Raw, Real, and Timeless, Michael Schoenfeld’s Portraits Hit Hard

Michael Schoenfeld’s portraits hit like a visual mixtape, each shot layered with color and mood that feels more like a vibe than a photograph. A Gold Award winner in the Photography 2024 competition, Michael’s self-initiated projects feature Matthew Hepworth and tattooed individuals, showing off his decades-long mastery of light. With a style that blurs the lines between photography and painting, he’s been remixing light and shadow for over 45 years, and these portraits prove he’s still pushing boundaries. It’s raw, real, and has that timeless-meets-modern edge that only a true artist can pull off.

By: Michael Schoenfeld, Photographer

I find it rather amusing that after using colored light in my photographs for over 45 years, many people have now “discovered” the beauty of mixing color and light; it’s become very popular and trendy. What comes around goes around, I guess.

Thank you, Chris Callis and Greg Heisler, for lighting my fire so many years ago. I met them both at the sadly now-defunct PhotoExpo in New York years ago and was finally able to sincerely thank them for their inspiration—such amazing artists. I truly wish today’s photographers would study photographic history instead of just being content to repeat it.

Many years ago, someone looked at one of my photographs, which involved the use of gelled strobes, and said, “That’s beautiful; it looks just like a painting!” My visceral reaction was to defensively argue that my intent was solely photographic, and in doing so, I completely ignored their compliment, which was exactly what they had meant. I’m not sure if I’m older or wiser, but I was beginning to see what other people must see in my photographs.  

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with LED lights and came up with these two examples. Matt Hepworth, who looks a little bit like a Goth pirate, is a polymath in the truest sense of the word. He taught Air Supply’s bass player how to play bass. He is an audio wizard of the highest order and has recorded and mastered many projects for musicians. Additionally, he has been my go-to audio genius for my cinematography work for years. We have traveled around the world more than once and have laughed all the way. He always wears a “utili-kilt” when we work. I have trusted him for years, and he’s never let me down. Here, I used two LED tube lights set to “hue rotation,” which brings randomness and surprise to the session. At the intersection of red/green, the yellow was naturally created. I love surprises.

The other image is a fellow I ran into at the Boise, Idaho, “Party at the Pen” motorcycle rally in 2023. The space I was allowed to use as a studio would not accommodate a motorcycle due to a 24-inch door opening between the bars for prisoners to enter and (possibly) exit.  No overweight prisoners or bulky motorcycles need apply. I wandered about the decommissioned prison grounds and found people who had exotic tattoos, including this gentleman, and re-booted my initial plan. I had to coax the person into agreeing to the photograph, which I usually don’t try too hard to coax out of anyone. But, his expression of melancholy was right out of central casting. I knew what I had as soon as I began making images—genuine, authentic remorse (probably for agreeing to be photographed).

For these portraits, I used a 4×4 foot square tube light set up and a spotlight with a dot gobo to create the patterns. Again, I set the colors to rotate throughout the hue spectrum, which brings a wonderful serendipity to the photographs. 

The older I get, the less I’m concerned about what other people think of my work, and the more I embrace the idea that I am just a painter with light as well as a photographer. Take from it what you may, but please try your best to move your creative ball down the field a little further.

“Generalist, specialist, multi-disciplinarian, child at heart, focused, highly-skilled, flexible, synergistic, daydreamer, adaptable, renaissance type.”

Nonsense.

I’ve always harbored an inner desire to understand and experience darn near everything—the “grown-up gets to live out the childhood ultimate field trip fantasy” thing. But I grew up (sort of) and realized even the most insomniac-ridden among us only gets the same 24 hours. Lord knows I am truly grateful for this life; I’d be an idiot and a jerk if I weren’t. But what I have come to appreciate about my slightly scattered mind is a need to explore the omnipresent connections “between” things.

I am the metaphor king, or so I’m told.

Feels a little like putting on a coat only Wes Anderson could love, and everyone you know says, “It fits nicely, Michael; go with it.”

(They also tell me to not to talk so much).

Slim chance.

As a native of Utah, the “Beehive State” is a wonderful place to practice advertising photography, skiing, outdoor sports, child rearing, adult rearing, film-making, and keen observation—not kidding about that.

Really, I’ll shut up now.

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