Neal Cassidy cry your eyes out

February 14, 2015, 7:36 am

≫ Next: "Don't tell a Lie about Me, dear and I won't Tell the Truth about you"- a line from a '30s Ink Spots song

"A lack of dollars doesn't mean poverty"-Benh Zeitlin, director of Beasts of the Southern Wild.
My bank balance b4 I headed west on Friday:

I live at the base of these Catalina mts. ( a holy place I believe)

I'm well into 68 yrs old and id b comfortable to live on the road. I had to bring 6 framed fotos of mine to Justin at his gallery, "The Shooting Gallery" in San Francisco. I set the appointment up for noon on
Saturday, February 7th. I had to be in LA on Sunday the 8th at 4 pm for Steve Diet Goedde's slide show for his kick starter campaign for a new book called "Arrangements" that I did the editing for. I then had to be in Tucson for a doctor appointment on Wednesday at 3:55 pm.
No problem ex cept instead of leaving Friday at 7 am I left at 2 am exhausted. I called my friend Carmelo in LA and asked him to rescue me and meet me in Gorman, CA off the 5 to drive my loaded car the rest of the way to SF. He agrees to meet me. I get as far as Tonapah (my hot springs stop) and fall asleep for three hours in my car. Recalculate when to meet Carmelo

and hope to get there b4 Justin leaves for Sacramento at 7 pm.
Get to Gorman at 1 pm and Carmelo has the fried egg sandwiches and fries to go. He drives...I doze and we get to SF by 6:30 pm. I leave Justin the framed pieces and arrange to leave him the dozens of unframed pieces I need to sign, etc.
We drive to meet Dagny Dishman, my friend/surrogate mother for my kids when I and they were young. To my horror every restaurant in the MIssion has a line! We find a empty Asian restaurant Dagny knows on Harrison.

We get to Bob Adler's to sleep and I fall hard hearing Carmelo and Bob talking into the nite

and later I get up at 6 am to sign prints.

We leave by 9 am stopping to watch Brandon warm his hands at his computer

and get to the Stockroom on Caesar Chavez at 3:45pm,greeted by my friend, Kumi Monster. Years ago I voted her best fetish dresser at a contest at Bondage A Go Go ($500 prize!!!!)

Old friends from SF (Michael Manning and Molly from So Hip It Hurts)

Kumi out smoking a cig with Carmelo.

I see a pretty young woman in a remarkably short yellow skirt and matching top. I ask Kat to step around the corner and raise her skirt.

Kat Handler of Century Guild, producing the Goedde "Arrangements" bk.

I met Hannah who bought from Jerri Transformations. I used to work with Jerri when he owned Centurian in Garden Grove, Ca then Reno, Nevada. I will never forget those white stiletto heels I got there.

Hudsy Hawn, head mistress at the University of the Stockroom, running the Goedde event. I ran after her fine butt.

note Coop and Strephen and child, Victor and Suzanne Lightworship, Micheal Manning and Steve Diet Goedde by the computer slide show machine

Sal with Molly L'Amour. The first time I shot Sal was many many years ago when he was married to a beautiful dom and he was a sissy. I shot it for Dian Hanson when she was at Leg Show but they were beautifully printed in my TASCHEN Beauty Parade (1997)

dinner next door at Indians and Turbans

That's John Moser in grey hair on my right

John wrote me an email, having taken party shots in 1989 and 1990 at the Rated X show at the Neikrug Gallery on east 68th st NYC. I was in both those shows and he needs to identify the people he shot.

He takes me to breakfast in Atwater village and I identify a few including Steve Bonge, now head of the New York City chapter of the Hell's Angels. He shows me a photo of a nude woman and asks if I remember her. Nope, I reply. He says she came to my studio and bought a Susan Smith image from me when i had a studio off Park Avenue in Manhattan. John Moser aka Alan Adrian aka Spike, porn star in the '80s. He invites me back to his apartment to see my framed photo. I find it behind a settee?

Mr. Moser also has a poster for Club 57 designed by John Sex. I try and swap for it but he won't.

and in his files of his photos he had a shot of Titus Moody whom I want to do a bk on called "Why Titus Moody."

Im instructed by Ori Small, married to Dave Naz, to bring Lillian with me after the dinner but Lillian never shows. I drive to west hollywood and fall asleep. The next day I go to Sammy's for photo supplies, and then Taschen's pop up gallery for Rolling Stones book with Eli.

Charlatta, Benedikt's daughter and Gregory B are working there. I take many pictures.

Elia pontificates to Charlatta

Then Molly L'Amour, a Lady Gaga and Toledo dancer, brings with her Alyssa Marquez from Yuma, Arizona, also a Toledo dancer and trained classic ballet dancer.

We are to shoot at the Naz pool but they are late and the sun is going down. We play round robin with Dave shooting against seemless in his studio

Dave Naz playing the part of David Bailey and Molly lking like Veruscka

and me shooting the other beauty outside by the pool and failing lite swapping models every few minutes.

the ladies about to be shot

Alyssa helps Molly with her heels

Alyssa wearing one of the t-shirts made by my nephew Adam (Big Time Threads)

Molly

Alyssa pours the shots

Molly wet again

a bound and beautiful Alyssa rides a wet Molly pony

Thinking back to a Flagstaff, Az shoot I did with Felice and another ponytail look alike model having a catfight in matching girdles I suggested the two dancers fight:

I was able to separate them but then they went back at it. (when I was a young man in New York I remember being on Park Avenue just north of Grand Central Station in the early work morning on my way to show my portfolio to a magazine editor and I see a business man in a business suit in his car almost hit another man walking across the street also dressed in a business suit. One yells at the other and the other yells back. The guy stops his car in the middle of the street and begins to fist fight the man he almost hit with his car. Both complete strangers to each other. A bunch of us separate them and as soon as we walk away the two business men are back fighting again!)

Then dinner at Mandurette (sp) on Beverly with me, Dave Naz, Ori Small, Lillian Batts, Carmelo Sala, Molly L'Amour, Durmel, Marian, and Kumi Monster.

me and beautiful Kumi

The next day I get breakfast at my MOST favorite counter FromA cafe on Melrose at Fairfax.

I do stuff and dine with Michael Tighe at Baracoa in Atwater village and leave on highway 5 for Interstate 10. Unfortunately, I have to report my favorite Cuban restaurant fed me bad chicken with arroz

so Im sick till I fall asleep at the rest area east of Indigo and sleep 6 hours in my car!

I get to my Tucson doctor appointment with 5 minutes to spare.
At least 1800 miles!!!! in five days. fun

↧

"Don't tell a Lie about Me, dear and I won't Tell the Truth about you"- a line from a '30s Ink Spots song

February 26, 2015, 1:23 pm

≫ Next: The Next Day at Dave's

≪ Previous: Neal Cassidy cry your eyes out

I bought a rusty Ink Spots cd in Blythe, CA on my way out to LA for Steve Diet Goedde's birthday party and it transfixed me.

I got into LA and went directly to Cynthia Patterson

's beautiful hill top house in Pasadena. She made me carbs for dinner

and energy then she and I went to C Loft Gallery space on Alemeda near 6th st. Funky. The room was crowded with Mistresses

and models

and (it seems) my reputation preceded me. Like I did at a party my French photog friend Robert Chouraqui, brought me to in Marsailles I found some models and shot in the hallway.

Some were in the Goedde bk I edited (Arrangements vol. 3),

photo by Michael Simmons

some were friends of friends like film director MIchael Simmons co script writer Allyson, some were straight up friends like Jessica

Im trying to encourage Jessica to practise safe sex

whom I helped raise since we met and she was nineteen and I was older.

And then there is Mistress Isabelle Sinclair who is a class by herself. I hadn't seen her for 6 or more years and she looked six or so years younger! A pack with the devil no doubt. I asked her to spank poor Jessica for being `bad' in a good way. (a reward of sorts)

My friend Coop dj'd.

the publisher, the girlfriend and the dj

Ori and Lillian be bopped in the corner and and in the bathroom with the host of the space. But first Ori set the stage.

I met Moxi behind the bar.

I kept thinking ` what's there not to love'

I had arranged the week b4 to shoot Kat Handler

the rubber butt of Kat next to her significant other

Kat caught off guard

and Moxi was up for being shot so I introduced them and they came over to Dave's the next day but that's another blog entry.

saw many old friends who had migrated to LA from SF like Molly , Lyn and MIchael Manning.

I asked her to show me her undies and she would not

Ori and Lillian rocking in the corner

Lillian , forever the fashion maven

the ladies having a deep deep conversation.

meanwhile my daughter Leah was in New Orleans collectioning beads and remembrances

when I saw these shots of her (she likes best to make customs) I sent her one of herself when she was three and she wrote back she still had the bunny hat!!!!!! She just turned 31.

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The Next Day at Dave's

March 1, 2015, 8:29 am

≫ Next: San Francisco

≪ Previous: "Don't tell a Lie about Me, dear and I won't Tell the Truth about you"- a line from a '30s Ink Spots song

What began as a simple shoot evolved into a fantastic complex shoot. Dave Naz, Cynthia Petterson and I took turns pohotographing Moxi and Kat. Easch of us has a different style. As Bill Ward and Eric Stanton got older their fastination with big then bigger boobs took hold. Im 68 and fabulously big boobs are beginning to entice my camera! (I will keep the rated x photos out of this entry like the shot of me pretending to wash my hands in one of the ladies pee as she stood in the plant garden)

preymantus

Dave Naz

nothing turns me on like a sway back on a beautiful woman

Dave Naz directs his shoot

my direction

Kat is wearing a "Brigette Bardot" from Syren and Moxi is wearing something I bought on Hollywood Blvd.

Kat wears dress top made from a dress top

the ladies we wearing crosses so I thought of prayer- outdoor prayer

which one is leading?

then the fine shoot was over and the girls went home

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San Francisco

March 9, 2015, 5:29 pm

≫ Next: I don't appreciate google

≪ Previous: The Next Day at Dave's

* thanks Steve Diet Goedde

↧

I don't appreciate google

March 17, 2015, 10:08 am

≫ Next: Up On Geary St

≪ Previous: San Francisco

I kept going instead of getting on Interstate 5 from Gilroy, the garlic capital of California. From misinformation I ended up at the Economy Inn on the western end of San Banos. A fabulous vest pocket motel that has beautiful small gardens.
Again I left Tucson last Thursday and slept at rest stops to Santa Monica then a nite on Jon Schwartz's couch and breakfast at Cori's on Ocean with my former master's program student Amy Sampson...pregnant. I believe outrageous mother shots should be taken for the child to enjoy in adulthood and so did Amy.

I was thrilled to make such beautiful images. Amy is wearing a "Brigette Bardot" from Syren courtesy of Steve Diet Goedde.

Then she went her way and I went mine to meet up 5 hours later in Atwater village at my former SVA student Patrick Paeper's bkstore Alias East.

Amy selecting another book below Richard Prince's art.

That night I attended Kayla's video collaboration shown at the Well as part of LA Fashion week. Her brilliance becomes more apparent every time I come to LA.

through the years I have managed to photograph Kayla on a number of couches.

cupping Kayla

her collaboration video at the Well

Kayla twice

an iphone is a photographers lighting assistant

after two bands

Kayla and I went outside on the rooftop and sat against the far wall. After a bit I noticed a short red skirt almost almost up against the back of my head. I asked Kayla if she thought the girl wearing the short red skirt would mind me running my hand up inside her skirt. We laughed and after a time we both left the Well with Kayla joing her friends and me and Durmel wandering...right up to the red skirt and her friends. I felt an immediate connection to Nathan from Lexington, Kentucky (Leah's bf is from Lexington) and Nathan was way wacky enough for me. Lola was married and Astrid was the wife of Nathan. Everyone spoke slurred French and English.

Everyone wants to go to the Ace Hotel rooftop bar and, naturally, there is a long line. I approach the gate guy and explain I am too old to wait in line and he lets us in and up we go to the pool bar. Nathan keeps buying me drinks while him and Durmel try and cause trouble with the young ladies.

Durmel playing the devil ('s advocate and Nathan looking for his better half in the bushes (far right)

international Kentucy relations

I have to drive all day the next day to my opening at the Shooting gallery so Durmel and I leave but end up across from the Mayan

at a taco stand with the most beautiful woman behind the window.

she declared me a fool and we go back out into the LA blue nite

and

home to Durmel's. I sleep soundly in his outdoor backyard casita and wake up to the morning light

↧

Up On Geary St

March 21, 2015, 9:43 am

≫ Next: Naked Lunch

≪ Previous: I don't appreciate google

After Friday nite in LA, I drove to San Francisco the day of the opening at the Shooting Gallery. Justin Giarla choose fifteen of my pieces and hung them salon style. No identification...no pricing. "Upon Inquiry" was printed on the 12 th anniversary price list. He had my work in a good spot down the way from the work of Shepard Fairey. I was late and Helena and her husband Laurent were there already.

Justin and I re-enact how we greeted each other moments earlier ...but in reverse.

Helena, Laurent, Brian Sullivan

my part

my life in San Francisco 9 yrs ago. Brandon, Brian, Farrah Spott, Helena and Laurent

Brian (photographer) reacting to my work

Chris (the dad with blonde hair) with his family

Justin in white t

painter Helen and her bf Justin in the background

ok so maybe Im jealous. Helena and Laurent freshly married

and on their way to Bali having spent a month in Vietnam.

Whitney (whom I met years ago through Kayla) and her bf

wearable art

Farrah Spott, back from NYC and the art scene there

Willa Mayo came. For some reason I didnt shoot her at the opening. Here is a shot of her I did in Tucson over a year ago. She has a job on the Haight

a dense moment around my work

Then across the street for some Turkish Delight with friends

Then back to the gallery

out on Geary and Larkin looking in

Paul and Catherine showed up. they are the parents of Royanne...my daughter Willa's best friend at Sacred Heart high school on Filmore.

with my spokesperson Brandon

a last look then home to the Adlers

the crowd seemed young but then maybe they are all dot com millionaires

some art patrons living in SF but from South Dakota and beyond

Like in the Cohen's "the Perfect Man" I got sobered up when I passed a young blonde woman and asked to take her photo. She looked at me and "Only if my friends can be in it". No thanks I want to

do your portrait. She then

Shooting her reminded me of Larry Clark's remark about making "Teenage Lust" how his younger brother took him into his scene and Larry got to relive with camera, his memories of being a teenager. There is an immense creative energy in someone on the street and less than 25 years old.

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Naked Lunch

April 12, 2015, 10:12 am

≫ Next: Ian Fleming, sci fi, western pulp, pulp fiction, romance, and everything else. LAST DAY to buy books below price

≪ Previous: Up On Geary St

I wanted to see my friend Annie Sprinkle while I was in SF. She is married to Beth and lives outside of town but we figured Saturday lunch and I suggested we bring it over to our friend Charles Gatewood's place since he doesn't often come down his three flights of stairs in Bernal Heights. Annie stopped off and got the delicious food and photogrpaher Michael Rosen was there along with Gatewood's new squeeze Tiana Giacalone, hair colorist extraordinaire, Joe Donahue. Bethany
Schwartz, and my host when I am in SF, photographer Bob Adler.
After we chowed down in Charles' kitchen and did the quick tour of his recent fine collages that line the hallway and into his bedroom. Charles (lucky dog) has given his collection to the Univ. of California Berkeley library! No simple task. Most libraries and instiutions won't take collections ...plus they paid him for it!!!! NV

photo by Bob Adler

Before I elaborate on lunch I have to write about my long, dear and, at times, troubling relationship with Annie Sprinkle. When I started teaching at School of Visual Arts on 23rd st in Manhattan I would see Annie from a distance moving along Lexington avenue as I returned to my studio on 27th between Park and Lex. I finally approached her and she burst into a grin and said "Eric Kroll! You're the reason I became a photographer!!!! Your book Sex Objects!!". Later I learned she did her photography assignments at SVA doing photographs at the houses she worked in. She lived right around the corner.
Upon meeting Annie my life changed (for the better). She lent me the leather garter belt and matching leather g-string that my wife wore sitting on a white stool with her head titled submissively down with a leather eye mask over her eyes. That session changed the direction of my photography. It was later published in Pat Reshen's High Heeled Women. What I remember is our three year old daughter, Leah, careening around the stool between exposures!
Annie introduced me to many many people like Les Barany, H.R. Giger's agent, Steve Bonge, now head of the New York chapter of NYC Hell's Angels and Veronica Vera head of the school for boys that want to be girls. Steve assisted me on my first non wife girlie shoot with Sioban Hunter. I cant believe I bought and used satin sheets!!! I met Mr. 10 1/2" Marc Stevens and Marco Vassi, the great erotic writer, now deceased. I remember lying across Annie's bed, the three of us on our backs fully clothed holding hands doing the "breath of fire". Annie had (or sounded like she had) orgasm after orgasm. During a break I looked at Marco and asked if he felt anything and he smiled and mouthed "no".
After Marco passed away there was an informal memorial at a westside loft and we were given the opportunity to speak about Marco. I was hesitant and then was about to move to the front when someone from behind pushed me aside and went up and spoke...Norman Mailer. He spoke about how much erotic language he owed to Marco. When I was a kid of 16, I came into the city from westchester with my fellow student Kenny Lindsay and met my english high school professor, Bud Stillman, to hear Norman Mailer read at the Carnegie Hall recital hall. Before hand, we were invited upstairs to a cocktail party given for Mailer (Bud knew him) and Mailer looked at me and said I reminded him of Leopold of Leopold and Loeb, the Chicago child murderers.
Later, in a near empty hall but seats away from Gregory Corso swigging from a flash and being loud and unruly, I listened as Mailer read from his contract with Carnegie Hall. What I remember is him screaming from the pulpit "kick her in the cunt! KICK HER IN THE CUNT".
(I will wrtie more later)

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Ian Fleming, sci fi, western pulp, pulp fiction, romance, and everything else. LAST DAY to buy books below price

April 17, 2015, 5:40 pm

≫ Next: The Danger of Working in Partnership with Myles Haselhorst of Ampersand Gallery

≪ Previous: Naked Lunch

Saguaro BOOKS

5626 E 22nd St, Tucson, AZ 85711
TOMORROW 9 am to 3pm. April 18th

Christa is closing one of the hidden jewels of Tucson. I have found many many important books through the 2 yrs I have been going there.CASH ONLY.

dont come early becasue she wont be there.

I'm not taking anything off this sale. Its my way of saying thank you for the delight I have gotten from her store.

Yesterday I asked Christa what was in that closet. She said nothing and this is what I found!

The Ian Fleming corner

Latrec looking thru the comics

↧

The Danger of Working in Partnership with Myles Haselhorst of Ampersand Gallery

May 11, 2015, 9:53 am

≫ Next: I've been travelling with Nilsa

≪ Previous: Ian Fleming, sci fi, western pulp, pulp fiction, romance, and everything else. LAST DAY to buy books below price

I'm no angel, but I can smell a rat.

↧

I've been travelling with Nilsa

May 14, 2015, 11:46 pm

≫ Next: Nilsa on the way to Van Horn(y), Tx

≪ Previous: The Danger of Working in Partnership with Myles Haselhorst of Ampersand Gallery

who doesnt like to be photographed but relents after doing many shots of me.

Katy shot in NYC

hair caught in the door in NYC

Giselle in NYC

Giselle smothers in NYC

Katy putting on an outfit of my choice in NYC

Midnight just b4 Midnite in NYC

wearing butt augmenters in NYC

I love Katy's expression in NYC

I shot the above and more when I was in NYC visitng my friends and daughters last month

↧

Nilsa on the way to Van Horn(y), Tx

May 18, 2015, 10:26 pm

≫ Next: In Santa Fe, NM in June

≪ Previous: I've been travelling with Nilsa

I've known Nilsa since she walked into my lighting course I taught at International Center of Photography in NYC. She claims I was fired because near the end of the semester when the students came in late I yelled "Fuck you!" I remember being fired for lending a strobe light to a student over night (I was told never to do that) and the next day she said they were stolen out of her car.
She next took some courses I taught at School of Visual Arts on 23rd st and we've remained friends ever since.
Nilsa doesn't feel comfortable photographing so she turns her creative energies on setting up tableaus with dolls. She has worked with photo shop since its inception and tried to explain (teach) to me some of the digital magic but Im used to 6 years of hard `point and shoot'.
UNtil now. Now I have a Leica M9 digi camera. The learning curve is long but I'm beginning to see the light. Nilsa flew in from NYC and stayed at the Haciend del Sol which was one of the places my parents went in the 50s to celebrate their anniversary.
I used to love it there..on the porch, etc. but not anymore. They are adding on without soul. Her suite looked like a high end Ramada, not an adobe casita. Ugh! Service was terrible, coffee uneven but she liked it and would go out in the early morning and take photos.

She even so a Rattler. I brought her a series of hats-against-the sun and we took photos.

We are long time plutonic friends.

Nilsa at breakfast

Nilsa as Chaplin

Nilsa as C. Chaplin

Nilsa at work

Nilsa self portrait

Nilsa as Heloise

I took her to the deGrazia chapel and she reminded me of Madonna (not the singer)

note the `two hat' look. The Woody Allen under hat was there against the sun.

Thursday night we went to the Cup to hear Roberto Duran play his beautiful Mexican guitar.

And Robert Villa for snakes, gila monsters and violin.

we get serenaded.

Robert can look snotty holding a violin but he isn't

Robert lking like Fabian in concert

Next day a quick stop at Carlos Lorenzo's for conversation soup.

We attended the last event of the year at Exploded View micro cinema (the brain child of David and Rebecca). Avant AZ (films by friends and people I don't know. Below is Sam Angiulo about to perform her "CHILD I WILL HURT YOU".

Then onto highway 10 to Wilcox, Az for mother's day

I've been doing this essay on food coloring...I mean hair coloring and Nilsa directed me to the convenience store operator in Wilcox. Thank you Nilsa.

I'm learning again how to focus

a customer at the store.

Caligraphy by Nilsa

Nilsa without post production

outside a gym (closed)

`Doppleganger' by Nilsa Macaya

I've been criss crossing American for several years now and I am aware of how screwed the economy is outside the main US cities. Nilsa was unaware. Now she too knows.

`Arrid' by Nilsa Macaya. she wrote me an email with this image. Hope she is ok with me reproducing it here.

called this company to find out if they are open for business, but they are out of business. was curious because the flowering bush in front of the place suggests possible life in the company. in any case, great opportunity for a photojournalist to capture the current truth of the economy. detroit is reported and chicago’s possible bankruptcy is monitored, but i have read nothing about the near disappearance of so many southwestern american towns.

-Nilsa Macaya.

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In Santa Fe, NM in June

June 2, 2015, 5:13 pm

≫ Next: Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

≪ Previous: Nilsa on the way to Van Horn(y), Tx

It is difficult to write about nasty things when one is visiting heaven so I wont. I am alone except for Ivana, the active turtle, that scurries back and forth in her huge aquarium feet away from where I am writing. Thank God, Audrey, Willie Bo and Kim

are away in NYC and I have the run of their kind house. They practise Buddhism and I can feel the good earth vibes. They have a flowering yellow bush (Spanish broom) out front of their house that I have never seen. So I shoot it from all angles. Would it flower in Tucson?

Doubtful. Their well attended garden backyard have acorn cones scattered along a stone path that I will put in perfect order so it appears, on digital film. that I am in a fairyland (which I am). I am in Santa Fe, NM and I just had bfast at the Pantry restaurant. The food is very good but I come to table next to the old Mexican American vibe that runs in the back room since 1948. The love and respect between the locals- both workers and patrons- is palatable as is the red chili (chicken based).

Last night was straight out of a Gabriel García Márquez novel. Up in the Santa de Christo mountains with old friends. The woman spinning my bead on my wrist first did so in 1966 when we were boyfriend and girlfriend in Boulder, Colorado. Over red wine and Jackson Browne, Van Morrison, Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Tom Waits Heartache and Vine, and Dire Straits we remembered back. We’ve remained friends these many fifty years but life keeps separated from such an evening as we were having with her sister Char and her husband Fred. Just the four of us. (I don’t have internet here so pl wait for the rest of the evening in the mountains)

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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

June 14, 2015, 8:45 am

≫ Next: Eating Chongqin Spicy Chicken from the Szechwan menu at Old Peking on Speedway in Tucson and thinking of ancient American Indian hair styles of thr southwest

≪ Previous: In Santa Fe, NM in June

I've started a new photo essay and discovered I had been shooting backs of women's hair for decades. Here is a shot of Candy with her hair done by Dallas Alleman (working in New Orleans now). He was what made my studio work special in the 80's and 90s in NYC.

Candy from behind circa 1988. NYC

San Francisco circa 2006

(my pet acorn snake)

2015

Brooklyn

Brooklyn flea

Leah's friend at the Brooklyn flea

Wilcox, Az convenience store

a model arriving at Dave's in LA

a Santa Fe poet off Garcia St.

the manager at a new Dollar store Tucson

at the Loft Cinema Tucson

also at the Loft Cinema Tucson

Lillian from the back in LA loft party for Steve D.G.'s birthday

↧

Eating Chongqin Spicy Chicken from the Szechwan menu at Old Peking on Speedway in Tucson and thinking of ancient American Indian hair styles of thr southwest

June 18, 2015, 6:03 pm

≫ Next: me by Andrew Emery Brown and Jackie Alpers

≪ Previous: Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

from a recently acquired bound 1952 Arizona Highways

a contact sheet of Candy with hair by Dallas inspired by an early Curtis photo I had shown Dallas (circa 1988). shot against shaped styroform that a camera came in

Candy out shopping for vegatables at a Korean deli that were on every corner in NYC back then

Anya the fortune teller from an old Life magazine

↧

me by Andrew Emery Brown and Jackie Alpers

June 19, 2015, 11:22 am

≫ Next: Independent day

≪ Previous: Eating Chongqin Spicy Chicken from the Szechwan menu at Old Peking on Speedway in Tucson and thinking of ancient American Indian hair styles of thr southwest

I've been trying to get Andrew Emery Brown up to my house ever since I began to work with chaos (about 3 years ago). I have always wanted to duplicate jazz in photos but I couldnt figure it. One morning, taking photos of my private madness, I realized I was living in free jazz and began to take
photos of the configurations of things (images ot follow in a few days). I was filmed for tv years ago by Andrew Brown and I thought he was a fine filmmaker and wanted to make a doc on ME and my creative mess. He is very busy but made it to my house as the light was fading. When he left I felt I had accomplished something- getting him up to my house. He sent me three shots he had taken. I like
very much.

when I moved permanently to Tucson over 6 years ago a knew very few people. One poet died shortly there after, one stopped talking to me because I took near naked (tasteful) photos of his 27 year old daughter. One stopped talking to me because he thought I was taking undue advantage of his lawyer mate and the last one stopped talking to me as soon as I moved here.

When I used to visit Tucson from SF and later LA, invariably I'd bring a model/friend to photograph. I asked Jackie Alpers to document a shooting a was doing with Melanie, a photographer model from

NYC that I have known 10 years.

↧

Independent day

July 4, 2015, 11:33 pm

≫ Next: I am selling vintage Kroll prints on ebay. Yesterday someone bought a Warhol

≪ Previous: me by Andrew Emery Brown and Jackie Alpers

I miss Jack Smith , though I never met him.

I miss holding more original Weegee prints in my hands and staring down at them in wonder.

bunny by Weegee 1945

Moondog by Weegee

I should have taken a photo of Moondog that I would see down the street from an early MOMOA. He’d stand there silently on the east side of sixth avenue mid block. Maybe I took his picture

And have lost it. I remember him.

"When I first got to New York they wrote me up as “a man with the face of Christ.” I put up with that for a few years, then I said I don’t want that connection, I must do something about my appearance to make it look un-Christian.” And so Moondog became a Nordic warrior; complete with spear and horned helmet: “the Viking of Sixth Avenue.”

“Rhythmically I’m in the past. Melodically and harmonically, I’m in the present or avant-garde.” Moondog

There was a darkroom one could rent in the west (Greenwich) village below the street. I have vague memories of editing (throwing away) early 35mm b&w negatives there. I regret losing my earliest work. Having no evidence, I think those negatives were some of my best, unaffected/direct work. As I got older my eye got bastardized by billboards, noise from art directors. Its best to go alone. I think Danny Lyon went on his own, but I was bastardized. I thought there was `a way’ to take photos…instead of just taking photos. It took me decades to see –all the time- through my eyes. To let it all out like Jack Smith seems to have done.

I still respond to the surrealists, the fluxus movement, Duchamp. I don’t have internet at home. Don’t want it. If I had it I would be down loading porn all day and nite. Even so, I just found an extra ordinary site that pleases me every inch of the way.

http://inneroptics.tumblr.com/archive

I get requests fro photos I did years ago and I somehow find them in my crazy archive. Gagosian Gallery needed to shots of Nam June Paik for a Hong Kong exhibition catalogue and, one of the shots, I hadn't thought about since I took it in 1984. I looked all the obvious places but couldnt find the 2 `/4" color transparency. I was about to go throught the hundred Light Impression expensive white linen photo albums and dint want to. I noticed a single transparency left balanced on one of the albums. It was inches from falling behind the row of albums and into the cobwebs ( I hadnt been through the area in five years). I picked it up and it was THE one I was looking for. AMAZING

I am going through and labelling my hundreds of cd's of my images taken in LA, SF, NYC and Tucson and making prints when I can.

Here is a shot I didnt set up. We were walking to the motel pool to shoot fetish and I realized it was a scene right out of "Reservoir Dogs" and took it. This was Paradise Valley, Ca and we were asked to leave the next day.

Dave and Ori years ago over dinner

nite u 2

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I am selling vintage Kroll prints on ebay. Yesterday someone bought a Warhol

July 7, 2015, 4:47 pm

≫ Next: Willa and Luke are getting married

≪ Previous: Independent day

http://www.ebay.com/sch/erickrollprintgallery/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

I have some fiber based vintage prints (signed on the back) for sale (very very reasonable). So far I've sold a fab photo of Isaac Stern talking to his wife at rehearsal break at Carnegie Hall. I shot it in the 1970's. And yesterday an Andy Warhol with R. Colacello I shot in the 80s. Please visit and own a signed (very very reasonable) Kroll vintage print. thanks

and more.

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Willa and Luke are getting married

July 9, 2015, 10:39 am

≫ Next: absolutely no commercial value

≪ Previous: I am selling vintage Kroll prints on ebay. Yesterday someone bought a Warhol

Luke called from Montana saying Willa had seen a grizzly. He kept telling me stuff about camping and fires and I asked where was Willa (fearing she had been mauled by a grizzly). He said she was inside the restaurant. Then he said he was going to propose to her when he went back into Willa and wanted my blessing. I gave it. wow! soon maybe I'll have a grandchild and then...

a re enactment of the proposal

Looks like a well organized pow wow in the back

Same day I found a surgeon at Mayo Clinic to rmeove my skaghorn kidney stone from my left kidney-Dr. Humphreys at the end of this month!!

Same day I started reading the lead story in the Sunday New York Times on Robert Frank.

( I had pressured Luka and Willa) to come with me in May to see Robert Frank. He was at the opening of his wife, June Leaf's,

(she's in the middle. born in Tucson)

painting and I wanted to see him again. I said Frank was the greatest living photographer. Two months later that's how the Times described him. Vindication.

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absolutely no commercial value

July 16, 2015, 12:41 pm

≫ Next: THIS ENTRY IS FOR ADULTS ONLY. everyone else go away until the next blog entry

≪ Previous: Willa and Luke are getting married

I used to do this all the time but not in Tucson (conservative). I tell everyone I studied cultural anthropology in college and I use it as I did yesterday photographing Nadia, a model mayhem model from Houston. She arrived from El Paso, Tx and before that Albuquerque, NM and started in Houston, Tx. She's a naked vagabond like other young women I have met through MM. I was pleasantly surprised she had no quams taking her clothes off in front of Jorge and me. He and I had pulled clothes for two days for this shoot. Her young boyfriend didnt even bother to come to the house to introduce himself. He went to the pool.
Neither of them had any interest in where they were. She had another shoot in three houses in Tucson then on to Phoenix then on to LA and up into the northwest. And Matt, her bf , didnt even like the road.

wearing a Syren rubber `spank' skirt

poolside with small lampshades

cowboy Kroll and cowboy Rico b4 the shoot

Nadia looking like Yvette Mimieux. vintage bathing suit from Diamond Lil's on River

photo by Jorge Rico

Jorge shooting Nadia

Jorge reaching for size 10 boots for Nadia

the boot spurs dig into her flesh

nothing I love more then a ponytail and a ten gallon hat

when Nadia first walked in off the road

one can never feel safe enough in the Ventana Golf Villas

Matt, Nadia's boyfriend gets some shut-eye while she is being photographed

Jorge shoots Nadia with havelina looking on

this moment re inforced my belief in God and country. Go team!

Nadia in the women's rm wearing a torn Fashionista piece

Nadia finds backyard comfort with my (fireman's) dummy. She is wearing a vintage PLAYBOY manufactured bikini.

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THIS ENTRY IS FOR ADULTS ONLY. everyone else go away until the next blog entry

July 25, 2015, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: First a Canyon brush fire two canyons to the west of my house, then a heavy monsoon rain

≪ Previous: absolutely no commercial value

I am reviewing all the piles of cds and DVD's of jpegs I have done since leaving NYC. That's eleven years in San Francisco, 3 years in LA and 6 years in Tucson. What follows is a strange and wonderful
shoot I did with my rope bondage expert JD in his apartment off a small park north of Market st in San Francsico at least10 years ago. The 6 women were from different parts of my life. Amy was my Masters student from Oakland, another was a visitor from Tennessee and a substitute teacher, 2 were women I had shot b4 and two I hadnt known b4. The fellow "belonged" to Skye and he I had shot previously.
Most of the props-wigs and vintage girdles, came out of my closet. I loved the light and colors. It took hours to suspend the fellow and bind the women. I woman fainted. JD orchestrated beautifully. That is his girlfriend with the raven hair and camera.