Coming Home
As a photographer of some 35 years, I have the philosophy that the photograph is more important than the photographer. Great photographs have lives of their own — they stand for ideas, express feelings, sometimes even those not intended by the photographer.
In 1986, I was flown to Key West from New York City to photography Captain Tony, a larger than life Key West character, a saloon keeper who was running for governor of Florida. It sounded like a juicy assignment and a good opportunity to create a unique photograph.
Tony and I hit it off immediately. His stories about his past in Key West, the womanizing, boozing, and other sordid, local details kept me spellbound. I felt as though he was a kindred spirit. He had in me an active audience and I had a very interesting subject, a man with a face that begged for a photograph.
I had brought with me to a small location lighting kit consisting of a portable black back drop. some strobes and my Polaroid camera (we shot all film back then, so no instant preview), with which I set up a small studio in my hotel room. To sell Tony on my idea, I took what has become to be known as a “selfie” using the Polaroid camera on a timer, wearing a thin black cotton shirt-jacket. Tony loved the idea and when he came to my cramped studio in the hotel room, I had him wear the same black shirt for his sitting.
The picture was a huge success. The editors at People loved it and ran it over two pages. Time Inc. used it for a full-page ad for the magazine. Tony called me from Key West and with his raspy voice told me his brother, I believe he was an actor, was coming to visit me at my New York apartment. And he did.
That was the last contact I had with Tony. I eventually moved from New York to New Orleans; the image came with me, in the form of a large print that had been hanging in my New York studio.
I never thought of offering the photograph for sale, till one day, on a whim, I printed a large copy and brought it out to the Frenchmen Street Art Market, where I sell my photographs. That very day, a young man approached me and pulled out his phone to show me a photograph of the same image, one he had taken of the shot that hangs to this day, I believe, in Captain Tony’s saloon in Key West.
“You should bring it down there,” he said. “People would love it.” After doing a little research I learned about the Island Days Art Festival and thought it would be a great way to get the photograph into the public eye so that’s where I will be on the weekend of Feb. 22-23.
Like I said, the good photographs have lives of their own and, hopefully, my portrait of Captain Tony will be well received!
This is a link to the original story in People Magazine
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20094186,00.html
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