Manny Pacquiao for ESPN
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Manny Pacquiao for ESPN

This shoot with the legendary boxer / former senator of Philippines / genuine man of the people @mannypacquiao for @ESPN was a new record for me in terms of speed of shooting (which seems appropriate given the speed at which Manny fights). Only four minutes elapsed from the time I took my first portrait of Manny to the last portrait…

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Recent Work
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Recent Work

I have fallen behind when it comes to blogging, but still wanted to update it periodically. Here’s some of my favorite work from the last six weeks…

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New Work: Nov. '24 to Feb '25
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

New Work: Nov. '24 to Feb '25

I used to be better about blogging regularly, but life happens, and the more I fall behind, the more daunting the task is of catching up. In an effort to at least loosely keep my blog followers informed (few as they may be), here’s a batch of new work that I’ve made over the past two months…

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Images From the November Creative Portrait Workshop
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Images From the November Creative Portrait Workshop

Last week I hosted another one of my Creative Portrait workshops, in Columbus, Ohio. Students came in from Toronto, Portland, Asheville, and San Francisco to learn some of my lighting and camera techniques. Big thanks to @westcottlighting for providing the strobes, transmitters, and light modifiers, and to @nanliteusa for providing the LEDs.

My next workshop is January 25-26 and is at a discounted rate until December 15. There are only five spots FYI. More info, here.

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Jordan Larson X ESPN
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Jordan Larson X ESPN

Back in April I was given the opportunity to work with 3-time Olympic medalist Jordan Larson @gov1007 for @espn. In the pre-production call with the creative team, I suggested a couple of techniques I could use as a way of capturing her power and grace…

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Slipknot X Revolver Magazine Photo Shoot
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Slipknot X Revolver Magazine Photo Shoot

This shoot was a make-it-work situation, if ever there was one. I was given 30-minutes to shoot a magazine cover as well as individual portraits of each member of @slipknot for @revolvermag. Apparently I didn’t think this was tall enough of an order, so I decided to shoot four different color schemes, both with and without a prism…

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Multiple Exposure Portraits with Roarie Yum
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Multiple Exposure Portraits with Roarie Yum

My studio is located within @thefort614, which is a 130 year old warehouse on the south side of Columbus. It used to be the home of the Seagrave Company, which used the space to manufacture fire engines and other rescue vehicles, for over 60 years. Every square inch of the building has a glorious patina that can’t be faked. The cracked plaster, distressed flooring, and sun-faded glass is something especially rare in this fast growing city, populated with new builds…

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Multiple Exposure Portraits with Rigid Textures
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Multiple Exposure Portraits with Rigid Textures

Last year I explored fluidity quite a bit in my work, and this year I’ve been gravitating towards rigidity. To create these images I wandered around taking photos of a range of textures, which I used as a base layer to make in-camera multiple exposures in two portrait sessions.

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Processing Trauma: Photo Shoot with Covid Nurse
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Processing Trauma: Photo Shoot with Covid Nurse

Meris is a nurse that witnessed profound trauma during Covid. She kept a journal as a way of processing all that she experienced, which included journal entries and collage art. When she asked me to take her portrait and mentioned the journals, I suggested that I could photograph some of the pages and use them to make in-camera multiple exposures (seen below)…

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Photo Shoot with Ballerina Dancer
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Photo Shoot with Ballerina Dancer

I rarely go into a shoot with a fixed notion of how I want it to go, or how I want the images to look. I often base my techniques, color palette, and post processing on what the moment dictates…

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Shelby X Creative Portrait Workshop
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Shelby X Creative Portrait Workshop

I had a blast hosting a sold out workshop at my studio this past weekend. Thank you to my students for coming from places as far away as Boston, Seattle, and the Cayman Islands. Shout out to my incredible models (@yesandso seen here) for making it easy to turn these techniques into moving art.

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We Are More Than the Sum of Our Parts: A Photographic Pushback Against Artificial Intelligence
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

We Are More Than the Sum of Our Parts: A Photographic Pushback Against Artificial Intelligence

Many AI images look are impressive at first, in a too-good-to-be-true kind of way. Interiors brag gravity-defying architecture, or scenic terrains depict features that have never before been seen on this planet. However, there is inevitably an element that seems off when viewing these images. They are too perfect, and lack the tactility and weight that feels believable, a phenomenon referred to as the uncanny valley. This begs the question, are AI images a success or a failure? Are they successfully creating visions of an ideal human or world according to some programming and an amalgamation of stock imagery, or are they a failure in coding, with the author lacking the awareness to include nuance and imperfection in their vision? Its these details that, I’d argue, that inform us that a person or a place is real…

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Kinstugi and the Art of Self-Care: Adult Survivor of Childhood Abuse
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Kinstugi and the Art of Self-Care: Adult Survivor of Childhood Abuse

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing a broken vessel with a precious metal, such as gold or platinum. A repaired vessel isn’t the same as it was before the trauma, nor is it diminished. The essence of the original vessel is still there, but golden scars now trace the lines where the fracture occurred…

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