Books: DemiGods and Cosmic Children

I am always looking for ways to improve and inspire my photography, and I promised myself I would buy any book that spoke to me. So when I saw this book DemiGods and Cosmic Children I had to have it. It is a collection of portraits taken by skateboarder photographer Giovanni Reda, featuring his friends, pro skaters, musicians, celebrities he's met, and some very interesting characters.


Gino Iannucci, Scott Oster,

What I love most about these photos is the effect from the light and background set up; (he's using maybe 2-3 lights/reflector etc, on a black or gray background). You don't always need complicated, fancy stuff to achieve the results you want.


Steve Berra, Steve Olson

Each photo conveys to me the subjects' personality and mood through facial expression and body language. They look so comfortable in front of the camera, and with themselves. I want to learn how I can better coach that out of my subjects and capture is the way Giovanni does. I guess I better get my friends together.


Rick Howard, Alex Olson

The book itself is leather bound with a hard cover, and is bigger than I thought it would be. It has large photos on quality paper that that make it a good coffee table book.

Read more about the making of the book here, plus a video.