A Large Tick And A Little Tock

By popular request, I will put off good morning, good day, and good evening Vietnam until next week, and thought instead I’d dive forward into the backwards way I approach a photographic assignment.

Let me begin with a recent assignment to photograph for one of my all time favorite creative directors, Janet Froelich. The assignment was to shoot approximately five photographs that illustrated how women have different energy levels and abilities through the course of the day. Their energy rises and falls as the day progresses.

So there is the big picture. My restraints were that it had to be shot in one day with one model and because of the number and type of pictures it had to be shot in one location. The first thought that went through my little noodle of a brain was outright fear. How am I going to do this? What does this idea have to do with photographs? I would have much rather gone and taken a nap. But with the challenge of a new day and with a necessity to pay my mortgage, I began to organize my process.

Janet had mentioned to me a picture that I had shot years ago for her, with a clock in the picture. With this, a large tick and a little tock went off in my head. I was now off and running. This revelation got me going, I was now able to leave my fears behind and move into possibilities. This transition happens on every shoot. Once I get a vague idea on how to approach the problem I intuitively know where I am going. The next step is to immediately call Renate, my stylist (the miracle of 29th Street) to put her on hold for the shoot, and to try to get her to either come to the first production meeting (in this case there was none) or for her, myself, Michael (the studio manager), Patricia (My first assistant and all around know everything person) to get together for breakfast or lunch. We love to eat away our fears as we begin to talk about ideas props and wardrobe.

This first meeting is usually crucial. We all throw out ideas and usually agree by the end of the meeting on the props and type of wardrobe. In this case I remember thinking that time is the answer to the problem. If we use different clocks and wardrobes that represent different times of day perhaps we could at least represent the passage of time.

There is always dialectic I must work within. How do I make my pictures that will also work for the clients needs? If you just simply looked at my pictures one might wonder how they compliment a specific clients requests, but they do in my fashion. I am not an illustrator, nor do I want to be. I do not composite pictures together everything is shot in camera. All I do up to this point is arrange the general guidelines of the shoot. If after this first meeting it is decided that we need large props I start the process working, I choose the model, and began the truly hard work (for me) to find the appropriate location. I knew for this shoot, it had to be one large location with a variety of possibilities. As it was late winter, with snow on the ground, and still bitter cold, I knew we had to find an interior location.

Some years ago I had seen an article on a large Stanford White mansion that had been restored in Rhinebeck, New York. It had recently been used for Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, and I luckily found it in a location service directory. This is often not the case and takes many days of scouting, but on this day, we were lucky. So now it was all coming together. I had the props, the location, model chosen, driven to Rhinebeck to quickly look at the location to make sure it was as it seemed…and it was.

I have talked before how at the location I look but do not want to see. All I want to know is that I like it and that I can make pictures there. That is all, nothing specific. So with that, everyone arrived and the shooting began.

Although my pictures look so contrived, peaceful and composed, they are totally spontaneous. Five minutes before I do not know what I am going to do. I see the model in the clothes, look at the prop, and decide based somewhat on the light, the location where best to shoot it, and off to the races we go.

I love the process of making pictures. I love the collaborative effort, the laughter, the food and the fun. During these days I love being a photographer. Until, that is, I look at the film…