Duke Shoman
The Team
Duke Shoman -Photographer & Production Designer
Duke Shoman is a high concept commercial photographer and production designer with more than 10 years of experience in the industry. At 19, he packed his bags and without any connections or funds moved to Milan, Italy to pursue a career in Fashion photography. In Italy, he knocked on every single agency's door he could find but was constantly turned down because of his age and lack of residency.
His struggles turned into construction and manual odd-jobs that later in life proved to be an asset when building sets for his photo campaigns. After 6 months in Italy, he landed his first paid agency project and after over a year of doing test shot after test shoot, he landed his first international photo campaign.
After 3 years, he moved back to the states where he became the creative director of a local magazine and continued shooting international advertising campaigns. He moved away from fashion photography and started focusing on high-concept advertising campaigns with integrated set design and heavy post-production.
Duke enjoys integrating himself as a character in many of his pieces. He recently created a photo campaign called the "SUbPAR HEROES" where he portrays four of the ten characters. The 10-piece art collection portrays some of the most well-known fictional heroes in every life human struggles, from simple things from spilled milk and computer crashes to real world issues like drug addition, domestic abuse, disease, depression, and suicide.
As a comic book fan, he integrated many of his favorite characters and put them in struggles that you wouldn't normally see a super hero in. For example, Spiderman suffering from depression in a scene depicting a potential suicide. Wonder Woman dealing with an abusive partner and a victim of domestic abuse. Batman dealing with a drug addiction and misery. All original sets design, photography, special effects and composition was personally elaborated by Duke.
His skills and training in construction allow him to shoot high-end photo campaigns with unique and elaborate self-made sets that integrate character, design, lighting, special effects and composition. His many years behind the camera and his use of the Hasselblad, one of the industry's most respected cameras, give his work a unique professional edge.
