November 21, 2009

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Speed Graphic

How photographer Paul Speed moved from sailing and commercial work in Chicago to lingerie photography and horse portraiture in Ozark.

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Photo Paul Speed

To get to Paul Speed’s photography studio in Ozark, you have to drive up the bumpy length of a shared gravel driveway that leads to a pretty farmhouse and a brick-red barn. It’s rustic. It feels rural. It feels quiet and quaint. You half expect to see a chicken poking around in the grass.
But this place is filled less with clucks and more with clicks. Inside that old red barn is the sleek and modern makings of an every-purpose photography studio.

Paul’s red barn studio is a wide expanse of space that’s mostly empty except for a kitchen, a bathroom and some sofas lining the walls. The floor is concrete, and the ceiling is high, an opened up barn loft rising up into a wooden peak. And in the middle of the room today—large, but dwarfed by the huge space around it—is a stage on wheels. The background is a deep red with a lush floral pattern. The front is two curtains. Above it is an elaborate lighting system, rigged from the ceiling. And the floor of the stage is empty save for one single solitary wooden stool that’s just screaming for a model to come sit down and complete some dynamic image.

That stage floor is made of old wood reclaimed from the original barn before Speed remodeled it into a studio. It was a horse stall door made of 100-year-old oak. Now it’s a portable set.

 

Getting Here

Paul came to Ozark two years ago with his wife, April, and their son, Jackson. At the time, April was pregnant with their second little boy, Gram. The couple had originally met in Chicago, where they worked as art directors at the same ad agency, Leo Burnett. Paul worked in advertising in Chicago for 15 years as art director and creative director, producing commercials for clients such as Bud Light, McDonalds and Nintendo.