Portrait in Sepia with Blue Eyes

This February 2004 session was intense and personal.  Looking back on it now, I think the viewer can see the relationship developing between the model and the photographer.

It was quite a ride.

Shot with Olympus digital in natural light, color manipulated in Photoshop.



Portait with Wet Hair

Rob, portrait with wet hair.

Olympus digital, one light source.



Two Portraits

From the Olympus shoot, February 2004.

Two sides of the same coin.





Torso in Jeans

Shot with Olympus digital in natural light.



Portrait of an Actor

One of a series done with the borrowed Olympus point and shoot in February of 2004.

The model, whom I hadn't seen in more than three years, was back from the New York theatre.  I almost didn't recognize him when he appeared at my door.

Below is what he looked like on the day he left, in the summer of 2000:

Shot on film in natural light.



Sailor on Shore Leave Album

The series as it might have been presented to the sailor.  Click on the image to view it properly.



Sailor on Shore Leave

Number six in the series.  Tomorrow I will post the entire series as an album.



Sailor on Shore Leave

Five in the series:



Sailor on Shore Leave

Number four in the series:



Sailor on Shore Leave

Third in the series.

The photographer coaxes; the sailor obliges.



Sailor on Shore Leave

Second in a series.  Things heat up.



Sailor on Shore Leave

An actor friend with a passion for the vintage look, in this case a sailor on shore leave in San Diego in the '40's.  He wanders into a photo studio near the docks to have his picture taken, and goes all the way.

The first of a series:

Shot digitally, manipulated to give it a vintage look, with an authentic photo frame from the period.



Figure on a Bed

Some shoots are serious; some shoots are fun.  Some turn out to be about the sheer joy of looking, and that's what this one was.  And Brandon enjoyed being looked at.

At one point, as he got more and more involved in the "sexiness" of what he was doing, he glanced in a mirror, saw his reflection and broke up.  I shot the result, and it is one of my all-time favorite images - completely spontaneous and natural.

Enjoy.



Figure on a Bed

Brandon needed no direction to be "sexy"; he just was.  As the shoot progressed I let him go where he wanted, and just went along for the ride.

It promised to be a wild one.





Figure on a Bed

Brandon was that rarest of models, a happily uninhibited soul with no agenda.

His sensuality was a given,and he seemed to glory in it without being vain.  What you saw was what you got, and I saw a lot.

You will see more of him.

Shot digitally with one light source.



Figure on a Bed

Although I often shot color film on theater assignments, I very rarely shot color for fine art figure work.  I didn't have the equipment to develop and print color, and so couldn't easily control the results.

Now that I was shooting digitally, I had to learn the color process all over again.  At first it was all too easy, and I succumbed to the ability to shoot color just about anywhere I liked, with very little discrimination, I'm afraid.

The image above is the result of an early attempt.  I met the model, Brandon, at a Bachelorette Party.  He was part of the entertainment.

His ease in the situation, coupled with his talent for movement, caught my attention.  And, OK, he was pretty.  But he had a personality  to match, and we started talking.  Before the party ended, he had agreed to a shoot.



Torso

My first shoot with a digital SRL - a Nikon D70, which I still use.  (I hate to change cars, doctors or cameras.)

Shot in color, converted to black & white.  Single light source.



As Bees in Honey Drown

Douglas Carter Beane's As Bees in Honey Drown, Directed by James Black.

Ty Mayberry, in a cover shoot that never ran, Spring 2000.

One fine spring morning, I drove by the magazine to drop off my copy and found the doors padlocked.  We never knew all the particulars, but TWIT was belly-up.  That was the end of a wonderful ride.  Just like that.

I do miss it.

Gross Indecency

GROSS INDECENCY, The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, written by  Moises Kaufman and produced by the ALLEY THEATRE in the spring of 1999, was directed by Company member John Feltch.  The play was a moving and intensely dramatic telling of the story of Oscar Wilde and his 19th century trial in London on the charge of "gross indecency". 



Wilde was publicly destroyed by the proceedings and the outcome, and was essentially railroaded by the forces of "decency" into disgrace, imprisonment and eventually, death, for being a "deviant", i.e. homosexual.

As usual, I was invited to the photo call on the main stage, along with a photographer from The Houston Chronicle.

The etiquette in such shoots calls for each photographer to be given the opportunity to frame and shoot his own images, and not get in the way of the other photographer.  It can be a quite complicated dance of give and take.

I had worked with the Chronicle photog before, and things went smoothly, but he had obviously had his marching orders from his editor, and at one point, when the actors playing Wilde and his lover, Lord Douglas, struck an intimate, and perfectly natural, pose, he stopped the shoot and announced that he had been instructed not to photograph any images that would show the two male actors in close physical contact, so as not to offend his paper's readers.  I was flabbergasted.

Since my editor had requested the exact opposite, I waited for him to finish and then shot mine.

Jeffrey Bean, as Oscar   Gregory Woodell, as "Bosie"

The images above were photographed on black and white film in stage light, sepia toned and "antiqued" for a period look.

I had intended a piece on the play and its background, but the incident described changed all that, and instead I interviewed the director on his reaction to it.  It seems we hadn't come all that far in a hundred years.

The photos above accompanied the article.





The Play About the Baby

Another ALLEY THEATRE shoot, this one during rehearsals for Edward Albee's THE PLAY ABOUT THE BABY.  Directed by Mr. Albee, the play starred David Burtka, Rebecca Harris, Earle Hyman and Marian Seldes.

The shot

 

The play featured a rather extended nude scene, in which David and Rebecca Harris, as the two young lovers, frolicked across the stage. 

The shoot, which took place on the Main Stage, was also something of a romp.  

David, whose only wardrobe was a towel, was comfortable and easy, despite several lookers-on.

The cover

Angels at the Alley

My first photography assignment at the ALLEY THEATRE - ANGELS IN AMERICA.

It was a very exciting time.  ANGELS was in rehearsal, and we all sensed that theater history was being made.  With a stellar cast consisting of the Alley company and guest artists, and director Michael Wilson at the helm, a kind of magic was created - a world of its own.

I was assigned, along with writer Brent Shockley, to do a feature piece and cover story for This Week in Texas.  From the first we were welcomed into the process, and had the rare privilege of being there during the rehearsal period, as well as for the extended run.

The result - the cover - is below.

Joseph Haj and David Whelan embrace in a scene from

Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA.

The shoot, which was called on the rehearsal stage, was not without a drama of its own.  The pose above was directed by Michael, and went off without a hitch.  Everyone was being congenial and cooperative.  Then a couple more directed by Michael.

The Alley company's John Feltch, comforting Joseph Haj.

At this point in time I had to pause to change film.  When I looked back up, some (undirected) action was taking place on the stage bed.  I shot it.



The next day I got a frantic call from the PR office.  It seemed that "one of the actors" - they never said which one - was having second thoughts about the photo shoot, and could I bring the proofs up for a review?  The only time available was that evening, during a charity event associated with the show at a local gallery.  Could I bring them there?  I told them I could.  What I didn't tell them was that the photos had already gone to press, and would hit the stands the next day.

I arrived at the gallery, where several representatives of the theater and I huddled in a back office to look over the photographs.  It was all very discrete; the actor who was complaining was never identified, nor was the specific shot he was objecting to, although it wasn't difficult to determine which one it was.

It was finally decided that there was nothing offensive in the images I had taken, and they were all cleared - a tremendous relief to me, since I could have done nothing about it at that point.  (I had actually lobbied to use the kiss as the cover, but the editors opted for another shot.)

The play was a tremendous hit, and was held over twice, a first in the history of the ALLEY.  I had an open pass, and saw it again and again.  As the play was quite long, it was divided into two parts, usually run on consecutive evenings.  There were one or two marathon performances, when both parts were performed on the same day, with a dinner break in between.  I saw them all.

It was a great experience, and one I shall always remember.

These photographs were scanned from a copy of the article, and were half-toned for printing, which explains their image quality.  I apologize, but I cannot locate the originals.  It's quite possible that the magazine retained them.  I don't remember.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Another shoot on the ALLEY stage, a production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, directed by Michael Wilson.

Patrick St. Esprit, as Stanley Kowalski.  Patrick was a joy to work with.  He wore a tear-away Tshirt for the climactic scene, and slowly tore it off as I shot.  I cannot find those photos, but I will keep looking.

The incomparable Annalee Jefferies as Blanche.  She signed a copy of this photograph for me with a line from the play, "Daylight never exposed so total a ruin."





The Boys of "Civil War"



From "The Civil War" shoot.  The guys were enjoying it.  The show itself was quite a serious undertaking, and they got a kick out of doing a "beefcake" shot.  Of course, it was a foregone conclusion who would be on the cover, but they had fun.

I made a poster of this shot and gave one to each of them.

Shot at the ALLEY THEATRE in Houston on color film, stage lighting.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep the ID info, so the only one I know is Matt Bogart, center.

Figure with a Flag

At the same time I was experimenting with the digital point and shoot, I continued to shoot film with my Nikon F5.

One of my favorite gigs around that time was as arts critic for a weekly entertainment publication, This Week in Texas, in Houston.  I covered theater, dance and film, reviewing, interviewing and often doing my own photography.  I had a ball.

Houston's Tony Award winning ALLEY THEATRE was on my regular beat.  The staff there, from the ushers to Artistic Director Gregory Boyd at the top, was outstanding in their professionalism and genuine helpfulness.

I was often invited to their photo calls, since they knew I was usually good for a cover.

When Frank Wildhorn's and Gregory Boyd's musical, THE CIVIL WAR was about to premiere, I got a call.  Would I like to do a photoshoot and review?

The shoot was scheduled just before the first performance, and I had exactly 30 minutes, no more.  I had the cast and the stage at my disposal, and the lighting crew standing by.

As always at the Alley, everything went like clockwork.  I had the head of Public Relations at my disposal, and the idea of an actor draped in the flag was hers.  One of the principles, Broadway actor Matt Bogart, was chosen to do the pose.

The PR rep was rather delicately skirting the issue of clothing, as the image was to imply nudity.  She suggested diplomatically that Matt, who was already shirtless, might just roll up his jeans so they didn't show.

Time was of the essence, and Matt, realizing that, simply replied that that would take too long, and calmly stepped out of his jeans.

I love the theater.

The shot

The cover

This issue jumped off the stands, and ran out of copies before the week was out.

Portrait of a Young Man

Same pose, same shoot as Saturday, September 3, 2011, only the model is nude in this shot.

You will see a subtle difference in his expression.  More about this later.



Shot with digital Olympus in natural light.

Nude in Doorway

From the same shoot.  The model, an actor/dancer with a gymnastics background, had the physique of a Greek kouros figure, and so I purposefully posed him in that attitude.

This was part of an experimental series with the digital point and shoot, and impromptu. 

I had no studio space at the time, so this was shot in the hallway of my condo in Houston.

Natural light, with heavy dodging in Photoshop.



Portrait of a Young Man

From the same shoot as "Nude on a Couch".  (September 1, 2011)

Better framing; I'm learning.  But holding the camera away from my face to look at the screen is still awkward.

Shot with the borrowed digital Olympus, natural light.



Tandem figure with water

The model played "The Boy" in a production of "Last Splash!" and I came up with this concept as a poster and program, but it was never used.

Shot with the borrowed Olympus digital point and shoot, "sepia" toned.



Nude on a Couch

Today is the first of September, and a good place to make a change. 

I have been through twenty+ years of archived negatives,  and have chosen what I consider the best for posting.  There may be a few more, but essentially, I have come to the end of the film work.

Sometime in the later '90's I borrowed a friend's Olympus digital point and shoot, pointed it and shot.

It was quite awkward.  It was far too light, and felt peculiar in my hand.  I was used to the comforting heft of my Nikon F5.  The tiny screen, instead of a viewfinder, was strange, as was the posture of holding it away from my eye. 

I didn't like it at all, but I must admit that the technical aspects of it fascinated me, particularly the idea that I didn't need a darkroom.  I always disliked the darkroom; developing and printing was drudgery for me.

Below is one of the first images I attempted:

I was trying to emulate the look of film, with mixed results.  The image is somewhat soft, and lacks the focus and lighting I could have achieved with film. 

The framing is also a little off, because I wasn't used to looking at a screen.  It was hand-held; the camera didn't have a tripod mount.

But I had an image, and without entering a darkroom!

It was a beginning.