Shearly Spontaneous Terry Falk, Rodney’s first assistant, talks about participant—based photography.

Rodney was always in the moment. He traveled lightly, with just his camera and film, no lights and flashes. Virtually every shot was made with a normal lens, which made all kinds of stuff possible. It felt natural and real because it just reflected a series of real events.

He created participant-based photography, where you’re involved in the moment. You’re really studying the thing and being aware of the sounds you’re hearing, the smells, the environment. His shoots started off being pretty quiet and meditative. He didn’t want a lot of chattering. Then, all of a sudden, it could get hysterically funny or emotionally moving.

Rodney created this sort of magical dream world that he would float around in. When taking pictures, he totally trusted his instincts. He knew what a good picture was and he went with it, never shooting Polaroids. It was like improv.

This particular shot was for a champagne company in France. There was no comp. There was no layout of these men in a row. It was never planned. It just simply happened.

Large-scale equipment to trim the grapevines was housed in the barn where we found a pair of shears. Rodney started with one model holding the shears and asked, “do we have any more?” Someone ran inside to grab more, and all of a sudden there are three men in bowler hats, holding three pairs of shears.

Suddenly they become these Magritte-like figures. Paul Martineau from the Getty Museum thinks they’re menacing. “Are they automatons that are just going to go crazy and castrate people?” I think they’re kind of funny. The idea that these men wielding old-fashioned shears can trim this huge fields of vines is clearly laughable.

There is something happening here that feels both believable and unbelievable. Because of the camera Rodney uses, because of his technique, because of the spontaneity, you accept that this is real.

I’ve assisted a lot of people and most photoshoots are not fun. It was a totally different experience to be on one of Rodney’s shoots. New assistants would come up to us and say, “I cannot believe this day. This is not at all what I thought this was going to be like!” Everyone knew they were part of something special.

Read “Remembrance of Things Past,” Rodney’s blog post about Terry Falk.