I used to turn the pages of Arnold Newman’s environmental portrait books and imagine the creative collaboration between photographer and sitter that created the timeless documents. Then I worked as a photographers assistant on a few to many client controlled collaborations and I wondered what room there is for collaboration on today’s commercial shoots.
Here is a Vanity Fair video providing a behind the scenes look at an Annie Leibovitz’s photo shoot.
Speaking of Arnold Newman in 2003 I was knocking on doors in New York and ended up printing in his darkroom. Mr. Newman, let’s just say he was a particular man. He saw the words “fine art” on my resume and he said, “let me see the work and I will tell you if it is fine art.”
His studio was on the west side of Central Park. It was 1947 in there all India ink, roll fax machine, and no internet. He had an image archive floor to ceiling that most libraries couldn’t catalog. Amazing how one man could have such unwavering vision.
Well one night I stayed up too late. I drank the coffee, too much and I had the darkroom jitters. He kept coming in and checking on my prints and I couldn’t a good black for nothing. I was printing on 16×20 paper and his darkroom was cramped with New York spaciousness. I pulled on the overhead light switch with the box of paper open and boy I got a good black on about 46 sheets. No more coffee for me and no more darkroom time with my hero Mr. Newman. I think he fired me with one word, “goodbye.”
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