Creative Photography

Jim Fiscus has been pushing the boundaries of photography and digital imaging for more than 15 years. Famous for his highly stylized photographs, he seamlessly melds people, places and elements into provocative images for editorial and advertising purposes. A pioneer in digital imaging, his technique gives him latitude to create any environment his clients envision, no matter how impossible.

Back in 1995, Jim Fiscus and Lisa Fiscus were unaware that their experimentation with the nascent art of photography combined with digital imaging would result in producing award-winning advertisements. Although Jim, the photographer and Lisa the lead digital artist at Jester Image Works are married to each other, their Atlanta based companies are separate entities. Their shared desire to create multi-layered images that are photographically real has had Jim and Lisa collaborating on a myriad of projects. “In the beginning,” says Jim, “our images were really simple with only a couple of digital elements. Now our final images consist of many layers: some of which are photographed on location with others shot in studio and then composed.”

A shoot he did in London for billboards promoting the hit British TV show Shameless involved an actress playing a highly excitable pregnant woman who loves her martinis (did we mention the show is a dark comedy?). The mild-mannered Fiscus had to direct the actress to have a freak-out of sorts, and the best way to do it was to pretend to be a pregnant woman himself. There he was, in his cowboy boots and jeans, rubbing his belly and rolling his eyes in an exaggerated—and, to the casual observer, quite amusing—fashion.

“Oh my God, this is certainly not a normal photo shoot,” commented the client’s art director, who would surely have been shocked—and thrilled—if he’d been at the OutKast shoot Fiscus did for HBO. The Grammy-winning hip-hop duo had been filming a movie for 43 days straight when Fiscus arrived to photograph them. Fiscus knew the singers were fatigued, so he did his best to make the shoot fun. And fun it was. “It was a party,” he recalls. “The makeup artists were breakdancing. The client from HBO came up and said, ‘This isn’t a photo shoot—this is a cultural phenomenon.’”