him now
since 2004 off and on and it gets more comfortable each time. I think
he has confidence in me that I will shoot good photos and make him look
good. We did a quick edit in his kitchen and I sent a selection of
photos to the New York Times
for their cover story on his new album and a photo or two will be used
in the Lexington Herald-Leaders Weekender Section this weekend! Hope
you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.