1965 to 2012

Jason Ross asked me to come and spend the day photographing anyone in his building in Red Hook that would like their picture taken. Here are six of the pictures including Jason himself seen here with Natasha Chekoudjian.

At one moment Jason disappeared into his bedroom and came back wearing a Michael Fish shirt and a French Velvet jacket. "They belonged to my father. He bought them when he lived in London in the 1960s." Natasha Chekoudjian is wearing a dress from her own collection with a belt and jewelry designed by Jason.

Not Hitchcock

I can remember to this day catching sight of the man as I walked along the Thames in Putney. I crept up along side him, and pretended to look out at the river. I guessed the distance I was from him and turned away to set the focus on the lens. I then leveled the Leica at my waist and pointed it towards him out of the corner of my eye.

Venice in the rain

February 1962. A nice moment to see Venice for the first time - mist and rain for three days. Hardly a sole about, just Venetians enjoying the emptiness of their city judging by the spring in this man's step. Others possibly looking forward to the spring hordes.

Boy pushing a barrow

In 1964 I roamed the streets of London looking for life going on. Late one Saturday afternoon in World's End, Chelsea, a boy passed me running down the street pushing a barrow. I missed the photograph and asked him if he would push it past me again. This he did. I took the picture to the Times who published it on their Saturday back page. At that time they devoted half the back page to a photograph. Just a photograph for the hell of it. It could have been of anything, taken anywhere. In about 2000 a woman living in Alberta, Canada, rang and asked if she could have a copy of this picture. Her copy, which was torn from the newspaper, had almost disintegrated. She told me that she had met, and fallen in love with this boy, when he was in his early twenties. She was no longer with him but she had a great attachment to his memory and the photograph.

Kubrick in the War Room

This week was taken up with trying to correct errors in the comments section of this blog. (Some people have not been able to post them successfully. "Accept third party cookies" and it will work. E-mail me if in trouble.) Then, shopping for and preparing dinner for tonight, notably making chocolate mousse.

So. I have slipped in two photographs from the past, one of which, that of Stanley Kubrick in the War Room from the making of Dr. Strangelove, was prompted by Richard Butler who brought up his interest in the film on Facebook.

Kubrick was lining up a shot of the circular table and standing in the light of one small spotlight. The Big Board is to the right and slightly behind me. Frequently he would get the grips to set up the camera and operate it himself. Sometimes the camera operator was not even on the set.

Stanley Kubrick

I worked for Stanley as a stills photographer on three of his pictures. Stanley loved ping-pong and he put up a tent in his garden so that he could play in all weathers. He was a family man who worried a lot about his cats and his children’s mice and hamsters. His children often appeared on the set. One day some Warner Brothers executives were expected to visit the set of "A Clockwork Orange". (He was probably well behind in his shooting schedule and they would have tried to push him.) Stanley just didn't turn up for that day's shooting.

Samuel Beckett

I took this picture of Samuel Beckett in London in 1965 at a rehearsal for a BBC production of "Waiting for Godot". Beckett observed acutely, never taking his eyes of the actors or director, but said very little. When they broke for lunch we went to a local pub where Beckett drank Guinness and played bar billiards. He beat everybody.