Home and studio locations: San Francisco and Paris, France.

Preferred equipment: Horseman SW and Silvestri Flexicam medium-format view cameras; Rodenstock and Schneider digital lenses; Phase One and Leaf digital backs; Broncolor lights for still-life and Briese lights for people.

Personal projects: Photographing the great, classic bars of the world. He hopes to publish the collection as a book one day.

Advice to aspiring studio photographers:"Eliminate things [from] the photo that don't need to be there," he says. "Figure out the minimum amount of elements to tell a story." He also recommends learning photography on a view camera.

Website: musilek.com

No matter the subject, studio shooter Stan Musilek creates his own "decisive moment" to achieve results that are larger than life, better than real.

A Stan Musilek image is composed of opposites: monumental and intimate, luscious and spare.

Even in such a mundane space as a kitchen, these forces play out. The imposing, panoramic expanse of red and gray, the brushed-steel appliances and fixtures standing out like islands in a sea of crimson.

Your eye is drawn to the elegant woman as she leans against the counter and then to the man who pauses in mid-step in the background.

The scene is both austere and inviting at the same time.

Or consider an elegant model presented in beautiful pearly grays unveiling...

On the cover: “Roulette Girl,” an ad for the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Casino, is one of Stan Musilek’s many composite studio creations. Made of six different elements, the image includes greenery that was shot at Versailles, near Paris. 

Cover photo: © Stan Musilek