Stuart Winecoff
"My mother was also a photographer and a documentary film editor, before she became a therapist. I guess that this sort of stuff has always been part of my family’s DNA. With a family like that, I could always go to them for an honest aesthetic response to my work."
"Both of my parents practice Tibetan Buddhism, so I went to a school that was founded by an Indian philosopher. My school was in Southern California and it’s incredibly arts based. So creativity was 100% accepted there and expected. We had only 14 students in my senior graduating year and every one of them was creative and artistic."
"Throughout my upbringing, creativity was normal and not seen as something different. Although my older siblings all went to more academic based schools, everyone thought I needed something more inspiring. So there was never a moment when I realized I was different from everyone else, because creativity is the norm where I come from."
"I remember while I was growing up, that I just loved to go out and do these mock fashion shoots with my best friend. Ironically, Taylor is now a fashion model. We must have done those mock shoots through out our last two years of high school. I found so much inspiration in shooting Taylor at the time, and I think that is how I fell into all of this. I was really influenced by her fashion aesthetic at that early stage in my development."
"After I finished high school, I originally wanted to follow a far more academic program, so my first choice of college was a highly academic University. But then I was accepted at NYU, which looking back now, I am so glad that I was. It was a huge thing for me to be in New York and go to college here and to also be cultivating a life in this city. My older brother Duncan had moved out to New York some years back, so I was very comfortable here having stayed with him on many occasions."
"When I first got here in my freshman year, I was doing all of these little ‘look-books’ for friends who had stores in SoHo. That’s the one thing about going to college in this city, you can work while you are still at school. By the time you graduate, you already have a foundation to help get your career started. I think that’s one reason that I have been able to accomplish so much in such a short period of time. Because I spent so much time while I was at school creating my networks and getting the next level of opportunities ready for when I graduated."
"We were one of the last classes at NYU to still be shooting film, so I have a real appreciation for the time it takes to make one image. Most of my freshman year I spent in the darkroom just mucking around doing b&w prints. For me, it was all about learning to think about the image that you capture and really trying to refine your skills. I guess it use to take me about an hour to do a really good print. But when you finally got it right, it was the most rewarding thing ever."
"During my second year at film school, Duncan and I started to think about starting a production company. My brother Duncan had been working at an ad agency here in New York at the time, and he really wanted to start a film production company with me and two producers. They're all a bit older than I am, so they’ve helped me along on this amazing ride. It has been such a great experience and I have loved every minute of it."
"Duncan has always been this incredibly creative person, so it was all about finding the right outlet for his creativity. He has always loved film, so when he started directing, it seems to me that he had found his true calling. He is such an amazing storyteller and just loves being able to touch people through film. For me its different, I am just such a visual person that I derive all of my inspiration from the act of creating a beautiful image."
"I guess I have always been inspired by all things that are visual. My Mom, still jokes about how I always wanted picture books as a kid. To be honest, I still hate to read, because I just love imagery. I try not to over think things too much and just focus on the visuals. In fact, I feel that my work is really just one big happy visual accident."
"When you are at film school they train you to focus hard on everything from the technicalities of capturing an image, to framing a composition. For me, I just go out there and just enjoy being in the moment and allowing the images to reveal themselves - just like one big happy accident! In that way, I am always so surprised at how beautiful things looks when you are shooting them. So that’s pretty much the way I like to look at my own work."
"As soon as we all started All:Expanded, we managed to get funding for our first film project. The idea for the film came from a DJ collective called the Illuminati AMS. Duncan was so inspired by them, that he wrote a script that was an abstract narrative about them. After we secured our funding, we could launch our company. Starting on this film straight of college was a huge learning curve for me. It was the first time I had shot on an Alexa and was the first time that I had shot anything near that quality before. This film had everything in it from shooting a live wolf to working with helicams. Even Phillip Lim, the New York fashion designer allowed us to use his collection as costumes. So it was an incredible project to start your career off on."
"From then on, each project has kind of built on the work we had just finished. We have been shooting all sorts of things from fashion commercials to music videos. The thing I love most about this industry is that every week I feel like I am meeting the most incredible people. There are just so many talented people out there to collaborate with. I think that has been the most special thing about doing all of this work - is meeting all of those inspiring people."