Nothing about Madonna surprised me. I thought it was cool-- someone from downtown was making it and actually had a talent that could transcend this void between ‘types’ of music (downtown, uptown, bridge and tunnel etc.) She was totally great. I was focused on my image and light but it was the stylist Maripol who was great at pulling it all together; her and M got along great and made up a really nice team. I remember spending hours shooting and the weather was this horrible rain and with the heat and the elevator turning off after 6pm, it was definitely an ‘old New York’ moment. Afterwards, we went down to Keith Herring’s to a party and the next day M came over to our apartment on Ave B to see contacts since we were in a rush deadline.

There is no perfect subject. Good or great, yes. But perfect? I say interesting is great. You can look at this a few ways. There’s ‘Pretty’ perfect or ‘Interesting’ perfect. I took it to heart when Irving Penn told me he liked my John Giorno portrait in Interview— you know, the one where he looked uncomfortable. He said to look for that odd point, that ‘thing’ about your subject and to just try to focus on it and work with it. His thoughts about that photograph brought the Apple computer campaign to me ten years later.

I like my Steve Buscemi, Dennis Hopper, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Michelle Phillips, among others. I think I shy away from the ‘cutie cutie’ lighting and feel and would say I like to try and people look handsome instead. I try to find that angle, which I can usually have in one or two rolls of 120 film.

With Infrared images I basically use the same equipment I use for my black and white shots with sometimes one more strobe head. You already have a background set up. You then set up two more Pix Stands with a cross bar and dark gray set paper rolled out onto the floor. This is off to the side slightly. You then angle this set paper and cut out shapes using an ex-knife. Finally move the Strobe head and the set paper to make shapes on your model. If there are female or male areas you wish not to show on the subject these shadows work wonders. Remember just any shape will not do! You have to do this shape cutting slow and with great thought. I use Konica Infrared-750 film and judge it at about 125 ASA and in the development test I give it plus or minus 25 seconds (this of course depends on what you are looking for in a final negative). Personally, I like deep tones.

Well, one point is studio size. Japan is a rental system. It’s BIG and light is going somewhere. At the space in East Union Square where I shot Andy (Warhol), REM and Madonna there was a very low ceiling and we had some sort of intimacy where the sense of space was concerned. I like that. I like a very small studio space. Looking back, I could see this in the difference between the New York and Tokyo images. Not to say the Tokyo images where not fine on their own. I think I see mostly tone and color and I think the Japanese have a blue to their skin—they seem white and we seem yellow. I think Japan digs magenta tone. Between Fuji Film with Nikon or Canon lenses, they like a touch more contrast (lens coating) and magenta (film) which gives you a more pure to white level tone.
   As I mainly worked in advertising in Japan with Japanese Designers I was really loving the Kanji or KataKana text on my posters. Lovely. One day a designer said to me: “Are you crazy? English abc is easy and cool to design with. I am so limited by Japanese Kanji”. I realized that I felt totally opposite. If I look way back I was influenced by an Asian ‘feel’ back when I was an illustrator and before photography had even raised it’s hand as a medium for me.

Odeon or Lucky Strike.

Brian Eno

Mickey Rourke & Jeff Beck

Painting, illustrating and watching movies.

The kiss between Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in the film, A Place in the Sun.

The West Village and East Village. There you have color, character and a feel of old New York.

 

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