Off The Cuff...

...and on the table.

This is Desiree Starr. Markus was right behind me somewhere clicking away. He is safely in Las Vegas now. If that is an option.

Tomorrow is retouching, retouching, retouching.

I got Tomiko and Lisa back from the lab tonight (that sounds odd, but cool, right?).

Great stuff. But I am nine months behind…

Birthday weekend for my girl. Tomorrow a BIG surprise early in the morning that only Michael, Pamela and Catherine know about. Sunday morning, she runs the half marathon in Central Park.

Nutty McNutt Nutt.

I'll be there, just like last time, camera at the finish line.

Patti is playing the last CBGB’s show EVER on October 15th. Tickets go on sale at noon on Sunday. So, my girl has to finish the marathon by 11:30am.

Seriously.

Host Mode

When you live in New York, you are often put into host mode. Everybody you know from everywhere wants to visit here, and they do, and you are expected to show them around, show them the Empire State Building, show them where the best Italian food in Little Italy is ("Didn't you used to live there, James?").

It can be exhausting.


But sometimes it's exhilarating.

My photographer friend Markus (see link to the right) spent the last week here and I loved "hosting" him.

He shot me shooting a model. I shot him shooting a model. We ambushed a gallery curator into granting us a meeting regarding a future two-man show. We drank some beer. We talked about our families and girls and hometowns. We got kicked out of the Carlton Arms Hotel.

We had fun.

Not so much host mode as meeting a long lost brother and going from there.

He booked a lot of models here in NYC some of them cancelled. I consider these people FOOLS. If I was a model, a model want-to-be, or just a hot chick (which I want to come back in the next life as) I would go to great lengths to have Markus photograph me.

Fools. Their loss, man. I watched him work tonight and, well, their fucking loss.

He is off to Las Vegas tomorrow and then Miami. I wish him safe travel and a swift return.

I wish I had a shot of him tonight shooting Desiree in one of her crazy contortion poses, but I left my shit at the office...

In that shot's place is this one. My other German friend, Lisa.

One Man's Crutch is Another Man's Wing

I launched my newfangled website on September 14th. On September 17th, the guy from www.indienudes.com linked to me. I have no idea how he ran across my site. I suspect he was trolling D. Brian's site (see link to the right) but I do not know. He linked to this blog too. Egregious, but cool.

The next day I got 18,000 hits.

Thank you, guy from Indie nudes!

Even though I am sandwiched right between "The Good Nudes" and "Naked guy in aviator glasses and..." I kid you not. You can go there right now and see that dude with the aviator glasses and his mess all flacid and out. It's cool, mostly for him, I'm guessing...

But 18,000 hits. Jesus!

I also got linked via that site to the Fluffy Lychees Blog and a related site, Fluffy Feets Blog.

These sites were also responsible for a good amount of traffic, despite the fact that I do not purposely shoot with "Lychees" or "Feets" in mind, but I am damn glad to have those blogs and their loyal readers in my camp. Rock on!

So anyway, one of those hits was the photo editor from ELEELA Magazine in Brazil, named Autumn. She wrote me about publishing my work, and after we spoke, replaced a feature they were supposed to do on Ellen von Unwerth's "Revenge" (who I am a HUGE fan of) with my work.

Due to the fact that she is OVER exposed and I am UNDER exposed.

I was good with that.

After a lot of back and forth there are just two shots. Both of them from my ROOMS series (man, people love that much more than the CHAIR series, oh well...) One of Tomiko (who I just fucking shot for the CHAIR series) and one of Gizel, who I adore.

The article will be in Portuguese. Which means, when I get my copies of the magazine, I'm gonna have to get my friend Bella to translate it back to me.

HEY! I know what I said, but what are they gonna say?

I quit smoking on Thursday and the last week has been a living hell. I have two choices as of now. Start smoking again and smoke until it kills me. Or, never, ever go through this withdrawal shit again.

I'm going for the latter.

Photo is of Tomiko. Soon to be published in ELEELA in South America. That's two Tomiko's in a row. I love me some Tomiko, and she knows.

Celluloid Heroes

Four "Chairs" down, nine to go...

Raining this morning in Brooklyn and all sort of nice and cozy here inside on the top floor of President Street.

Just perfect for listening to The Kinks bootleg "Fillmore West, 11/13/70" that my good buddy Johnny sent me this week. Boy, they were drunk that night. Ray and Dave singing horribly out of tune and Dave so, so sloppy on the guitar that he sounds like he's in a different band. But it is glorious. A close to eleven minute version of "Last of the Steam Powered Trains," Ray describing what he is wearing to the audience in detail (?), and a rollicking "Top of the Pops" right at the end before the hippie that recorded it abruptly switches the tape off. You know that sound - whirrrrppp!

Silence.

I wish my six-year-old ass had been there...I wouldn't see them for another nine years. Ray's one of the few songwriters/singers that has ever made me weep uncontrollably during a live show. Paul Westerberg was another, and as Johnny pointed out in his note to me, there is a similarity there...

Tomorrow is quite the day. Markus Richter is in town (see link to the right) and I am very excited to meet him. I have followed his work for years so it is an honor that he not only wants to hang out but to shoot together tomorrow. There are not a lot of folks I would agree to do that with...He has two models lined up and so do I. I have a shoot at 11am (the earliest one I've ever done) with a model from down DC way, who has worked with Sam Holden, whose work I really admire. Then later in the afternoon is a model from Los Angeles who came recommended to me by Eric Kroll, so she should be a hoot. I secured a fantastic location from my friend and patron Simon that is mind boggling - a 6 story building in midtown that has been completely demolished on the inside. Nothing but floors, walls and ceilings. I hope Markus digs it. Two freakish photographers and four models in an abandoned building. We'll have to try to get a group photo -mental note: take the tripod.

My good friend Tomiko from Los Angeles doing that thang last night. Her friend Mike assisting. Mike's a good man and he holds a mean snoot.

Back In Business

And too tired to do anything about it. And in a bad mood. Foul, actually.

Despite that, I finished three photo sets tonight after working all day on a major women's clothing line multimedia project.
I have four shoots scheduled between now and Wednesday.
I must be nuts.

But, hey...my computer is working and it's extremely fast.

Photo is of Saffron from January. Her signed prints went out today. To Leeds, UK.
Which means that it only took me nine months to finish them.
Models beware!
Sometimes I am slower than the sand...

Out of Business

While attempting to trouble shoot why the newly purchased additional 2 gigs of RAM and the newly purchased 400 gig hard drive are SLOWING DOWN my G5, I managed to get the machine to the point of being unable to start.

And I'm very angry, as I type this from my work machine.

It's crazy how much we depend on those things. I listen to 95% of my radio on it. My entire photography career is dependent on it. I get my news from it.

Tech support on the way...

The above photo is what my monitor looks like at this very minute.

Please Set Me On Fire

Self imposed exile is over, temporarily.

I TOLD myself - TOLD myself I wouldn't shoot again until October 10th, when I shoot D. Brian Nelson's "find" (see link at the right), Angela, from Newfoundland.

But, a model that I contacted about a year and a half ago - Shuko, from Japan - is in town and I cannot pass this opportunity up.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I met her today at the home office FOURBUCKS on 5th Avenue between 28th and 29th and she was lovely. We discussed 2-3 "fashion" looks and some "figure" work.

So, don't bother me next Tuesday, I'll be shooting her here in NYC. Somewhere. I'll see if I can get her to stand in a chair...

I hung out Friday briefly with Rich and his "find" SMITH, and he suggested that the "Chairs" project should be a collection of 13 of them, called, "13 Chairs." I like it. Mel Brooks, anyone? His reasoning: It doesn’t make any sense to shoot more than one of them, so why not shoot thirteen?

My kind of logic. There's a reason I count him amongst my mentors. Few and far between, they are.

I've had a lot of positive response to my shot of the beached ship on the Chilean shore (see entry below) and I predict that despite all the naked chicks I shoot, this one, after my death, will be my most popular shot. Actually, it will be second to my "Pigtails" shot.

Getchore prints now, while I'm alive and can still sign them.

Finishing up the last two shots of Natsuko's UMBRELLA story tonight while listening to WMFU (see link at the right). Mike Lupica, Monday night DJ extraordinaire, is playing an excellent set: Klaus Nomi, The Hot Monkey, and Eugenius.

I like.

Photo is a hot off the presses Natsuko. "Please Set Me On Fire" is one of the first songs released (1990) by my bestest friend Greg Elkins' band, Vanilla Trainwreck. Out of print, but available on eBay, like all the good stuff. Or here, if you click properly...