YouTube/VH1 Phenom Joins Wonderful Machine

Monday January 26th, 2009

Noah Kalina, New York photographer, has recently joined Wonderful Machine. Aside from his ad and editorial work, Noah is best known for the following YouTube video which catapulted him to immediate web fame and ultimately producing self-portraits with Paris Hilton and many other celebrities:

The concept was relatively simple, but required dedication: he photographed himself every day for 6 years, editing the images to original music composed by his then-girlfriend. Then he posted the video to YouTube.

Noah’s video captured the imagination of millions of web viewers: 11,898,840 to date, in fact. Within four days of posting the video, he was listed as a Yahoo Pick. Five days later, Good Morning America features his post on a live television broadcast. Then Katie Couric mentions him on CBS Evening News. And on and on (detailed on Noah’s website about the video).

Then the unlikely happens: about three months later, VH1 calls Noah to have him produce more self-portraits, this time to air on live television, and he’s to be accompanied by celebrities who’ve just won their “Big in ’06″ award.

In a Washington Post interview, Kalina detailed how it all went down:

“I got a call from one of the producers of the show and they invited me to come out to Los Angeles and do this project backstage. A little hesitant, I asked if any of the celebrities would even know who I was. They assured me that my video was so big and such a huge part of popular culture everyone would know who I was. Of course that was not the case…

I just sat there while the producers wrangled all of the celebrities once they got off stage. It was funny hearing the producers trying to explain the project to the different celebrities…”

But the majority of the celebrities went along with it, and their portrait with Kalina ran during the commercial breaks and at the end of the show. Noah photographed himself alongside Paris Hilton, Fergie, Will.i.am, Hulk Hogan, Weird Al Yancovic, David Hasselhof, and others. Dominic Monaghan and Megan Mullally were the only stars who turned down the photo op.

Since the awards, the YouTube song accompanying the video went on sale at iTunes by popular demand, and eventually The Simpsons parodied the video. In addition, Noah has shot a variety of editorial and advertising assignments, some of which are featured on his commercial photography website (such as the following spread from Seed).