Photo-illustration: Michael Northrup/ Strobophoto

Styling, prop work: Elizabeth F. Stewart

This study in contrasts was created for a feature entitled “The Raw and the Cooked,” Mike used his signature techniques of strobed bright colors and composed, masked images. Now an accomplished digital illustrator, when this was made in 1993, he was strictly a film guy. For years he made images by a painstakingly complex technique of in-camera masking—which is similar to assembling a jigsaw puzzle— exposing and color-strobing one piece of an image at a time within a single frame. You don’t usually get this depth of funk and soul with a computer. Today, Mike expresses his unique perspective while blending the technical precision of digital imaging with the serendipity of exposing film.