Oculoire
Reunited high school friends Ned Riley and Phil Hernandez have developed their kindred lifestyles of skate and storytelling into Oculoire, a photographic collective inspired by classic noir genres.
Inside street photography’s enigmatic culture are two photographers deeply influenced by an iconic era in cinematic history. Hollywood's age of French New Wave, noir, and neo-noir serve as the melodramatic soul behind many of Oculoire’s best work.
But substitute 1940’s Cadillac coupes with wood-topped Arbor skateboards. Replace detective trench coats with denim jackets. Imagine cigarette smoke trailing not from silhouettes of backseat passengers but from shadows of back alleys and street corners. Oculoire, a portmanteau of “oculus” and “noir,” seeks unity among contrasts. Black and white, past and present. Drawing inspiration from the humanist photographs of Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, and the provocative work of Helmut Newton, much of Oculoire's imagery depicts everyday people of the present through filters of the past.
I meet these two gentlemen at Blagden Alley’s La Colombe over coffee, where they're waiting just outside, skateboards propped, sunglasses to their noses like rock stars unwinding before a show. They occupy a table sprawled with their digital cameras and a tantalizing book of photos by Allen Henson.
Oculoire discusses their first gallery show and the journey of their most ambitious creative project to date.
I’ve met a few photographers in this city who are starting to get into some cool stuff. You guys have already gotten into some cool stuff. How exactly would you define Oculoire at its core?
PHIL: It’s an evolving creative process. Originally, it was going to be short films and we were going to try and replicate film noir. Neo-noir settings, listening to lots of jazz. It still includes lots of that, but it’s now a joint project between Ned and myself that showcases our creative endeavors. Whether it’s photography or film or editorial work, the overall goal is to work together and bring to life people’s creative projects that might align with the Oculoire eye.
This actually started out as a short films project?
NED: Yeah, it started as a brief collaboration. We were looking to shoot some skate videos, run around town, shoot a bunch of photos, and just have some sort of direction to our creativity that we were both pursuing individually. And working together, we realized that we work well together. At that point, we were like, why don’t we expand this and actually build this into something viable rather than just a short-term project?
You two have known each other since high school. Did you guys keep in touch leading up to Oculoire, or did you both have different paths?
NED: We kind of lost track of each other in college. We saw each other randomly, but it was after college when we both moved back to the DC area and started hanging out with our high school friends again. I’ve moved up to London and New York, and every time I come back we all hang out. Phil and I started playing around with photography separately. By the time I moved back from New York, we both were really into photography.
So taking photos wasn’t something you got into during high school?
PHIL: We had different interests back then. I was really into music.
NED: I was into art and played around with photography, but I think we both started seriously pursuing it and really learning the art after college. Even when Phil was living out in Springfield, I would come over and do spray paint canvases and sketch. Photography is a little more recent.
PHIL: Right. I would go on trips, Ned would move and come back. As soon as we would get back together swapping stories, a lot of our interests aligned in a unique way. We knew there needed to be a creative outlet we could pursue together because we were in the same headspace at the time.
“Having my own project where I can really instill my vision is a huge drive for me. Something that’s entirely mine. Being able to create in abandon is really nice.”
And you two went to a Catholic private school, right? How did that influence some of the things you ended up pursuing?
PHIL: Yup. Gonzaga [College High School] is an all-guys Jesuit Catholic school. They give you this free reign to explore. It’s not just about being Catholic, it’s about being accepting.
NED: Right, being open-minded, really questioning everything, peeling back the layers. Jesuits want to help you think and understand the world around you, and that's definitely made a massive impact on our work.
Very few of us get to work on our passion projects full time. By night, you’re on the Oculoire grind, but what do you two do by day?
NED: I’m all over the board. For the past five years, I’ve been working at art galleries both here and abroad. Recently, I’ve been working at a gallery down in Georgetown as the gallery manager doing art dealing. I’ve been developing and training my artistic eye for years now, so Oculoire is a natural way to use what I’ve learned and have an outlet of my own.
PHIL: I work downtown at an international finance institution doing editorial work for the executive board. At first, it was like, “Oh god, this is going to be soul crushing. This is exactly what I didn’t want to do.”
If you had a career that pushed you as creatively as Oculoire does, do you think you’d devote as much energy into it? Do you think it’s rewarding having that contrast between work and after hours?
PHIL: That’s an interesting question. The dichotomy of my life. As soon as I exit the building I’m this different person. If I was working in advertising like I was when I first got out of school, or working a photography job that wasn’t Oculoire, I probably wouldn’t be as excited. I really enjoy ripping my suit and tie off after work.
How do you get into the right mindset before you go out shooting?
PHIL: We set a tone listening to certain types of music. We’ll set the scene for ourselves early on. We’re just typically on the same page all the time. The other day we were thinking about props for [this photoshoot], and Ned was like, “I got that already.”
Talking gear, do you have any favorites? I know you like to be versatile, but even though you guys don’t have 12 cameras...
NED: I’m close, actually! I think I’ve got nine. Almost all of my cameras are Nikons. I love Nikon. The Nikon F3 that I just got and the Nikon DF are probably my two favorites right now. I got a Mamiya 645 medium format that I love. As for lenses, both of us shoot fast primes—so 50s and 20’s. For portrait lenses, I just got a Zeiss 85mm. It’s unbelievably nice.
PHIL: It’s sexy.
“Oculoire is so well-filtered, but I feel like it’s a very ‘me’ kind of thing. It very much characterizes the most honest portions of myself.”
I know starting Oculoire wasn’t a walk in the park. What was the struggle like getting there?
NED: Managing content, and also video. It became a struggle because we didn’t have the gear—specifically a gimbal to get very smooth footage. We had great shots, but it wasn’t at the end-product level we wanted them to be.
PHIL: From a gear standpoint, it was “let’s just focus on what we have” and that actually ended up becoming one of our strengths.
NED: We were able to dial down our initial vision. We thought we knew what we wanted, and as we were playing around with our cameras and places that we liked to frequent, it kind of narrowed down.
And what makes the outcome worth all the hard work? Oculoire requires so much upkeep, it’s got to mean a lot to each of you putting yourselves and your photos out there.
NED: Working in art galleries for the past five years and studying art history, I’ve been around art for so many years. Having my own outlet to talk about when I’m interacting with artists is really nice because I deal with everyone else’s art all the time. Having my own project where I can really instill my vision is a huge drive for me. Something that’s entirely mine. Being able to create in abandon is really nice.
PHIL: I think I just want people to understand me. I’m so misunderstood, especially because I’m extremely eclectic when it comes to my taste and what I like to do. Oculoire is so well-filtered, but I feel like it’s a very “me” kind of thing. It very much characterizes the most honest portions of myself.
Speaking of being misunderstood, there are always going to be people that look at your work and think, “That’s just a black and white photo—what’s so special?” What do you want people to be looking for in your photos?
PHIL: I’m going to paraphrase Ansel Adams: “There’s the photographer and then there’s the viewer.” That’s it. The photo that exists after you take your shot? It’s subjective. What has worked for Ned and myself to make our workflow easier is that we’re brutally honest with each other, so if a photo is just a fucking cliché or if there’s no merit for our work, then all right, moving on.
NED: Ideally, though, what we want is for people to feel the emotion in our photos. Those after hours, late night, jazz-influenced emotions are what we try to convey. But it doesn’t always work. And that’s fine. It’s subjective to the viewers depending on what their own experiences have been.
"Under the Bridge" by Oculoire
And how often do you think you get it right? What’s one of those moments where you’ve stepped back and thought, “This is definitely Oculoire”?
PHIL: We’ve pushed the limits. We’ll go out of our way to get a shot sometimes. If we’re self-aware enough about it, then we know the shot is going to be good. For example, we had this flagship photo from our gallery show that’s me sitting under Jones Point Bridge—a sweet photo that Ned took—and we must’ve gone back and forth from that spot. We just kind of knew it was a very Oculoire-esque scene. And it was amazing.
Let’s talk about the big one, then. The gallery show. How exactly did Oculoire manage to get featured at Cross Mackenzie?
NED: That’s the gallery I work at. As I was working with the gallery owner to figure out the programming for the fall and winter, she was like, “We don’t have anything for January and I love your photos. I think the black and white would look nice. Do you want to do a show?” And naturally, yes, absolutely. She was nice enough to give us a month and a half in the space. We were blowing up Gonzaga’s alumni column to get the word out, and a ton of people showed up. The gallery has reputation; it’s been around DC for a decade now so they have a great relationship with Mark Jenkins at The Washington Post and with Louis Jacobson at the The Washington City Paper, so that’s how they heard about the show.
And then they wrote about you. That’s huge. How did you celebrate?
PHIL: On the first day? [laughs]
NED: When the reviews came, we basically went from Georgetown to H Street drinking along the way.
PHIL: We did this three-hour walk where we just kept drinking. We finally stopped at Bier Baron, which was where we celebrated when the gallery was first opening.
So y’all drank the neighborhood. Mario Party’d your way around the city.
PHIL: Pretty much.
“Having the validation that our work is considered fine art will make it easier to transition to commercial projects while also getting other gallery shows and maintaining our foothold in the fine art community.”
With one gallery milestone behind you, are there any upcoming projects people can look forward to? Any collaborations or particular faces that you’d love to shoot?
NED: We have some stuff we’re hoping to pull to fruition in the next six months, a couple of brands we’ve been reaching out to and started dialoguing with that we’d love to shoot. And there’s a long list of models. Personally, Taylor Lashae is one that I’m dying to shoot because she’s got this French New Wave aesthetic that would fit [Oculoire] perfectly.
PHIL: Obviously Allen Henson. We love his style. It would be great just to be his lackey or something. He could just ball-gag me and Ned, and we can just wear leathers like dogs. Roadies!
There’s nowhere to go but sideways and up from here. How has the momentum turned out for you two since Oculoire first started? Things happened fast in just less than a year.
NED: We both are super thrilled with what we’ve done so far. We’ve sold a number of pieces at the show—sold three pieces at the opening, even. But getting that validation from the fine art community is amazing.
PHIL: That’s almost enough, actually.
NED: Yeah, I mean, we weren’t expecting to sell anything. We weren’t expecting to get write-ups, so getting all of that is phenomenal. Both of us want to ultimately get into high-end editorial and commercial photography, but it’s much harder to go from commercial to fine art photography than vice versa. Having the validation that our work is considered fine art will make it easier to transition to commercial projects while also getting other gallery shows and maintaining our foothold in the fine art community.
PHIL: We celebrated [the gallery] hard. A couple days to just go all out is good because then, the next day, you can humble yourself and say, “All right, what do I need to do now?” Especially for us to keep this momentum. We don’t want to stagnate. But we don’t want to ride it too high.