People We've Met: G. David Low

I first opened for business in February, 1986. We had a huge Grand Opening party in the studio on Valentine's Day to celebrate, but it would be another two weeks before the studio was actually finished. All the debris was shoveled into the shop area and the equipment was locked in the darkroom, the floor swept and some lights hung, the volume was turned up to ten and the party was on. I didn't make a formal count, but my two partners and I invited literally everyone we knew, and most of them came, so we're fairly confident that there were at least 400 people in our loft that night.

Two months later, the studio was open about six weeks and after shooting a few jobs and waiting for the payments to arrive, I was absolutely penniless, stone cold flat broke. While sweating over how to pay the bills, my phone rang with yet another assignment. It was a really big job and I asked for an advance to be sent overnight via FedEx. The client agreed and I began booking flights, car rentals and hotel rooms.

Perfect timing being what it is, and not being available to me, the check didn't arrive for a few days. So... trusting in G-d and American Express, I hit the road for Amarillo, embarking on the first leg of a whirlwind seventeen city tour (18 days).

A few days later I was driving through Colorado, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, to Lockheed Martin's Denver Aerospace facility. The plant, where they manufacture missiles, rocket boosters, space shuttles and other top-secret stuff, was backed up to the mountain. A good location considering the cold war was still in high gear, you could see the Russians coming for a good thirty miles.

It seemed like everything I wanted to shoot that day was classified and I was keen for a high-tech opportunity. We turned a corner and entered a huge hangar. At the far end was a space shuttle and at my end was a mock-up of the Solar Max satellite. Between the satellite and the shuttle was David Low, an astronaut training for a mission to repair Solar Max.

"Here's a good shot," I thought I'd said to myself. I guess I actually said it aloud because my guide once again said, "Sorry, that's classified." Just then, about midway between where we were and where the shuttle was, a small door opened and a group of second graders entered with their little disposable cameras flashing like nobody's business. "Are you sure I can't shoot this?"

G. David Low, an astronaut for 12 years, flew three shuttle missions, orbiting Earth more than 540 times. His father, George M. Low, was the former NASA director who first suggested to President Kennedy in 1960 that the United States could send an astronaut to walk on the moon within 10 years. David Low passed away last week, he was 52.
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Above: Nikon F3, 300mm/f4.0 Nikkor lens, Kodachrome 64 film

People We've Met: Kay Booth

Photographers should never take vacations, at least I shouldn't. Every time I do, somebody calls and tries to book me for a job during my vacation, and I end up losing out because I'm not going to be around. This happens to me all the time and at one point I was getting kind of tired of turning down work, but also resigned to my lot in life.

My wife had planned a family vacation to Acadia National Park, and we were going to meet another couple and their son in Maine and share a house for a week whilst taking in the extraordinary natural beauty of the place. Needless to say, Jan was packing our bags when the phone rang.

This time it was Syuzi Pakhchyan at Buyside magazine in San Francisco, calling to see if I could shoot a cover story for the September issue. I'd worked on about a dozen stories with Syuzi in the preceding months and I didn't want to turn her away. All she needed was a couple of portraits for the story and, here's the best part: as long as I have it delivered by mid-August that would be cool, because, she said, "I'm going on vacation next week so just get it to me by the end of the following week."

It was a Thursday and I was going on vacation the next day, Friday. I'd be back in a week and had plenty of time to shoot it and meet the deadline, so I called the subject's office to arrange the shoot for the week after our (Syuzi's & my) respective vacations.

Kay Booth is Director of Equity Research at Bear Stearns & Co in New York. The only problem was that on Saturday she was flying to London for two weeks. My plan was to wake the family at 5:00 AM and hit the road for Maine. Nobody but me really liked that plan anyway so I suggested to Kay that we shoot the pictures the following day, and I asked if that would be okay with her? To my surprise she said yes, but it would have to be really early because she was really busy. She asked me to be there at 7:30 AM.

I couldn't have planned this better if I'd thought about it for a week! The family could sleep another hour and a half... we'd get in the minivan and go to Manhattan, dump the car in a garage, they would go eat breakfast at a restaurant and I would shoot the story, double back and meet them an hour and a half later and we'd be on the road to Maine by nine.

Never heard of Kay Booth, have you? Well, she's not really famous, but she is very well-known in her field. I mean, really, if she wasn't why would she be on the cover of Buyside?

Anyway, I wanted to squeeze this in today because I shot the picture in the trading room at Bear Stearns, a company that was worth $170 a share a year ago, $30 a share on Friday afternoon and was sold to JP Morgan Chase for $2 a share yesterday. If I wait any longer.....
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Above: Canon EOS-A2, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, Fujichrome Provia 100 film

People We've Met: Vincent Sardi, Jr.

New friends always ask me if I've ever photographed any celebrities. I think that they think that what separates guys like me from, say, wedding photographers, is that I must know some famous people. Well... I do know some famous people, at least I've met some, but let's get something straight here. I've met some famous people, but we're not best friends. This is the first in a series of pictures of people I've met (I used we in the title because I usually meet these people with my assistant at my side, hence we). Remember: I've met and photographed these people but they're not my pals, really, so don't be too impressed. I picked this portrait to be first because it was really my entry into the Environmental Portrait biz.

Vincent Sardi, Jr. I was still an assistant when I photographed Sardi. I'd been working for Ted Horowitz when one afternoon he called to say he'd been offered a job by a small restaurant trade magazine and the fee was too small for him to consider it, and he wanted to know if I would shoot it. I spoke to the editor and she was adamant about having me shoot the job on medium format film. I was a poor schmo who didn't own a medium format camera, so I called Ted back and told him he had to loan me his Hasselblads so I could shoot this. After all, he got me into it. He agreed and so I went over to his place, got the cameras and shot the portrait you see above.

I hired my friend Jim Mercer to assist me on this. We went to the restaurant, just off Times Square, and spent the morning looking around and setting up lights and stuff. At one point during the set-up I recall Sardi came in and offered us some coffee, which we accepted. The coffee came and I was busy doing this and that and the coffee was getting cold. Jim whispered in my ear that I should drink the coffee, it's likely going to be the only time I ever drink a $7.00 cup of coffee. Of course, in 1983, we'd not yet heard of Starbuck's.
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Above: Hasselblad 500C, 150/4.0 Zeiss Sonnar lens, Kodak Ektachrome 64 film