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Unlocking The Truth - BTS

Behind The Scene photo-shoot at Fast Ashley's Studios

My latest collaboration, “Unlocking The Truth -Behind The Scene,” with music photographer Clay Patrick McBride. Enjoy! 

The Making of 3rd Rail

Foley Gallery, New York City, January 21, 2015; Opening of 3rd Rail by artist Clay Patrick McBride

Wednesday night, an exciting evening on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Clay Patrick McBride brings to light his most anticipated exhibition yet. The show has a sense of danger, darkness and captivating power. Mr. McBride’s recent body of work about New York City’s underworld represents a conflict in his conscious comparable to being stuck in purgatory, a dark place of uncertainty that he had to go through and come out. 

"3rd rail is a must see event that is raw, expressive and powerful."  

Mr. McBride’s art installation is analogous to how we see through glass and doors opening and closing in the subway. He uses the storefront glass as another surface layer in front of his large wheat-paste black and white photographs measuring up to four by eight feet long. All pieces are one of a kind, achieved by scratching the edges and treating their surfaces. The display resembles a giant tiled black granite wall that was meant to inhibit the space.

3rd Rail is on view through February 22nd. Foley Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday, 12:00 - 6:00 pm. Please see Press Release for additional information. 

McBride’s installation is part of the storefront window curatorial series, in which artists are invited to create site-specific works for Foley Gallery’s window displays. For this installation, McBride sculpts and pastes his black and white 35mm photographs of people riding the NYC subway to replicate a sense of anxiety and anonymity. The long glass corridor windows will accentuate the subway rider’s experience, creating a dark and chaotic claustrophobia on other side of the gallery’s entranceway. According to McBride, “My camera reports less about how the subway looks than it does about how this fearful space feels. The photographic frame becomes a kind of prison for our uneasy consciousness. Travelers are deformed as they are captured in my 35mm cells and crushed by the weight of the world. Witnessing the mass of people robbed of their identities; my camera turns them all into phantoms.”


About CPMcB

NYC-based photographer Clay Patrick McBride began his visual training in the South of France, where he spent his late teens and early twenties studying painting and art history. He eventually turned his focus to photography, moving to New York City in the early 1990s to attend the School of Visual Arts. While earning his BFA, McBride developed a bold style of portraiture intended to both celebrate and empower the subject with humor and honesty.

McBride’s portraits of top athletes and musicians such as LeBron James, Allen Iverson, Norah Jones, Jay Z, and Kanye West have appeared in countless magazines, among them Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and Parade. His commercial work includes dozens of album covers for Sony, Blue Note and Atlantic Records, as well as print campaigns for Pontiac, Boost Mobile and Nike. The past few years have seen McBride expand into moving pictures with a number of short film projects and music videos. Characterized by a stark surrealist quality, his film work is an exciting and logical extension of his still photography. Current productions include The Incredible Exploding Boy, an autobiographical feature that explores father-son relationships, insanity and addiction.

In 2013, McBride earned his Masters in Digital Photography from the School of Visual Arts – where he has also served as an instructor for nearly 10 years. McBride currently resides in Rochester NY and is a professor at the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology.  


Based on CPMcB's Recent Work

SVA Subway Poster Advertisements (1 of 3)

SVA subway Poster Advertisements (2 of 3)

SVA subway Poster Advertisements (3 of 3)

Photoshop User Featuring "Sub conscious way"

2013 Photoshop User magazine   “Creative Point of View, Photoshop from the Creative to the Practical”   Katrin Eismann, Author

Recently, Sub conscious way was published in Photoshop User magazine along with Underground by Clay Patrick McBride in an article written by the Photoshop Diva, Katrin Eismann.