Diary of a Lunatic Photographer

9-11

2011-09-11T10:58:00.000-04:00

I was crossing Chambers Street that morning with Eileen, after dropping our daughter Sadie off at elementary school, when the first plane flew over our heads. I had a sightline down Church Street and watched that plane fly - actually glide - nose dead center, slowly right into the building, on that blue morning. It still seems inconceivable to me that I was standing there at that moment. And today it's all coming back to me. The run across Chambers Street to pick up Sadie from school, as we heard the sound of the second plane hitting. The walk north to get out of the area. And turning around to see the first building fall as the three of us neared Houston Street. I walked back downtown the next morning to my apartment on Maiden Lane near the Towers with my upstairs neighbor Kathy to get our cats. All the checkpoints, then all the dust. My apartment was covered in it, and we never did move back in. The enormity of that day is still incomprehensible.

Sadie crossing the Brooklyn Bridge 1 month before 9-11

Joey Ramone Birthday Bash 2011

2011-05-22T15:27:00.002-04:00

It's been 10 years since Joey Ramone "left home" - our planet East Village. Though it's odd that there is still a Joey Ramone Birthday Bash party after all these years, just dedicating a day to Joey once a year brings a smile to my face. He should be walking among us - looking down and laughing with us as we cross 3rd Avenue and make our way down St.Marks Place or 9th Street past his favorite haunts and restaurants. So amidst all the Ramones family squabbling, I think it's just fine to honor him with his own day. Gabba Gabba we accept you one of us!

I've posted my photos of last week's 2011 Joey Ramone Birthday Bash on this site for your Gabba Gabba viewing pleasure!

http://web.me.com/godlis/Joey_Ramone_Birthday_Bash

St.Marks Place 1981

CBGB's 1977

with Dee Dee, Bowery 1977

Trouser Press cover outtake 1983

SEE THIS MOVIE - Incendies

2011-04-23T19:20:00.006-04:00

On this rainy, chilly, "is Spring ever arriving" weekend in New York City, I am advising everyone I know that if you're going to see just one movie on the "big screen" this spring, Incendies which opened yesterday in NYC is the one. SEE THIS MOVIE!

I saw it a few weeks ago at the New Directors/New Films Festival (where I photographed the director Denis Villeneuve) and have been raving about it to everyone ever since. It was Canada's entry into the Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category, which doesn't come close to describing a film set mostly within civil war ravaged Lebanon over the last 30 years, with a twisted personal story too incredible, heartbreaking and shocking to describe here.

director Denis Villeneuve with friend, in NYC last month

This is the teaser from the movie's press kit: "When notary Lebel sits down with Jeanne and Simon Marwan to read from their mother Narwal's will the twins are stunned to receive a pair of envelopes - one for the father they thought was dead and another for a brother they didn't know existed."

That's the setup which takes them and the viewer to current day Lebanon, on a gut wrenching quest through their mother's history - which by the way she never told them about back in Canada. What they find out, and how they find it out, is simply amazing. The performance by actress Lubna Azabal as the mother (pictured at the top of this post) is incredible. Expect to leave the theater totally drained.

Check out the trailer and I dare you to miss this film!

view full size here: INCENDIES TRAILER

Now if that's not enough movie for you to see this weekend, here are two more:

In Brooklyn at BAM Cinematek, they are showing a retrospective by Japanese director Kaneto Shindo. I never saw any of his films until last night, which just happened to be the director's 99th birthday. The film I saw was The Naked Island, which was made in 1960, but never released in the US till now. This film is pure cinema, made in black and white, with sound but no dialogue, starring the director's wife, the actress Nobuko Otowa. Shindo's films are being presented at BAM by Benicio Del Toro, who just happens to be a major fan of Kaneto Shindo, which should be enough to convince you to get yourself out to Brooklyn. One of the other great films they are showing this weekend is Children of Hiroshima, a fiction film, made 4 years after the bomb was dropped, also with Nobuko Otowa. No sleep till Brooklyn.

Jerry Schatzberg, Paz de la Huerta, and Benicio Del Toro last night at BAM

Not enough for you??? How about going to IFC and seeing Beautiful Darling, the documentary film about the Warhol star Candy Darling. I saw this one at last year's New Directors/New Films Festival, and it's taken a year to hit the screens. Directed by James Rasin, the story is told by Jeremiah Newton, Candy Darling's roommate and executor. There are plenty of talking head interviews, and Chloe Sevigny reads from the star's diaries. Candy Says - see this film.

Chloe Sevigny, Jeremiah Newton, and James Rasin -

director James Rasin with Chloe Sevigny

Erin Go Bragh-less / photos by o' GODLIS

2011-03-17T11:54:00.000-04:00

St.Patricks Day, NYC 2008

As I've said before, St.Patricks Day is Opening Day for Street Photographers - probably more like Spring Training actually.The first parade of the season. A day to get out there with your camera and work out all the kinks. You can make a few mistakes. Nobody cares. Especially the Irish. It's a great day for them no matter what. Just remember to wear a bit of green.

Here's a few pix from the Boston Parade - in Southie - in 1974 and 1975. Check out Miss South Boston 1974 - really? - and Louise Day Hicks (google her), the original anti-busing Tea Party, er Boston Tea Party candidate (not in my district you don't!) - here seen in her souped up Cadillac de Ville. Was it green? I don't remember.

Ok - Go Green, Get out there, Erin Go Bragh, Erin Go Godlis

Tomorrow is a long time / R.I.P. Suze Rotolo

2011-03-04T10:03:00.001-05:00

Suze Rotolo with Todd Haynes 2007

It was about a year before I took this picture, a summer day 2006. I was walking east on 4th Street, near Second Avenue, when it struck me that the girl I just passed going in the other direction was / had to be Suze Rotolo. Too recognizable a figure for me to be dreaming it, I told the story to my friends, how I had passed the Freewheelin' Suze Rotolo on positively 4th street. How she looked the same as on that cover. How I hadn't bothered her to take a photo. It was just a great New York story for me.

A similar non-meeting in passing had occurred back in the mid 1980's, when I suddenly realized that the guy who just passed me in a hoodie on lower Fourth Avenue was someone - right Bob Dylan, no actually Bob Zimmerman. He was peering into each window of each little leftover store front - a watch repair shop, a small bookstore - one by one, nose pressed up to the glass, as he continued in disheveled fashion up lower Fourth Avenue towards 14th street. I just watched him to be sure that was who had passed me. The back pocket of his jeans was sticking inside out of his pants. And after almost tripping off one of the side walks three blocks north of me he turned around, and yes it was Robert Zimmerman. Being a complete unknown. He wasn't being Bob Dylan. And I didn't take his photograph either. Better as a story.

So it was in fall of 2007, a year after I saw Suze Rotolo on East Fourth Street, that I attended the NY Film Festival press screening of the eagerly anticipated Todd Haynes film I'm Not There. And it was the next day after that I was assigned to photograph Todd Haynes at a talk he was giving about the film at Lincoln Center. After the talk, I noticed Suze Rotolo hanging around to talk to Todd Haynes. And that was the moment I knew I had to take the chance to step in and ask if I could take their photo together. Not looking to be noticed, she was very obliging, happy to be photographed with Todd. When I asked her quickly what she thought of the film, her reply was "it was all about me". I don't know why, but I was under the impression that she was there to report to Bob, who never once commented on the film - though had given his approval for it to proceed. When I told this story to some Dylan insider types I was introduced to shortly after at a tribute show at the Beacon Theater, they said "you now he's still in touch with her."

Within a year after that, Suze Rotolo's book "Freewheelin' Time" was coming out, and so was she - doing interviews for the first time in her life. Her ex - Bob Dylan's "Chronicles" had already covered the same territory from the other side of the street, in 2004. It seemed more like a beginning than an end for her. I was so sad to hear of Suze Rotolo's passing this week. She was as cool as I thought she'd be. As soft, quiet and beautiful as Bob Dylan described her to be. May she rest in peace, her spirit sweetly walking forever down Jones Street for all to behold.

"If today was not a crooked highway...

OSCARs Shmoskers

2011-02-28T15:05:00.000-05:00

producer Scott Rudin with winner Aaron Sorkin - yes!

You watched it. You blogged it. You avoided it. Now, it's all yesterday's news. No I wasn't there. But I have had a few close encounters, and am pulling them out of the Godlis archives, dusting them off and posting them for one last look.

Anne Hathaway

She wore a million dresses last night. She wore this one at the opening night of the NY Film Festival in 2008. I don't think you can take a bad picture of her.

David Fincher - didn't win but should have

The Social Network opened the NY Film Festival last fall - easily the best opener they've had in years.I was rooting for it. But then I was rooting for punk back in the 70's. I am not a reliable predictor of mass success.

Jesse Eisenberg - he didn't win

The Social Network team - only one of these guys won

She won - Melissa Leo (rt) with Frozen River director, Courtney Hunt in 2008

Melissa Leo won, dropped the F-bomb, uncomfortably mingled with Kirk Douglas. Here she is in 2008 at the New Directors/New Films opening night presentation of Frozen River. If you haven't seen Frozen River - rent it immediately.

Inside Job director Charles Ferguson with Matt Damon - he narrates it.

Charles Ferguson deservedly won for his documentary Inside Job. That too was shown at the NY Film Festival last year. Equally daring was Restrepo, directed by Sebastian Junger, who showed Restrepo at the Walter Reade Theater (below) Human Rights Festival last summer.

Sebastian Junger , Restrepo - he didn't win, but could have

Time for just a few last thoughts and pix...

Andrew Garfield at the NY Film Fest opening party - not nominated

Andrew Garfield, who plays Mark Zuckerberg's "friend" in Social Network, is going to be the new Spiderman. Until then, catch him in the very creepy British trilogy series Red Riding.

David Fincher with Gina Gershon at the NY Film Festival

Anne Hathaway - same dress, different angle

David Fincher

I took this photo of David Fincher at a "Director's Dialogue", one of the great sidebars to the NY Film Festival. Right after he finished this talk, Fincher caught a plane back to Sweeden where he was returning to the set of The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo - coincidentally starring Rooney Mara, who played Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend from the great opening scene of The Social Network. Until that film comes out, I suggest you rent Zodiac and Fight Club. Over and out.

Roll on Columbia

2011-02-25T10:54:00.011-05:00

OK, let's put yesterday's name thing to rest, and get on to bigger and better things. Like the "on the road" version of the Who Shot Rock exhibition, curated by Gail Buckland, which started it's natural life at the Brooklyn Museum back in 2009. Who Shot Rock opens today and runs through May 22nd at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina. That's a little far for me to get to today at the end of February, but I guarantee you it's a beautiful place to be hanging if you find yourself anywhere near South Carolina this spring. And, get this, it's sponsored by Piggly Wiggly!

This looks like the last stop on the tour. The show's made stops in Memphis and Akron. And if you can't get to South Carolina, you can always purchase the Who Shot Rock book - excuse me, "exhibition catalog" - here. But what I've discovered - only yesterday, my god - is this great extended piece about the show put together by the public television station in Akron. I present it here now for your mid-winter enjoyment.

Watch the full episode. See more Western Reserve Public Media Specials.

By any other name...

2011-02-24T12:02:00.004-05:00

Shakespeare once said, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - well actually he didn't say it, he wrote it. But what about a GODLIS by any other name, would that smell as sweet? As I was gobbling down my oatmeal this morning, I came across a new variation on my name while reading a review of the Who Shot Rock exhibition which opens tonight at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina, where I am mentioned more than once as Michael Godlis.

Now maybe there is another guy called Michael Godlis with a Patti Smith photograph, but I doubt it. And actually they say some really nice things about me (and my photos) in the article. But it's been one of those months for a photographer named GODLIS.

When you have a photograph in the Sunday NY Times, you really want to see "credit where credit is due", so to speak. In there, my photo of film director Kelly Reichardt - whose fabulous new film Meek's Cutoff will be opening in April - was credited to David Goodlis. Now, David is indeed my first name. And it would be cool to be mixed up with the great noir writer David Goodis, who wrote the book that Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player is based upon. But Goodlis just doesn't carry the weight of a name like Godlis. I mean Godlis sounds like an atheist - that's the point really. But Goodlis just sounds like a nice guy with a funny name.

Look, it's a real name. I didn't make it up to sound punk, like Johnny Rotten or Richard Hell. I was already Godlis. I just dropped my first name, when I published my first picture from CBGB's. But people seem to have a problem spelling a word that has God in it. Hey I've got some Jewish friends -why not, I'm a Godless Jew myself - who won't even spell my name out for crazy religious reasons. Oy vey! But at least they're not photo editors.

And then, for the trifecta this month, I have photos in a cool new book about the The Bowery by Eric Ferrara. Now Eric Ferrara is a really nice guy, and though I haven't seen the book yet, it looks pretty great in the preview on Amazon here. But damn if my damn name isn't spelled wrong. Here I'm Goldis. That's a pretty common one. Invert the D and the L and get rid of God. But again, it doesn't carry the weight of GODLIS. Hey at least in this case, I have just one name - well one wrong name.

So who knows, maybe Shakespeare was right. But it's not as I like it. This godless rose don't smell so sweet. You know, like the sweet smell of success.

Who What Where When?

2011-02-22T10:45:00.000-05:00

unlikely pairing: Joan Jett & Jessica Alba

Me myself and eye have been a long time gone from these pages, so there's a lot of catching up to do. Where do I start? Well it's got to be this shot of Joan Jett and Jessica Alba, taken after BAM Cinematek's tribute to Susan Sarandon, at Susan Sarandon's ping pong club Spin New York. This shot kind of reminds me of the pictures that used to make the back page of Creem Magazine in the 70's - unlikely pairings backstage at rock shows. Joan looks fantastic (not that different from when I photographed her with the Runaways onstage at CBGB's in 1977).

A few minutes later, Susan Sarandon and Jessica Alba were playing ping pong. No Joan Jett didn't partake.

And Susan Sarandon looked just as fabulous as her former Rocky Horror Picture Show self, glaring from behind her during the publicity shots for the event out at BAM.

John Turturro showed up for a screening of the film he directed "Romance and Cigarettes".

And Todd Oldham made sure to get his picture taken with Joan Jett. I squeezed an image of Susan Sarandon into the backdrop. Kool Kats.

Joan Jett with the Runaways in 1977 CBGB's

Marcia Resnick's been looking at Bad Boys

2011-01-19T23:53:00.001-05:00

Marcia Resnick and Danny Fields

Let me start by saying that Marcia Resnick - who has a really sweet heart and a great eye - is one of my favorite New York City photographers. She's been looking at and shooting Bad Boys in New York City for decades. And as Johnny Thunders said - "All the smart boys know why". That was in "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory". But actually, if you buy one of Marcia's prints on view at Deborah Bell Gallery, you can.

The first thing I thought about after leaving the exhibition, "Bad Boys" last Thursday night was -"Damn, I should have taken more pictures tonight." I was having such a good time looking at the photographs and talking to everybody - and what a startling group of everybody's it was - that I forgot to remember that I wanted to try out this new app on my phone, uh camera - the one that makes all the photos look like they were taken inside a 1950's photo booth.

Marcia Resnick

Well, that's how we photographers are. First we stare in wonder at that great picture on the wall, then we get jealous, then we get inspired, then we shoot. And there was a lot at Marcia's exhibition to get inspired by. A lot! People slipped in and out like they do at these events - some to see if they made the final cut onto the wall. And others stayed all night to take it all in - like me. Flashes were going off all around, so why didn't it occur to me sooner to pull out my phone and shoot? I've got to admit, it's still a little difficult for someone who calls himself a photographer to get those words out of his mouth. Unless I'm using a weird app - like Hipstamatic, and in this case Pocketbooth - something that alters the phone picture taking experience significantly. Well I got started shooting too late - born to lose - but here's a few of my shots from Marcia's fabulous opening. You should have been there!

Oh wait - one more thing. Did you know that Marcia Resnick and Senator Chuck Schumer went to the same High School? Not only that - they were #1 and #2 in their class! Think about that one.

Anton Perich

Maria Del Greco

Walter Stedding

Sid Kaplan

Eric Mitchell

Joey Zero

Tim "Stupefaction" Broun

Barry Brothers

All photos by GODLIS

Femme Fatale: Lou Reed's "Red Shirley"

2011-01-18T00:23:00.001-05:00

Lou Reed with cousin Shirley at screening of his film Red Shirley

"Here she comes, you better watch your step"

Red Shirley, the 100 year old Chelsea girl activist, cousin, and subject of director Lou Reed's new film of the same name, was onstage with him for a unique post-screening Q&A at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center this past Friday Night. The former kingpin of the Velvet Underground turned filmmaker, came uptown as part of this year's Jewish Film Festival.

"See the way she walks, here the way she talks"

Literally a "factory girl", Reed's cousin who worked for 47 years as a seamstress in New York City's garment district was called "Red Shirley" by her fellow workers for standing up to the bosses and the unions alike. This 40 minute documentary, a short and concise interview, was filmed by Lou Reed and the phenomenal photographer Ralph Gibson at cousin Shirley's Chelsea apartment. Shot on a Canon 5D Camera in both black & white and color, the film is really a joy to watch.

Shirley, Lou Reed, and Ralph Gibson at the post screening Q&A

As we listen to Reed coax Shirley to tell the story of how she left her small town and family in Eastern Europe behind - Reed lovingly forces her to pronounce the town's difficult name at least 3 times - Gibson's camera glides around the apartment lyrically landing on artwork, photographs, and artifacts collected over an extraordinary lifetime (we found out at the Q&A that the photographs were unearthed by Reed and Gibson from the bottom of a closet - "what's under those clothes? photographs!"). During the course of the film, Reed finds out for the first time that cousin Shirley played mandolin, and carried it with her two suitcases on the final trip from Montreal to America ("I didn't like it there. It wasn't cosmopolitan enough."). These are the kind of stories a scriptwriter couldn't make up.

Ralph Gibson

These two seasoned artists seemed to have been left stunned while making this film, by this feisty activists' raw power. Asked during the Q&A whether she was a feminist, Shirley answered "no." A unionist? - "No." An activist - "Yes!" At Lincoln Center Friday, watching Lou Reed let Red Shirley take over the stage and the room with chutzpah, a wheelchair, and a microphone was a beautiful thing.

Red Shirley

Where will you see this beautiful little film? Well you can marvel at a clip from it here, on Lou Reed's website.

I'll be your mirror indeed. Bravo!

ALL PHOTOS © GODLIS

A Very Merry Godlis XMAS 2010

2010-12-25T19:32:00.001-05:00

It's over. You survived it.

Now sit back and for your viewing pleasure, a retrospective slideshow of Godlis Xmas photos - digital and analog - from the past 20 years. With a surprise Xmas soundtrack.

VIEW DIRECTLY ON YOU TUBE HERE

Jerry Schatzberg at Film Forum

2010-12-09T00:17:00.001-05:00

I bought an advance ticket last week to see the rarely shown film Puzzle of a Downfall Child, which screened this Monday at Film Forum. I knew it was going to be sold out - this was a one-off screening with director Jerry Schatzberg in attendance. As I walked in, a slide show was playing of Schatzberg's fashion photographs from the 60's, to a soundtrack that included a rare outtake of Bob Dylan's Visions of Johanna, followed by Jimi Hendrix's Castles Made of Sand. Well, it set the scene quite perfectly - Schatzberg photographed Dylan for the cover of Blonde on Blonde, as well as Hendrix, and quite notably the Rolling Stones in 1966 dressed in drag for the cover sleeve of Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing in the Shadow, a photo he spoke about later that evening.

Puzzle of a Downfall Child was Schatzberg's first film (1970). It featured Faye Dunaway in an extraordinary performance as a supermodel from the 60's, flash-backing her way through a nervous breakdown. Schatzberg showed photographs of his favorite model - Anne St.Marie (see below) - whom he based Faye Dunaway's character on (through a series of tape recorded reminiscences he did with St.Marie - a recurring motif in Puzzle). The cast includes the wonderful Viveca Lindfors and Roy Scheider. Shown rarely on TV and hardly ever in theaters - Schatzberg revealed that there is only one known print in existence, the one we saw Monday. It is still not available on DVD. My friend, photographer Roberta Bayley swears by this film. And this was the first chance I had to see it. Indeed, you will never see a film like this one.

model Anne St.Marie photographed by Schatzberg

As if seeing this film wasn't enough, we were treated to a talk with slides by Jerry Schatzberg after the film. He spoke amongst other things, about his second film, Panic In Needle Park - which was Al Pacino's first. We learned that it was a clip from Needle Park that secured Pacino the job on The Godfather. There was also talk of his films Scarecrow (with Pacino and Gene Hackman), Seduction of Joe Tynan, (with Alan Alda) and Reunion (written by Harold Pinter). Underrated as a director in America, beloved for the same in France, Jerry Schatzberg is just one suave cool modest New Yorker.

Jerry Schatzberg at Film Forum

As far as my connection to Jerry Schatzberg goes, it's mostly photographic. I have to admit that it took me years to realize what a big influence his inner sleeve photos from Blonde on Blonde had on my mid 70's CBGB photographs. High contrast, black & white natural low-light grainy photographs, that I stared at endlessly back in 1966, at first to understand Dylan, but by osmosis over time it was Jerry Schatzberg that I learned from.

All photos © Jerry Schatzberg

Belatedly Breathless

2010-12-05T15:33:00.005-05:00

Omigod I've fallen so far behind. As the Film Forum so kindly reminded me via e-mail, last Friday was Jean Luc Godard's 80th birthday. You could, if you're lucky enough to be in New York this week, go down there and see a sparkling new print of Breathless. Or you can just lazily go online to netflix and live stream a JLG triple feature - Breathless (1960 with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg), A Woman Is A Woman (1961 with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina), and Pierrot Le Fou (1965 Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina again).

For my part, I've dug up these photos that I took of Godard when he came to New York City in 1990, for the NY Film Festival screening of his film "Nouvelle Vague". The proof sheet shots below were taken at his press conference. For the other shots, I followed him as he left the theater and took to the streets. As Godard rarely comes over to the US anymore (he didn't come to Hollywood this year to pick up his honorary Oscar, or to any NY Film Festival screening of his films since 1990 - including this year's screening of Film Socialisme), I feel lucky that I was there to get these shots.

Jean-Luc Godard at the NY FIlm Festival 1990

From the sublime to the ridiculous, Canon Films at Lincoln Center

2010-11-23T15:47:00.000-05:00

Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke in Barfly

What you're looking at is a screen grab taken with my iPhone, of the first scene between Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke, in the movie Barfly, the great film from 1987 directed by Barbet Schroeder, and written by Charles Bukowski, which screened Friday night at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. A film that is, remarkably, still not available on DVD.

The Canon Brigade - Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus

What is even more remarkable is the series of Canon Films being shown this week up at Lincoln Center, of which Barfly is just one of the standouts. Canon Films in the 1980's was run by the producers Menachem Golan (self-named after the Golan heights) and Yoram Globus, who made their big money on a variety of exploitation films with Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, and even Sylvester Stallone, as well as Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. They did a lot of sequels to movies of which they did not make the originals. They were the first producers to presell a film internationallly before it was made. And they were very successful. But oddly enough, these Israeli cousins, funded a whole series art films by top directors. And those are some of the great films that the Walter Reade Theater is showing this week - films by Jean-Luc Godard, John Cassevetes, John Frankenheimer, Nicolas Roeg, Barbet Schroeder, Jerry Schatzberg, Norman Mailer, and Raul Ruiz (see the schedule here).

Rourke in Barfly

Faye Dunaway, NY Film Festival press conference for Barfly, 1987

But let's get back to Barfly for a minute. I took this picture of Faye Dunaway at the New York Film Festival press conference for Barfly in 1987, one of the first years I photographed the festival, so it was a bit strange to be seeing it here at Lincoln Center for the first time since then. I was talking with director Josh Safdie at the popcorn stand before the film started, and was surprised he'd never seen it (he was born 1984, according to IMDB) - that's when I first realized it wasn't out on DVD. I'm guessing a lot of people have never seen this film. Barfly came out after a run of phenomenal film appearances for Mickey Rourke - Diner (1982), Rumblefish (1983), Pope of Grenwich Village (1984), Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986), and Angel Heart (1987). For Faye Dunaway this was her best part since Mommie Dearest.

Menachem Golan telling "the finger" story

So it was a treat to be at Lincoln Center on Friday night, and hear the producer Menachem Golan get onstage to tell some tremendous stories about the making of Barfly. While director Barbet Schroeder smiled onstage beside him, he described how Schroeder had threatened to cut off his finger if Menachem Golan didn't fund this picture. Sounding like some Borscht Belt comedian, Golan said "They told me at the Essex Hotel front desk here in New York, there is a man downstairs with a knife and a finger. I said what are you meshuginah - all right we'll fund your picture." A story about Mickey Rourke and Cannes was told in the same manner. "He told me he won't come to the Cannes premiere of Barfly unless we buy him a Rolls Royce. And what - do you think we didn't buy him a car? We bought him a car - Mickey is a talented meshuginah."

Yoram Globus, Barbet Schroeder, Menachem Golan in the Walter Reade lobby

Talking about his other films, Golan was just as outrageously humorous and brazenly honest. About Charles Bronson - "He was a cold fish". About Jean Claude Van Damme - "I discovered the bastard." About Sly Stallone - "He wanted $7 million, so I offered him $10 mlllion. Why? Because we made plenty of money." The associate producer Tom Luddy was on hand, and reminded everyone about how Jean-Luc Godard, (whose film Every Man for Himself which is playing downtown at the Film Forum this week) had so liberally borrowed/stolen dialogue from Bukowski for Every Man without permission, that he had to call Barbet Schroeder, and offer to pay him and Bukowski for subtitle credit.

What a night. We got to see a reunion of the Canon Film production team, Golan and Globus, who had not spoken in many years up until this event. The film itself was as good as I remembered it. I had totally forgotten that the cinematography was done by the great Robby Muller (please excuse the missing umlaut). The performances by both Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway were a phenomenal one-two punch. The directing by Barbet Schroeder spot on.

Mickey Rourke and Sylvia Myles at the NY Film Festival 2008

As far as this Canon Films survey and the producing Israeli cousins go - there were more fireworks on hand Saturday night at a rare screening of the 1980 Rocky Horror-ish film The Apple - well the Rocky Horror Picture Show if it was directed by your Rabbi and Cantor on acid. More tomorrow...

"keep your finger Barbet. we'll fund you're movie!"

current events - where you been Godlis?

2010-11-18T00:44:00.003-05:00

Two legends in one night: Mike Nichols and Stanley Donen

So a couple of weeks ago, I was way uptown shooting at the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center. It was opening night of a full week tribute to the films of Stanley Donen. Yes the director of Singin' in the Rain, Funny Face, Charade, On the Town and Damn Yankees. Still alive and sharp, in person doing an interview onstage with Mike Nichols after a screening of his film Funny Face. Talking about how he tried to make the film look like his friend Richard Avedon's photographs (Fred Astaire's 'Dick Avery' character in the film is based on Avedon - going to Paris from Grenwich Village for the fashion shows with Audrey Hepburn). Donen said the film which was made in VistaVision didn't lend itself to Avedon's minimal depth of field techniques, and the producers were annoyed at him for not showing off VistaVision to its fullest. Funny how things never change between business and art. Mike Nichols and Donen bonded over hating people who are full of themselves, amongst other things. Then after all that I got to take a picture of these two legends. Well almost as big a deal as shooting Joey and Dee Dee Ramone on the Bowery in the day. Ha!

Stanley Donen

Mike Nichols

Then this week I got to see a new/old Jim Carrey film - I Love You Phillip Morris - in an advance screening up at the Walter Reade again. The directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa were on hand (they also wrote Bad Santa). On my way uptown, I wasn't sure if I was going to see a new or old film. I'd heard of the title last year, and noticed it was dated 2009. Well, turns out it was shown at Sundance in 2009 and has never had a real distributor - or the distributor dropped out after a year, and now the film is finally coming out. Or rather Jim Carrey is finally coming out . This is the gay Jim Carrey comedy. Or more precisely the gay Jim Carrey - gay Ewan McGregor comedy! It's a wild story of a con man who swindles people to pay for his "expensive gay lifestyle". And the kicker is, that it is a true story. REALLY!

Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

I told you the directors wrote Bad Santa right? This is the Jim Carrey movie you almost never saw. I'm not sure who their target audience is, but it's a miracle that this film was made and is about to be released.

You've really got to see this to believe it. Your girlfriend's gonna love it. You might too.

Grace Dunham, Lena Dunham (Director of Tiny Furniture), and Laurie Simmons

Which brings me to the other new film you have to see - Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture. It first came onto my radar last spring when it won an award at the SXSWest Film Festival. Dunham (twenty-four) who is the daughter of photographer Laurie Simmons, has made a small self-deprecating masterpiece about returning home (to Tribeca) after completing college (Oberlin) only to feel like a loser living amongst her successful mother and beautiful younger sister (played by her real mother and sister and her slightly rounded self). I won't give away any more of the plot. You can read all about it in the NY Times review, or the great New Yorker piece last week.

Lena Dunham (center) with Laurie Simmons and Grace Dunham (left) and friend/actress Jemima Kirke

I saw Tiny Furniture last summer when it was featured at the BAM Cinemafest at the BAM Cinematek in Brooklyn (plug plug - actually I was the official BAM Cinemeafest photographer). As it turns out I had this weird connection to Dunham that she didn't know about, and so I had a personal interest in seeing the film. After shooting the picture above, I hinted at it to her, but wasn't going to reveal until after I saw the film myself. I wanted to see how much of a sense of humor she had. Dunham asked me after the film, what the connection was. And as the film passed my humor test, I told her - "Your grandfather put my braces in backwards when I was a kid" (her grandfather was my dentist - for one week). And without skipping a beat, Dunham said - "That's so funny! We've got to go tell my Mom right now. Mom - Poppy put his braces in backwards!" I thought that was very cool of her.

right yeah - Lena Dunham

So go down to the IFC theater and catch this film. Check out her hilarious blog here. Watch the preview below. Tell your friends, tell your relatives, tell your dentist.

Grace Dunham with BAM program showcasing Tiny Furniture

the sisters - Lena & Grace Dunham

Watch the preview now!!

Lee Friedlander: Keeping His Eyes on the Road

2010-11-03T00:40:00.002-04:00

I went up to the Whitney Museum last Friday night to see the new Lee Friedlander show. Whoa - it's knockout time! All these photos, shot from the inside of his car looking out, were taken by Friedlander on the slightly strange Hasselblad Superwide camera. Superwide indeed! In these photographs you'll find yourself looking at the dashboard, the rear view mirror, and across the street all at the same time. Well actually Friedlander is showing you how to look at all these things at the same time. No actually Friedlander is showing you how to take pictures from inside the car, and still look at all these things at the same time. This article in the New York Times amusingly explains the technique better than I ever could.

The "subjects" of these photos, aside from the highly detailed dashboards, "plush interiors", and random car parts (vents, sound systems, door handles. locks), include buildings, stop signs, civil war memorials, national parks, Walker Evans-like churches, Lee Friedlander-like shrubbery, Christmas decorations, cemeteries, roadside signs, ice cream stands, gas stations, other photographers, friends, and park rangers, Lee Friedlander-like western desert scenes - well actually everything here is Friedlander-like. You will find yourself knee deep in his world. Humorous, detailed, in your face photographs that are a stunning combination of Atget, Pop Art, and Picasso.

Lee Friedlander delights in seeing how many eyeballs he can juggle at the same time. And the exhibition at the Whitney includes 192 photographs (edited down from how many??) hung in such a way that it dares you to try to look at them all on the same day. Packed in tightly on each of two facing walls of one room are 50 photographs in 2 horizontal rows of 25 photographs each. I got dizzy just counting them. And there is a third wall with 14 more photos in that same room. And still yet another room with 64 more photographs similarly hung. According to the intro notes on the Museum's wall, "the photographer specified that the photographs be densely hung in order to maximize the impact of multiple angles and points of view evoking the sensory overload commonly experienced by American drivers ."

That being said, the book that is the catalog of the exhibition (available here) is it's own pleasurable experience to view. All 192 photos are included, but they are much more digestible in book form,where there are only two photographs intelligently juxtaposed per page spread. And included only in the book are some choice quotes - one by Mose Allison, as well as "one two three, look at Mr.Lee" ("written and sung by the Bobbettes") justaposed with a self-portrait photograph of "Mr. Lee" wearing a 'Lee' jeans t-shirt.

Meanwhile, the Whitney exhibition is up only until November 28, so you'll have to plan quickly. There is also an astonishing Edward Hopper show at the Whitney as well - want to see what the real colors of his familiar paintings look like? And don't miss the cool short film Shadow by the great cinematographer Ed Lachman, based on an unfinished film by River Phoenix. Lots of great stuff. Friday's are free after 6pm, so you can save on the high end admission at the Whitney. Then buy the book with the money you saved, and take your eyes for a drive.

all photographs © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Tales From the NY Film Festival / part 4

2010-10-21T00:14:00.003-04:00

Here Come the Romanians!

Tuesday, After Christmas

Aurora

The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu

Have you seen any Romanian films lately? While Romanian films may have flown under the general public's radar here in America, Romanian filmmakers have been making some of the most creative and engaging films released worldwide for the last decade. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu directed by Cristi Puiu was the first one to catch my attention in 2005. In it, a handheld camera quietly follows a 69 year old man's journey through the bureaucracy of the Romanian healthcare system, for 24 black humor filled fatal hours (you can quite often catch it now on IFC or Sundance Channel). Ever since then, it seems that every Romanian film I've seen is a winner - like there's something in the water over there. Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days won the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2007. At last year's NY FIlm Fest we were introduced to Corneliu Porumboiu's Police Adjective. Last spring I saw the hilarious, Happiest Girl in the World, directed by Radu Jude.

Now at this year's NY FIlm Festival, we were treated to three more great films - Tuesday, After Christmas by Radu Muntean, Aurora by Cristi Puiu (after a 5 year absence), and The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu by Andrei Ujica.

Cristi Puiu

Aurora, the much anticipated follow-up to Mr.Lazarescu, finds director/writer Cristi Puiu in the lead role as a sullen lone individual on a methodically creepy mission, of which we know very little for the 3 hour duration of the movie. The camerawork, (with a series of typically Romanian long takes), is is at times exquisite, or jarringly exquisite. The humor is black. The effect is mind numbing.

Mirela Oprisor and Mimi Branescu from Tuesday, After Christmas

director Radu Muntean

Tuesday, After Christmas directed by Radu Muntean is a Romanian twist on the typically French concerns of a man, his mistress, and his wife. Again a series of long takes and superb acting move the narrative swiftly along. In town for the screening were the actors playing the cheating husband and spurned wife, who are indeed real life husband and wife (Mimi Branescu and Mirela Oprisor).

director Andrei Ujica

Last but certainly not least, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, directed by Andrei Ujica is a documentary, so to speak. It is compiled entirely of self serving documentary footage shot at the behest of the Romanian politician/ madman / dictator Nicolae Ceausescu during his reign from 1965 to 1989, that has been cleverly edited together by Andrei Ujica, and bookended by video footage of the trial of Ceausescu and his wife which ended in their executions (wikipedia Ceausescu here). There are state trips to Russia, China, North Korea, England and Disneyland. There are official visits to meat factories, games of volleyball, and speeches to the Romanian state assembly. There are no explanations of what we are seeing, only the footage - only the "facts". And yet you can't take your eyes off the everyday workings of this madman. And then, you are left to ponder that the aftermath of this oppressive state created by Nicolae Ceausescu, is what has led to the incredibly strong series of films we are now receiving from these Romanian directors.

Corneliu Porumboiu, director of Police Adjective in 2009

Cristian Mungiu, director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days in 2007

Cristi Puiu, director of Aurora and Mr Lazarescu

Tales From the NY Film Festival / part 3

2010-10-14T23:15:00.003-04:00

David Fincher brings the Facebook movie to town for Opening Night

David Fincher's "The Social Network" was one of the best NY Film Fest Opening Night films in years. The dialogue by Aaron Sorkin was so sharp and the direction so fast paced, that there was barely time to catch it all in one sitting (reveal - I saw it twice). Everyone was buzzing at the premiere screening about it being a perfect way to start off the two week festival. Expectations were high for Fincher, director of "Zodiac" and "Fight Club", especially given all the press and no comments from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Not only did this movie make a perfect landing in the Zeitgeist of 2010, it also made a perfect landing in the Zeitgeist of this year's Festival. I rarely say that my favorite film of the Festival is also the top movie at the box office two weeks running.

David Fincher

Aaron Sorkin

And yet, talking about the film with friends in the city this week, I am surprised to find that people are avoiding seeing it because they don't like Facebook, or don't anticipate it being anything but a Hollywood knockoff. The price of success? This film starts off so quickly, with such a knockout opening sequence, that there's barely time for the film company's logo to appear on the screen before the dialogue rolls up on the soundtrack. Fincher talked about it at a special Festival dialogue - how he worked the actors - Jesse Eisenberg and Rooney Mara - until they could play a 15 minute scene in 3 minutes naturally. In fact he said, the only way he would have "final cut" was if he brought the film in under 2 hours and 7 minutes. So it moves fast. And it is, in its own way, a film as classically constructed as any Hepburn and Tracy film of the 40's. It's subject matter is not really Facebook, but a classical playing out of human relationships under the pressures of ambition. Jesse Eisenberg is pitch perfect as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, or at least the Mark Zuckerberg of Sorkin's script. Andrew Garfield, the next Spiderman, is also splendidly sad as Zuckerberg's spurned business partner Edwardo Severin. And alright, Justin Timberlake does a very good job as Napster founder and master manipulator Sean Parker.

Jesse Eisenberg

Justin Timberlake

So Opening Night was an unqualified success, and the Festival was off to a great start. The party was at the Harvard Club in midtown - that was a little weird, until I remembered it was a film that took place at Harvard - duh. It was an elegant but cavernous space, and very crowded. I couldn't locate Justin Timberlake to get his photo. But I did find most of the other players while they were still "Social, and digitized them before they headed out into the night.

producer Scott Rudin with writer Aaron Sorkin

David Fincher with Gina Gershon

Andrew Garfield

Jesse Eisenberg

actress Brenda Song with fans outside the theater

Tales from the NY FIlm Festival / part 2

2010-10-14T00:27:00.000-04:00

Olivier Assayas attacks NYC with "Carlos"

Olivier Assayas is a gem of a director. And his latest film "Carlos" is a gem of a film - all 330 minutes of it. Actor Edgar Ramirez plays the part of the notorious 1970's terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" (wikipedia him here). What Olivier Assayas directs here is not really an all consuming bio of Carlos, but a fast paced tour through the 1970's terrorist cells of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, as they existed through the end of the cold war into the 1980's.

Edgar Ramirez

Shown last week to audiences at the NY FIlm Festival the same way it was shown last spring at the Cannes Film Festival - in it's full 330 minute format - the film was a real event (it was also shown this week on Sundance Channel in three parts). To be able to see a 5 1/2 hour film projected on a superior screen like the one at Alice Tully Hall is to understand why the NY Film Festival is so important. In France, when "Carlos" was shown last spring at Cannes, there was much debate about whether this five and a half hour film was even a film (that's so French). Its scheduled appearance on French television last spring had to be pushed back so it could be shown at Cannes, where it was ultimately deemed by the powers that be, not to be a 'film' and therefore had to be shown out of competition. And yet, in this era of digital filmmaking, Olivier Assayas actually shot "Carlos" on real film - and in 16 real countries.

Many of the actors in the film were present for a Q&A with Assayas after the film. And the next day Assayas himself sat down for an event titled "The Cinema Inside Me", where the former Cahiers de Cinema critic showed film clips and discussed some of his cinematic influences. One from an unnamed Dario Argento film, was a long scene in a gothic castle, where a pretty girl searching for her keys spends an extended sequence reaching and later swimming under water as her elusive keys seem to fall deeper into an abyss. Assayas marvelled at the absurdity of spending 10 minutes film time on what would normally be a 1 minute scene - and the evidence of the filmmakers pure love of cinema in doing so. This from a man who just made a 330 minute film. He also showed another long clip - a glorious final sequence from Jean Renoir's 1954 film French Can Can with Jean Gabin.

Olivier Assayas

Assayas has been making films of all types and genres for over 15 years. The subject last month of a NY Times Magazine profile, BAM Cinematek is now running a series of his films titled "Post Punk Auteur". Check out the schedule - Assayas will be present on Monday October 18th, after a screening of Demonlover (from 2002). On October 23rd and 24th, BAM will be showing the full version of Carlos (BAM has already shown the great Summer Hours from 2008 - go immediately to netflix and rent it there).You can also catch the full version of Carlos in Manhattan at the IFC Cinemas. from October 15th thru November 2nd. Olivier Assayas will be present for the screenings this weekend October 15-16-17.

Edgar Ramirez plays Carlos

Personal note: About 3 1/2 hours into Carlos, be on watch for a sequence built around the great Dead Boys song "Sonic Reducer". And at the end of Summer Hours Assayas makes great use of the song "Little Cloud" by the Incredible String Band. Post Punk Auteur indeed.

Tales From the NY FIlm Festival

2010-10-12T23:54:00.004-04:00

1. Closing Night On the RC with Clint and Matt

Sunday was closing night of the 2010 New York Film Festival. That is where have I been for the last month - quietly (and obsessively) shooting photographs of directors and actors at press conferences and in green rooms. That's what I do every fall. As the unofficial official photographer for the Festival, I photograph the action behind the screens, and at the same time get to see about 25 amazingly beautiful and sometimes agonizingly artistic new films from all over the planet. Over the next few days on this blog, I'll try to give you the rundown on what I saw, what you should go out of your way to see, and what you shouldn't waste your time on (but need to know enough about to hold up your end of the conversation). Oh right, and my photographs as well.

Matt Damon arrives with his wife

Luciana Bozan Borroso

T.S.Eliot said "In the end is my begining". So I'll start at the end. Closing night is a big event, and at 6:30pm Sunday night, I found myself in the middle of the Red Carpet madness, waiting for Clint Eastwood to show up and "walk the carpet" to promote his new film "Hereafter", starring Matt Damon. A little background info. This is not my usual beat - hordes of photographers and entertainment television crews are lined up under a long horizontal party tent waiting to spend several minutes time with tonight's focus of attention. An event carefully organized and played out several times every evening around this city, these same players - photographers and video crews - move about this town in search of the big money photo, and tomorrow night's entertainment sound bites and blog exclusives, following the carefully laid out rules of the stars and their publicists. They all know the game and are familiar with the pecking order at these events.

Clint Eastwood talks to the press

The first group Clint Eastwood will walk by are the photographers. Separated into "pens" of about 20 photographers each, behind barriers with some in the front row and others standing behind them on their traveling step stools, they will have about 45 seconds to shoot off a barrage of flashes and call out "this way Clint...to your right, to your left", before he passes on to the next group. Maybe Clint will do something more interesting for "pen 2", causing those in "pen 1" to grumble for a few more good minutes with him, before he eventually moves on to the hallowed video crews - the place where Mr. Eastwood will spend most of his time on the Red Carpet this evening. On the carpet, video is king. The photographers are the serfs.

Bryce Dallas Howard

But on this night I was given the equivalent of a photographer's "get out of jail free" card - a "Roaming Pass" that allows me to walk and shoot anywhere on the "carpet". There are three of us "roamers" tonight, and I am given this pass because I shoot for the Film Festival. The other two "roamers" are heavy duty pros who do this every night, so I will keep my eyes on them to guide me through this urban safari. Meanwhile we three get to wait at the head of the Red Carpet for Clint Eastwood to arrive. He will walk right past us before he heads into the madness.

Clint Eastwood arrives with wife Dina Ruiz

At 6:45 there is still no sign of Clint. The film is set to screen at 7pm, where the Lincoln Center audience is anxiously awaiting a first look at the new film "Hereafter". Matt Damon has already passed us with his very pregnant wife, and is talking to the television crews. He too is awaiting Clint. Every photographer is waiting to get the money shot, which tonight is a "2 shot' of Clint and Matt. This will be the focus of tonight's madness. When Clint shows up at 6:50 the fun starts, and the flashes in Pen 1 go wild. You can not imagine what it's like to try to stand in front of 25 photographers shooting 10 flashes per second on automatic pilot. This is the crazy modern world that is about as far away from the "decisive moment" as one can get. All these photographers will talk into a microphone on their camera, and read off the name of the subjects in the photo so their editor can ID everyone in the picture. These photos will be uploaded to their agencies wirelessly from their cameras in the next half hour. Time is of the essence. You will be looking at them in your local paper on your way to work tomorrow morning.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Cecile De France

The cast of "Hereafter" with director Clint Eastwood

And speaking of time, the audience inside the theater is still waiting for the start of the film. At 7:15 Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon are separately talking to video crews. Publicists are aware that there are still shots to be taken of Matt and Clint and the whole cast. But the whole cast is upstairs in the green room, having done the red carpet long ago. I am stuck against the photo backdrop of logos, trying to stay out of the background of the television shots. We three "roamers" are patiently waiting for the money shot. The photographers in the "pen" won't get it - they are done for the night. Word comes at 7:20 that the money shot will happen upstairs in the green room. We leave the red carpet and run ahead of Matt and Clint to be able to shoot them entering. And the green room is packed! None of the cast, producers, and friends have taken their seat. They are waiting for Clint and Matt. The audience in the theater is unaware of all this. At 7:25, the cast - Matt Damon, Bryce Dallas Howard, Cecile de France, and director Clint Eastwood are all brought into the photo section of the green room for our big moment. It will last 5 minutes at the most. It is a very tight squeeze just to stand back and get them all in the shot. In the middle of that bubble it will be very difficult to get everyone to look in your direction. But I've got to admit it's an adrenaline rush. Not my favorite thing to do, but every photographer should experience it at least once. We finish this whole thing up at 7:30pm, Clint and Matt will go directly into the theater to introduce the film, and the show will go on. One half hour later, I will be sitting alone on a park bench amazed that I survived the madness.

the "money shots"

Tomorrow, more Tales (and photos) from the NY Film Fest 2010.

*One more thing - tonight, the film "Carlos" (about the terrorist Carlos the Jackal from the 70's), by the great French director Olivier Assayas (if you have not seen "Summer Hours" from last year, go directly to Netflix), will be screening on Sundance Channel in three parts - part 2 tonight. I saw it at the Festival last week. Perhaps there will be repeat screenings. But in part 2, there is great use of the Dead Boys song "Sonic Reducer". I know this is late notice, but be sure you catch it somehow.

all photos © GODLIS

summer photography

2010-07-18T15:43:00.001-04:00

Acropolis photographer, Athens 1972

So it's summer. You could set yourself up on a hill in Athens taking souvenir postcard photos of tourists at the Acropolis. But that all sounds so ancient. Are these photogs out of business now? Is the Acropolis still there? Is there now an app for that?

While summer is still in full swing, here are a few summer memories from the Godlis archives. Get out the barbecue, get out the sunglasses, get out the camera...

Brian demonstrates jellyfish grabbing, Massachusetts summer 1975

Hassid, Coney Island - summer 1979

Fenway Park, Boston summer 1975

Sadie walking across the Brooklyn Bridge - summer 2001

Abandoned Roadside Cabins, Adirondacks summer 2003

Central Park, Summer 1980

Coney Island, Summer 1978

Eileen, Coney Island - summer 1979

Watching Minor League Baseball - Massachusetts, summer 2009

Coney Island, Summer 1990 - shot on plastic mail order camera

Quatorze Juillet...pardon my french

2010-07-14T19:14:00.000-04:00

Ooh La La! C'est la vie. There I am in Paris in the 1990's. Vive la difference! Quel heure est il? Bien sur. OK, to honor Bastille Day, what better than a little Jean-Luc Godard . Here is the trailer for "Vivre Sa Vie" starring the great Anna Karina, from 1962, en noir et blanc. LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Da Doo Ron Ron / LaLa Brooks of The Crystals at Film Forum!!!

2010-07-08T10:51:00.006-04:00

LaLa Brooks with Phil Spector in the 1960's

LaLa Brooks last night at the Film Forum

When the documentary, "The Agony And The Ecstasy of Phil Spector" now playing at the Film Forum, ended and the lights in the theater came up, in she walked - the other Great Voice fronting the Spector Wall of Sound - Delores LaLa Brooks. She was just 15 when she sang lead vocals with The Crystals on "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me". Answering questions at the Film Forum last night she looked positively radiant. Born in Brooklyn and living in NY's East Village now, she talked openly about Phil and the Crystals sessions. About being on the road with The Crystals when they heard the Darlene Love vocal on "He's A Rebel". How little room there was inside the Wall of Sound studio. About leaving The Crystals and singing "Aquarius" in the original Broadway production of Hair. About trying to get money from Phil. Like Darlene Love and Ronnie Spector, she saw little payment and no royalties, and had to eat from the studio vending machine while recording. With any luck, Film Forum was taping and will upload as one of their podcasts.

The documentary itself is a must see - strange, in that it mixes in-depth interviews with the ultra-reclusive producer, beside Court TV footage of his murder trial. J.Hoberman's review in the Village Voice is right on the mark: "Round-faced and wide-eyed, snugly fitted with a bowl-cut blond wig and ever eager to vent, Spector has the look of the imp off a Rice Krispies box."

Find out why he holds a grudge against Tony Bennet. Hear him imitate John Lennon. See the Teddy Bears performing "To Know Him Is to Love Him". Find out why he held Martin Scorsese's career in the palm of his hand. How he named the song Da Doo Ron Ron. And decide for yourself whether he shot Lana Clarkson. Teenage Tycoon Megalomania unleashed + Incredible music. Weird indeed. Go see it now!

In the meantime, watch LaLa Brooks and The Crystals knock one out of the park.

heat wave 4th

2010-07-08T00:27:00.002-04:00

July 4th 1975 - Boston

After two days of brutal 100 + temperatures here in New York City - with the prospect of a 90 degree day tomorrow sounding like a relief - I'm reminded of this photo I took on July 4th in 1975. If there's anything worse than trying to get through a heat wave, it's trying to get through a heat wave with a baby. I remember seeing this mom and kid at a MacDonald's in the Allston Brighton section. I knew this woman was not having an easy day. Still I had to take this photo. The only one who noticed me was the baby. Hey I was just as hot as her. This is what it is to endure a heat wave. Even indoors, the air looks thick with humidity. Definitely hot town summer in the city time. Sound familiar?

the 4th revisited

2010-07-05T18:07:00.009-04:00

re: the July 4th photos I posted yesterday.

July 4th is a street photographer's working holiday. With Robert Frank's photograph "Fourth of July - Jay, New York" in mind, and camera in hand, every year I walk through a world of flags, patriotism, parades, and hot dogs looking for one more shot to explain it all.

July 4th, 1980 - Middleboro, Massachusetts

This photograph from the southeastern Massachusetts town of Middleboro is one of my favorites. Middleboro, as it turns out, is the hometown of Lavinia Warren, who was married to General Tom Thumb (yes P.T. Barnum's Tom Thumb) in 1863, at Grace Church in NYC. So every year, they would commemorate Lavinia's wedding ceremony in Middleboro's 4th of July parade. You really can't make these things up. Taken 30 years ago, I can't help thinking that these kids, pretending to be dwarfs, are in their 40's now.

From Harper's Weekly 1863

July 4th, 1975 - Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts

This photo, which I didn't post yesterday, is also one of my favorites. I took it on a very hot summer night in the beach town of Nantasket, Massachusetts - site of Paragon Park. This was the summer before I moved to NYC. This night photograph, with these gypsy types lit up by the amusement park lights, precedes and points to all the hand held 35mm night shooting I would be doing the next year on the Bowery.

July 4th, 2010 - Onset, Massachusetts

And then there's this year's July 4th picture. Actually shot on July 3rd, I believe it still qualifies for a July 4th pic if it's taken at the July 4th fireworks. This is the beach town of Onset, Massachusetts nearby to Cape Cod. Standing atop the bluffs overlooking the beach, I shot this hand held night shot at 1/8th of a second to get the crowded beach lit up by fireworks. Totally a guessed exposure, I pass this info on for the benefit of all so inclined.

Gotta go barbecue. A final July 4th roundup tomorrow...

the 4th

2010-07-04T10:35:00.000-04:00

A few pix from 4th of July past & present. More about these later. Got to go out now and shoot a few more.

July 4th, 2010 - Onset,Massachusetts

July 4th, 2010 - Onset, Massachusetts

July 4th, 1980 - Middleboro, Massachusetts

July 4th, 1992 - New York City

ALL PHOTOS BY GODLIS

Exile, the Stones, Diane Arbus, & Robert Frank

2010-05-19T11:55:00.006-04:00

With the Stones re-release of Exile on Main Street this week, I've found myself thinking about how closely tied in this album is with my own relationship to the medium of photography. In the summer of 1971, the Rolling Stones were down in the south of France, recording the basic tracks for Exile. That same summer - on July 26,1971 - Diane Arbus took her own life in her apartment at Westbeth in New York City. Within months of her tragic death - "late fall of 1971" - plans were already underway for a book and a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art. This according to Neil Selkirk, who personally made all the prints for the exhibition at Diane Arbus' own darkroom on 29 Charles Street in the West Village (His fascinating essay that is the centerpiece in the "Diane Arbus Revelations" catalog is must reading).

Meanwhile back in the south of France that fall, the Stones had just finished up recording the basic tracks in Keith Richards' rented villa, and headed to Los Angeles for a few months to add background vocals and instrumental tracks. And in early 1972, according to Exile's cover designer John Van Hamersveld, at a meeting with Robert Frank, Mick Jagger, and Marshall Chess, it was decided to proceed with the concept of creating a cover based upon Robert Frank's photographs of a "tatoo parlor" wall, incorporating new photographs of the Stones with some of Robert Frank's photographs from his masterpiece The Americans. That photograph of the "tattoo parlor" wall, was probably taken at Hubert's Museum in Times Square, where Diane Arbus frequented and took many of her photographs in the late 1950's. In fact one of those photographs on the "tattoo parlor " wall - of Hezekiah Trambles, "The Jungle Freak" - was indeed taken by Diane Arbus who at the time was friends with Robert Frank. It would be published in Esquire in 1960, and a print was probably given to Hezekiah Trambles by Diane Arbus.

In New York, in the spring of 1972, Neil Selkirk began the incredible task of printing for the Diane Arbus exhibition and Aperture monograph that would stun the photography world that fall. What's incredible is how quickly this exhibition was pieced together - a testament to Diane Arbus' extreme talent and her friends' love and admiration. Diane Arbus died in July 1971, and the Museum of Modern Art show opened in November of 1972 - just 16 months! The Stones finally released Exile on Main Street in May of 1972. Undoubtedly Selkirk was hearing the strains of "Happy" and "Tumbling Dice" while completing the prints for the exhibition that summer.

In Boston during the winter of 1972, I was taking my first photography course in Boston, which led me down to New York City to see the Diane Arbus exhibition at MOMA that changed my life. I remember it being an intense experience, with crowds lined up to see the photographs. But it was the line up of the photographs themselves on the wall, and the monograph catalog that I left with that day that changed the direction of my life and my whole way of seeing. And I'm sure it changed the dynamic of all who passed through the Museum of Modern Art that winter of 1972 - think of the New York Dolls, think of Richard Hell, think of Robert Mapplethorpe, think of Patti Smith, to name a few - all of whom were no doubt also listening to the Stones Exile on Main Street. I was headed for a career in photography by 1973, studying at Imageworks in East Cambridge Massachusetts, where I was exposed to the work of Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Brassai, Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, to name a few. It was there that I saw my first copy of Robert Frank's "The Lines Of My Hand".

In June of 1972, Robert Frank began filming the Rolling Stones on their tour of America, for his documentary "Cocksucker Blues", which despite Exile's 38 year history, has never been released - though parts of it have made their way into the new Exile bonus documentary. The Rolling Stones kept Cocksucker Blues itself in exile - Robert Frank's documentary was considered too sordid to be released to the public. On April 14th of 1975, while I was still in East Cambridge, I made my way with friends to Wellesley College where my new hero Robert Frank was speaking and showing his photographs. This turned out to be four days after the death of his mentor, the great photographer Walker Evans. His daughter Andrea had recently died in a plane crash. I remember his sadness as he related both those things to us. What he showed us that night, was one reel of "Cocksucker Blues". What he said about Mick Jagger was not very flattering - it had to do with power and fame and the artistic process. I didn't know it then, but I had caught Robert Frank on a particular night at a particular moment in his lifetime. What he said that day in Wellesley (he had been there for an afternoon seminar as well) is quoted extensively in the large catalog that accompanied his recent stunning exhibition at the National Gallery, "Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans." (I suggest you hunt down online "Photography Within the Humanities" published 1977 by Addison House, which has all the quotes from the Robert Frank seminar that day).

At the end of 1975, I moved to New York City to look for work in photography. When I found it, I began looking for a place to hear music and have drinks. That turned out to be CBGB's. And one night in 1977, while I was hanging out at CBGB's and shooting photographs in the style of Robert Frank (I was trying to turn the CBGB jukebox into all those jukeboxes in The Americans), the man himself came walking through the door . I had no idea at the time that he was living just steps away on Bleecker Street near the Bowery. All I knew was that Robert Frank just walked in past me. I was stunned. He said to me in his Swiss accent - "It seems dat it's important de way people dress here". Dead on. Later, when I was asked who that guy I was talking to was, and I tried to explain that it was Robert Frank - "you know, The Americans" - I got no response. This was not exactly a room full of photography freaks. But when I mentioned Exile on Main Street, which was quite a touchstone album at that time for all of us at CBGB's, and that he did the cover, the response was "Wow - What was his name again?". I told that story in "Please Kill Me."

In those days, the Stones were better known for hanging out at Studio 54, and were being overtaken by the punks in NY and London, who were recording and packaging themselves in the style of Exile. John Lydon would later confess to Exile designer John Van Hamersveld, that "the Exile package would set the image of punk in 1975 - we used that graphic feel to communicate our image graphically". And by1978 the Stones would steal that image from themselves, waking up out of their slumber to record and package the LP "Some Girls".

So here I am now in 2010, sitting and thinking about how all of these things have been swirling around my relationship with photography and music for years. I cannot separate the sounds of Exile from the photographic places I have been. My original LP cover is an artifact that is half Stones, half Robert Frank, with a bit of Diane Arbus mixed in - a photography book and a record cover all in one. Now a bit "Torn and Frayed", just like me. Hey, may I suggest that Aperture do a deluxe re-release of the Diane Arbus monograph, one of the greatest photo books of all time?

special thanks to these sites: RockPopGallery FansInAFlashbulb showHistoryHuberts

Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, St.Augustine FL 1995

Tattoo Parlor, NYC circa1958 by Robert Frank

Diane Arbus, Esquire magazine July 1960

Robert Frank, NYC 1980

Rolling Stones, NYC 1980

Where I Was At: George Romero at BAM Cinematek 5/15/10

2010-05-17T00:10:00.003-04:00

George Romero at BAM

Saturday at BAM Cinematek was the night of the living Romero. In town for a preview screening of his new film "Survival of the Dead", George Romero entered the post screening hall to thunderous applause. Watching him waving back to fans as he carefully made his way down the steep balcony staircase to the stage, the ultra tall Romero reminded me very much of Joey Ramone. Dressed in black and cool to the max, his modesty, honesty, and humor shined right through everything he said.

This new film was all action and gore right from the start. Everyone there - though admittedly true fans - loved all the twists and turns of this sixth installment in the 'Dead' series. An excited George Romero sounded like he was ready to make three more of these films right now. In an engaging talk after the film he talked about his love of his "slow undead creatures", the kind you can easily get away from. What these undead in fact do, he said, is expose the very human flaws of those who manage to allow themselves to get caught and eaten by them. Brilliant.

Meanwhile, next door at Brooklyn Academy of Music, the streets were lined with mobile video trucks that were there to broadcast a concert by The National, while Brooklyn hipster music fans roamed the streets like it was their night of the living dead. But where it was really happening was at the Cinematek, where the legend, George Romero, a very talented director who has done things his way for a very long time, showed he is still at the top of his game, and ready to go higher.

all photos © GODLIS

Rebecca Lepkoff - photographer TODAY 5/13 IN PERSON!

2010-05-13T11:53:00.002-04:00

She was in the Photo League in the 1940's, shooting extraordinary pictures on the streets of New York. Today - May 13th - she will be at The Tenement Museum on 108 Orchard Street, signing her book "Life On The Lower East Side". She also has an exhibition at Soho Photo Gallery on White Street in Tribeca, of her vintage prints, where I shot these pictures. She's in her ninth decade, and still clicking madly. Cancel your plans - get downtown today and greet a legend!

ALL Photos copyright Rebecca Lepkoff

ALL PHOTOS copyright Rebecca Lepkoff

the fifth day of may

2010-05-05T00:08:00.004-04:00

Four days after May Day, you just gotta start off your Cinco de Mayo with a listen to Bob Dylan's ISIS, circa 1975. Opening up with, "I married ISIS on the fifth day of May, but I could not hold on to her very long", this gem from Desire, is an ode to Bob's marital troubles, thinly disguised as a Marty Robbins' gunfighter road ballad. It is must listening every May 5th. Unfortunately for those of us living in the youtube universe, the greatest clip of this song from the 1975 Rolling Thunder tour, is missing the just quoted first verse. But this killer version does include Mick Ronson on guitar, a wild-eyed Bobby Neuwirth facing down Dylan in white face paint, and a very young T-Bone Burnett onstage decades before he won an academy award. As the song's long journey winds down, the last verse is intact : "I still can remember the way that you smiled, on the fifth day of May in the drizzling rain." So go ahead, start your 5/5 off right...

And if you have a few more minutes to kill, here are two more versions. First the White Stripes (Jack White meets Jack Frost). Then a slightly bedraggled Bob Dylan (on tour after one year) doing a full version that includes that wonderful opening verse. Happy Cinco de Mayo pardner.

be there now / cartier-bresson at MOMA

2010-04-29T00:11:00.010-04:00

Now is the time to get your analog self over to the Museum of Modern Art to see the new Cartier-Bresson exhibition. Henri Cartier -Bresson is the master of what he called "the decisive moment". The only decisive moment you're going to encounter is determining when to stop looking at this picture and moving on to the next one.

This is the perfect time of year for a Cartier-Bresson exhibition. The streets of New York are alive in spring and summer. For Henri Cartier-Bresson all streets everywhere were alive, and his eyes were always open, his fingers on the shutter always ready to capture what his eyes might see. There really is no collection of photographs like this - where one stands in front of every picture wondering "how did he get that?"

I can remember being introduced to the work of Cartier-Bresson around 1972, looking at the catalog for a 1968 exhibition at this very same MOMA. I spent hours with that book, I spent a whole weekend with that book, and I spent a year or two with that book. Looking through page after page, at the incomprehensible beauty of how a camera can translate life into art. I might as well have been a little kid gaping at a magician. I was literally shaken to the core.

This is an enormous show. Too enormous to take in with only one viewing. Perhaps you want to start with the tremendously engaging online version of the exhibition on MOMA's website here:

Cartier-Bresson MOMA

Online, you can view and read about the photos in the comfort of your own home. This will prepare you for being in a room with the actual artifacts - the prints made from the negative that was in the camera that was in the photographers hand, out there in the real world.

How do you comprehend how someone could conceive of taking the picture above - made in Cordoba, Spain in 1933? I don't know, but I offer what John Szarkowski wrote about it in his essential MOMA book "Looking At Photographs" "This photograph concerns gesture, line, shape, scale, the flatness of the picture plane, and the difference between art and life. To say that the picture concerns these things does not, of course, mean that it explains them."

All the monumental shots are here. The exhibition starts with an informative introduction to the various printing styles you'll see in the exhibition. But from there you're on your own, moving from room to room and various locations around the globe. The pleasure is in discovering the rare finds among the gems.
I had never seen this picture taken in Mexico in 1963. This is one you really have to see in the gallery to appreciate - like viewing a movie in a theater instead of on your television screen. I stood starting at this one for about ten minutes, and it called out to me every time I passed through the room. You won't see everything on your first visit, but you will find your own new favorites - I guarantee that.

Like this one from Shanghai in 1949. Startling. Wong Kar-wai anyone?

Here are a few from his journeys across America in the 50's and 60's.

I must say that the layout of the exhibition is it's only drawback. The layout is a little too carefully arrayed for my taste. The organization by themes tends to inhibit the pleasure of appreciating individual photographs, if you let it. Don't let it. Just keep your mind on each and every picture, much like they were taken - one by one. Here is a quote from the master himself. It's from the introduction to that same 1968 Cartier-Bresson MOMA catalog:

"Sometimes one remains motionless, waiting for something to happen; sometimes the situation is resolved and there is nothing to photograph. If something should happen, you remain alert, wait a bit, then shoot and go off with the sensation of having got something. Later you can amuse yourself by tracing out on the photo the geometrical pattern, or spatial relationships, realizing that, by releasing the shutter at that precise instant, you had instinctively selected an exact geometrical harmony, and that without this the photographs would have been lifeless. But to apply a golden rule, a photographer's compass can be nowhere but in his eye." - Henri Cartier-Bresson

I suggest that you hold on to this advice while walking through the MOMA galleries. But however you go there - virtually or digitally - be there now. And be prepared, for when you exit the museum, and step out onto the New York streets, everything will look like a Cartier-Bresson picture. You might want to carry your camera and your "photographer's compass". Oh, and btw Friday evenings at MOMA are free.

Where I Was At: January 1980 / Specials Press Conference

2010-04-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

The Specials, NYC 1980

The Specials are in New York City this week for two highly anticipated shows at Terminal 5, so I thought I'd dig into the archives and pull out some pix from their Press conference at Hurrah's on January 25, 1980.

It was a mid afternoon affair, primitive by today's PR standards, that's for sure. I was in the midst of my Garry Winogrand "Public Relations" obsession - that was his show at MOMA of pictures at various press conferences. So I relished shooting this press conference with my flash. Jerry Damners - who is in fact not on this current tour - is seen here alongside the most excellent frontman Terry Hall, making for a "once upon a time" quality to these 30 year old photos - eeek.

The Specials, NYC Press conference - January 25, 1980

photos © GODLIS

a little more Alex Chilton

2010-03-23T00:16:00.001-04:00

Alex Chlton, onstage cbgb's 1977

Good to see Alex Chilton getting his due in the press this week. And honored to see my photo of him making the rounds. Been digging back through the archives, and so will share a few more pix I uncovered today, while listening to the delicious Man Called Destruction cd (Devil Girl, What's Your Sign, New Girl In School!!!). The color stuff is from the early 90's up near Grand Central Station. The b&w shots from cbgb's 77 days.

Alex Chilton with Chris Stamey, CBGB 1977

ALL PHOTOS © GODLIS

Alex Chilton R.I.P.

2010-03-18T19:53:00.004-04:00

Alex Chilton, Bowery 1977

I was just about to go to sleep early last night, when my 17 year old daughter came in to tell me the bad news. Sadie knew Alex Chilton & Big Star through the opening song on her fave That Seventies Show. She had met him about ten years ago (was she 7?) when I introduced her to Alex at a show he played under the Twin Towers doing a Box Tops set. I met Alex in 1976-77 at CBGB's when he was living in the East Village. We were about the same age, which put me in high school while he was the lead singer on "The Letter." Maybe we met at the Ocean Club before CBGB's - I'm not sure. The picture I took there was definitely shot before the more famous one in the rain out on the Bowery. I don't remember whose idea it was to go out to the median strip on the Bowery to do that shot - mine or Alex's. Most certainly it was on a whim or a dare while talking over beers at the CBGB's bar. Definitely not planned too far in advance. Just run out in the rain, and try an idea out, then go back for another beer. We'd tried other shots indoors and out, but neither of was satisfied. So when I developed the film and saw that strange drop of rain that had landed on the lens in what couldn't have been a more perfect spot, I was ecstatic. That was it - and we both knew it. Soon it got used as the cover for his independent single "Bangkok" (with a great version of the Seeds' "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" on the flip side). Maybe Alex had that in mind all the time we were shooting. I don't know.

We didn't talk a lot about music on most nights. We talked a lot about photography. His friend William Eggleston's color show at MOMA had just shaken up the photography world. Alex, who was working with the Cramps was well aware of my low-light photography style, and made me do a shot of him and the Cramps by candlelight - a nearly impossible task that amused him to no end. He was playing around town that summer with Chris Stamey, who with Peter Holsapple would go on to form the DB's. He was producing the Cramps first album. He certainly fit right in with the burgeoning NY punk scene. Years later, I did some shots of him at Grand Central Station, when he was passing through town. He looked the same - an eternal teenager, his mind always with you and on something else both at the same time.

This morning, I spent my subway ride listening to Big Star. Lost in the beauty of 'Thirteen' - "Won't you tell your Dad get off my back / Tell him what we said about Paint It Black...Won't you tell me what you're thinking of /would you be an outlaw for my love". Avoiding the gaze of other passengers, I found myself teary eyed at the loss of another friend. Never to be seen again sucks. And then on came 'September Gurls', and I was a kid again. "September gurls do so much / December boys got it bad". We were all kids again. I smiled and walked off the fast train.

Alex Chilton, The Ocean Club, 1976-77

Alex Chilton with the Cramps 1977

Eternal Sunshine of the Godless Mind

2010-03-16T22:58:00.000-04:00

Michele Gondry , NYC - March 15, 2010

Michele Gondry, director of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', came to town last night for an in depth talk at the Walter Reade Theater (NYC's best screen & projection system). I shot some pix, listened to stories about Bjork, Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, and the Green Hornet, and got to see his black & white Levi's commercial (with a nod to Walker Evans & O. Winston Link, I believe) on the big screen.

For your viewing pleasure, I present it here...

Michele Gondry, Walter Reade Theater

waterloo sunset revisited

2010-03-12T19:49:00.005-05:00

Terence Stamp, NYC 2009

"Changed my life"

Excuse my absence - I have been watching way too many films lately. Gazing, like Ray Davies, on my very own Waterloo Sunset. It's spring preview film season - the projectionist keeps throwing them up there and I keep watching. For me this happens twice a year. In the fall, it's the New York Film Festival rollout. And in the spring, it's New Directors / New Films. At a pitch of between 2 and 5 films a day - "as long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset I am in paradise." This week alone I've been transported to the Russian Arctic, Iran in 1953, Warhol's New York and the world of Candy Darling, Costa Rica and Argentina.

This morning I spent my subway ride giving my eyes a rest, while listening - over and over and over - to Waterloo Sunset - an astounding single that just gets better with each listening. Riding the subway, I felt as one with the lines - "millions of people, swarming like flies round Waterloo underground." Then I recalled that the line "Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station, every Friday night", is reportedly based on Terence Stamp and Julie Christie, stars of the then current film 'Far From the Madding Crowd.' Not the theme song of the movie - just inspired by the whole notion that these two stars were in the film. God save Ray Davies. His songs belong in films - i.e. Wes Anderson made excellent use of "This Time Tomorrow" in his recent 'The Darjeeling Limited', and I heard he checked around with film buffs to make sure it was never used in any films before.

So last fall, when the NY Film Fest was showing 'Red Riding', the British TV version of the very popular serial killer books by David Pearce 'Red Riding Quartet', those in the know showed up for the one-off 6 hour screening. And one of those spotted at the theater was Terence Stamp. My job was to ask him if I could shoot a picture of him. He seems tough, but was very gracious. And though I could not get myself to ask about the Kinks song, I had to tell him that my favorite film of his was Toby Dammit, directed by Federico Fellini, based very loosely on an Edgar Allen Poe tale 'Never Bet the Devil Your Head', in which he plays a burnt out British star accepting a meaningless award in Italy in order to pick up a free Ferrari. Mr Stamps' response to my praise was - he looked me right in the eye and said "Thank you - That film changed my life". He was so sincere, I was taken aback.

And so what does all this add up to? Nothing except that Terence Stamp is way cool and Waterlloo Sunset is an amazing song.

"As long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset I am in paradise."

Positively Fourth Street - Snow Dazed in NYC - February 1963

2010-02-25T17:10:00.006-05:00

Watching the snow - gently falling as they say - after trudging around in it on this winter afternoon. Navigating all the icy slush on the NYC corner crossings, got me to thinking about one of my favorite album cover shots, the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan picture taken by Don Hunstein back on that snowy day in another February in another century - the year 1963.

photo by Don Hunstein

Things don't look all that different around that part of the neighborhood nowadays. Jones Street betweeen Bleecker and West 4th, where the picture was shot is still a pretty quiet block. Just around the corner at 161 West 4th Street is the apartment where Dylan and girlfriend Suze Rotolo were living. So it wasn't much of a hike in the cold slushy weather to do the iconic photo session - ain't that always the way.

161 W. 4th St.

Last summer, when I got a free giveaway photo by Don Hunstein with my purchase of Dylan's recent 'Together Through Life' album, I immediately recognized the location to be 161 West 4th. The little stairway stoop in front of the building hasn't changed that much - as you can see. This photo was probably taken at the beginning or end of the session - leaving or returning to Dylan's apartment. Even the railing is still painted the same color. To see how little has changed in that little spot, while looking down those steps through the viewfinder was to look time in the eye.

1963 photo by Don Hunstein

2009 photo by Godlis

But wait one more thing! At the 2007 NY Film Festival screening of Todd Haynes' Dylan film "I'm Not There", I noticed Suze Rotolo herself - looking like, uh Suze Rotolo, quietly hanging around waiting to say hello to the director. I hesitantly asked if I could step into their moment, and do a photo. They said yes and here it is. Don't think twice, just shoot.

Suze Rotolo & Todd Haynes, NYC 2007

It's alright Ma..."Mother: She'll Stop At Nothing"

2010-02-25T00:21:00.006-05:00

Just that tagline alone should be enough to convince you to buy a ticket to Korean director Bong Joon-ho's new film, 'Mother'. Look at that boy in the poster, that only a mother could love. He's accused of murder, and he's - I'm sorry Sarah Palin - somewhat retarded. So his mother is the only one going to bat for him. And she spends most of the film relentlessly tracking down the real killer - with an intensity that only a mother can muster. Established Korean actress Hye-ja Kim keeps the whole train rolling from the opening shot. Don't miss the begining!

You may have seen director Bong Joon-ho's 2006 film"The Host", in which a slimy undersea creature created by toxic chemical dumping in a Korean river, goes into shark attack mode on the city of Seoul, resulting in Bong Joon-ho being called the Steven Speilberg of Korea. When that movie had it's premiere screening at the 2006 New York Film Festival, Alice Tully Hall was packed with the local Korean community for the midnight screening - they definitely knew what was up.

This Friday February 26, Bam Cinematek in Brooklyn is bringing this very cool director to town for a screening of "Mother" in advance of it's March 12th opening, and a five day retrospective of his films. You better not miss it. Snow or no snow, I'll be going out there tonight to see his great early film "Memories of Murder". I saw "Mother" this past fall at the 2009 NY Film Festival, where I took these pictures of Bong Joon - ho. I'll be back there tomorrow to hear him talk in person. You be there or be square.

BAM CINEMATEK BAM INFO

Where I was at: CBGB's June 2006 / Sonic Youth soundcheck

2010-02-16T22:34:00.002-05:00

On June 13, 2006 - 4 months before CBGB's closed - Sonic Youth, set to release their new album 'Rather Ripped', played the club, and filmed the video for the song "Do You Believe in Rapture" that night. I was asked by director Braden King to shoot stills during their set to incorporate into the video along, with super 8mm film footage superbly shot by Jem Cohen.

This photo was taken during the sound check that afternoon, before the fans crowded in down front.

Where I was at: Tower Records NYC, October 2005

2010-02-15T21:50:00.003-05:00

Does anyone remember Tower Records? Does anyone even remember stores? It was October 2005 when Patti did a live performance at the Tower downtown in NYC for the special 30th (!) anniversary edition of Horses. I was digging through some old digital files - you know how they can accumulate and get buried in the intestines of your computer, no matter how good your filing system is - and this one jumped out at me. Man, that looks like a long time ago already.

Mystery Train to D.C. / Return to Sender

2010-02-10T22:58:00.003-05:00

This is just too good to be true. A whole website dedicated to the classically absurd meeting between Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon on December 21, 1970. And it is a US Government website - we the people own this URL! When Nixon Met Elvis

Here is page one of the actual letter handwritten by Elvis on American Airlines stationery, requesting to be made a "Federal Agent at large", explaining that "the drug culture and hippie elements do not consider me their enemy, or as they call it the establishment". There are the notes from Nixon's 'people' advising that it would be "extremely beneficial for the President to build some rapport with Presley". There is the meeting agenda including the absurd suggestion that Presley record an album "Get High On Life". There are photos and outtakes of the "event". And it is all downloadable.

But I'm gonna stop. You've got to take the mystery train right now to this terrific website, and have some fun for yourself.

Gun given by Elvis to Nixon as gift

oscar nominations + talking about a potato

2010-02-03T11:41:00.007-05:00

'Precious' cast, director, Push author Sapphire, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey NY Film Fest screening 2009

So I'm watching the Academy Award nominations broadcast on TV yesterday morning - to see which nominees I have pictures of / which films I've seen. Of course there were those that were expected - Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Lee Daniels and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), and the Dude Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart).

And in the Foreign Film category, the odds on winner is - 'The White Ribbon' by Michael Haneke. This film is a pre-Nazi Germany 'Children of the Damned' Protestants creepy whodunnit. Before the film screened at the NY Film Fest last fall, director Haneke told the very uptown Lincoln Center audience, with a smile on his face, "I wish you a disturbing screening". Don't miss seeing this film on the large screen. For me, just the black and white cinematography was worth the price of admission.

But the most unexpected nomination yesterday - and I'll tell you why in a moment - was also in the Foreign Film category. The Milk of Sorrow was directed by Claudia Llosa. I saw it last spring at the New Directors/New Films Festival here in NYC. I photographed the Peruvian director that same night, and then went in to see the film which was quite good. But I have to tell you that the plot revolves around - and this is a SPOILER ALERT of sorts - a main character who has a potato growing inside her vagina. I'll say that again - she has a potato growing out of her vagina. Really.

Michael Haneke and Claudia Llosa

through a glass darkly

2010-01-30T20:30:00.004-05:00

I took this photograph one morning in the early 1980's, looking through the window of the Veselka off 2nd Avenue in the East Village. The Veselka was much smaller than it is now, still very much a Ukranian greasy spoon of a joint back then. For years I always imagined this to be a picture of a young couple settled into their morning after breakfast bliss.

Then in the summer of 1986, I exhibited this photograph with a number of others in a restaurant / gallery space lower down on 2nd Avenue. And at the end of the summer, I received this letter from England written by the girl in the photograph! Beautifully pre-email-ish, with her minimally descriptive drawing - a brilliant companion piece detailing the situation from the other side of the glass - revealing that they were indeed "having a massive row." Like a great turn in a novel, that almost made the picture even better.

I say so much for invasion of privacy issues. Every picture doesn't really tell a story. Garry Winogrand once said: "Photography is not about the thing photographed. It's about how that thing looks photographed."

Yes, of course, I sent her a copy.

godlis boy pix

2010-01-20T23:25:00.004-05:00

yeah, that's me as a little kid - "godlis boy", trying to make perfect sense of a twin lens reflex. i don't remember that camera or this moment. but because someone took the time to shoot not one, but several pictures of me, totally enmeshed in a struggle to make sense of this little plastic machine, I now actually have a memory of this fleeting precious moment. the camera i do remember playing with a few years later was a classic brownie hawkeye twin lens. a bit sturdier than this one, i loved looking down into the viewfinder and trying to walk around the room using that image as my seeing eye dog. i never really shot any pictures on it.

Actually this is the kind of picture I would have taken - if i wasn't the kid in it. i'm guessing my father took this one (though my mother always claimed credit for taking all the pictures in the family, she appeared in way too many of those same wonderful pictures for her claim to be true). but i'm pretty sure that she picked out my awesome shoes.

"godlis boy" - years later, in high school, that was my nickname on the swimming team. kinda rolls off the tongue, fun to say. so in the spirit of fun, i present a few more godlis boy pix, from my personal snapfolio collection. dig 'em.

what a chunk o' chocolate

2010-01-15T09:58:00.002-05:00

Arnold Stang, NYC 1987

I ran into Arnold Stang out on the streets of New York back in 1987. He must have been on his way to do a voice over for a Honey Nut Cheerios commercial. But to me, he was the voice of the Chunky Chocolate commercial in the 1950's, with the infamous line that's still ringing in my head when I look at that candy bar - "What a Chunk o' chocolate!" He was a riot as the nerdy gas station attendant in 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'. Played next to Frank Sinatra in 'The Man With the Golden Arm'. And speaking (ha) of voiceovers, he was the voice of Top Cat.

He was a little comic genius. Here's a brief clip for those unfamiliar.

R.I.P. Arnold Stang.

You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude!

2010-01-12T00:19:00.002-05:00

Jeff Bridges, NYC 2010

The Dude came to town Saturday night. Jeff Bridges was up at the Walter Reade Theater for a Film Society of Lincoln Center special evening of clips and conversation, followed by a screening of one of my favorite films 'The Last Picture Show' (hey, not a bad title for a photo exhibition, now that I think of it).

So I ran uptown with my camera on a very cold New York city winter night to get a few pix of his dudeness. The man was so cool and obliging. The Dude abides. 'Nuff said.

Jeff Bridges, NYC January 2010

Where I was at: 11.14.09 Clic Gallery NYC

2010-01-10T23:57:00.008-05:00

Billy Name, NYC November 2009

Did you read the incredible story in this weekend's NY Times about the amazing Warhol Factory photographer Billy Name? How his valuable negatives have gone missing for years now in a maze of photography agents, art dealers, and unnamed sources? I'm not even going to try to explain this ongoing tale of shady art business shenanigans. You've got to read it yourself here. Sadly there are echoes of the tale of lost Diane Arbus prints dramatized last year so well in Hubert's Freaks by Gregory Gibson. Pray for the quick return of this holy grail.

I shot this photo of Billy Name at the November opening for the not to be missed exhibition - Bande A Part: New York Underground 60's 70's 80's on right now at the Clic Gallery 424 Broome Street in Soho NYC. It's only up one more week - extended until January 17th - so hurry up and get down there. There's so many good photographs by Roberta Bayley, Leee Black Childers, Marcia Resnick, Danny Fields, Bobby Grossman, Anton Perich, Stephanie Cherinikowski, Billy Name. And yeah I know, I'm in the show too, so this is a bit of self-promotion.

And what if you're not in NYC this week? Well then get online and order the exhibition catalog of the same name published this past fall by GINGKO Press. You won't regret it. Cover photograph by the great Billy Name.

Where I was at: Bowery Ballroom 12.30.09

2010-01-08T00:43:00.001-05:00

so here's the setlist from Patti Smith's Bowery Ballroom show on her birthday - December 30th, 2009 - the lucky recipient kindly held it up for my camera. The show was excellent, as expected. Right out of the box with 'Land', 'Ask the Angels', and 'Privilege'. A ton of well chosen cover songs too. Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean', George Harrison's 'Within You Without You', Buddy Holly's 'Not Fade Away.' The band with Lenny singing (minus Patti) did two Jim Carroll songs including a knockout 'People Who Died.'

Patti's always been great over the years with her choice of live cover songs. Like a good DJ, she always seems to pull them right out of a hat. Back in the day, one of my favorites was her cover of Debby 'Boone's You Light Up My Life', which I excerpt below from - really - Kids Are People Too. I can't overestimate the impact at the time of the ironic crossover beauty of a NYC punk poet singing a top 40 megahit by Pat Boone's daughter (I remember her at a record store signing in Times Square telling all her fans not to waste money on the album - "buy the single").

But her best cover song at this year's show was her encore - Patti and the band doing the O'Jays 'Love Train'. Such a feelgood song - I still can't get it out of my head. And so. as much for myself as everyone else, I provide a link to the O'Jays doing Love Train on Letterman (search out the Soul Train Line Dance version from 1973 yourself).

Also for your viewing pleasure, a few choice pix of Patti onstage at the Bowery Ballroom. "People round the world, join in..."

patti smith time : December 29-30-31

2009-12-28T23:28:00.004-05:00

ok so you've had yourself a merry little xmas, but you're not really ready for a rockin' new years eve.
well i haven't been going out on new years eve for many a year. but on december 30th - that's when I venture out to celebrate the end of the old year down at NY's Bowery Ballroom.
It's Patti Smith's birthday show - the second night of her annual 3 night new years' run. Tickets are hard to get these days. Once upon a time I used to wander down to the Mercury Lounge in early december to get my ticket without ticketmonger fees. But you gotta be on top of things early these days, as these 3 nights are the best shows in town - and word's gotten around. Last year I had to go on craig's list to get myself a ticket.

So if you've got a ticket - i'll see you there. And if you don't, mark it down in your calendar now for next year. Nothing goes on forever.
In the meantime, you can spend her birthday watching the recent documentary she and Steven Sebring made - Dream of Life - which will be showing on PBS that night.

read about it in the NY Times here: ny times

But there's really nothing like seeing Patti Smith do a live show. So here's a little xmas present for you: her encore from last year's birthday show - doing the Four Tops "Reach Out - I'll be There". I can't wait to see what's coming this end of the decade year.

Happy Birthday Patti!

xmas leftovers - blasts from the past

2009-12-24T23:15:00.007-05:00

xmas 1996

and here we go again. another year and another xmas picture. Every year - shooting and picking another new gem. But this year, I'm taking some time off to find some old gems from the archives. Some vintage black and white pix shot on my good old Leica. Yeah - a nice relaxing xmas eve thumbing through my negatives, while everyone else frets about wrapping their presents.

My presents this year are my past...

xmas 1979

xmas 1997

xmas 1993

ok just a few more...

"but I heard him exclaim,

ere he drove out of sight,

merry christmas to all,

and to all... a gezundtheit"

So Un-American: End of the Innocence

2009-12-16T17:50:00.013-05:00

OK - more Robert Frank. Now this is interesting. Many years ago in 1989, ex-voice of the Eagles, Don Henley had a big hit on MTV with his song 'End of the Innocence'. While watching the video late one night, thinking something looked all too familiar, I taped it and re-watched it closely. It didn't take too long to separate the video from the noxious music, and realize that the whole thing was totally based on images from The Americans. I can imagine someone handing a copy of the book to the director, saying remake these photographs as a video - and by the way, do it in black and white. Of course there was no credit to Robert Frank. Not even a nod to the original source material, by way of perhaps someone carrying around a copy of the book itself. Leading me to wonder about who cleared what with whom. I couldn't really imagine that Robert Frank would allow Don Henley to remake his masterpiece into a rock video to sell records on MTV. Especially given what had happened between him and the Rolling Stones over Cocksucker Blues. Something didn't seem right. I eventually had the opportunity to ask Robert Frank about whether he ok'd the usage, and the answer was no. That it was in the hands of the lawyers. This was back in 1989 or 1990.

So I present here the Don Henley video. And a clip I compiled with Robert Frank's photographs from The Americans, and they're re-appearance in the video. I'm sure there are even more than I've pointed out. Check 'em out yourself. The audio I've laid underneath it is of Robert Frank speaking at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. last year with the exhibition's curator Sarah Greenough. It's a fabulous interview and you can listen to the whole piece here:

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/frankinfo.shtm

Oh, one more thing. I've recently found out that this video was made by David Fincher, director of Fight Club and Zodiac. I've got to think about that one...

Robert Frank pix vs. Henley video:

American Beauty

2009-12-09T23:03:00.012-05:00

So speaking of Robert Frank, there is a must see exhibition of all the prints from his photographic masterpiece "The Americans" at the Metropolitan Museum here in NYC . If you haven't been there yet, you only have a few weeks to catch the subway uptown to see it, because the show is closing on January 3rd - and you know that's coming up fast. You better not miss this one!

I drove myself down to Washington D.C. last year when this exhibition appropriately debuted at the National Gallery of Art. Robert Frank himself drove all over the country to take these infamous photographs in 1956. And his little book The Americans changed the whole game of photography. In 1956, there was Elvis, and there was Robert Frank. That's all you need to know.

At the time, Robert Frank was exorcised for taking out of focus, grainy, tilted ugly photographs. What he was in fact doing, was breaking the rules and changing the whole concept of what a photograph was. While Elvis was doing the same thing with "That's Alright Mama at Sun Studios, Robert Frank, as Jack Kerouac says in the intro to The Americans, "sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film".

There is an immense catalog of the exhibition compiled by curator Sarah Greenough, which includes the contact sheets from every photograph (be sure to get the hardcover edition!). It is almost encyclopedic in it's coverage of the little LP of a book that The Americans is - 83 photographs that tell the compact story of America in 1956. Tell someone you love that this is what you want for Chanukah.

Robert Frank, NYC 1980

the darkroom of his mind

2009-11-28T10:58:00.012-05:00

There's a line on Bob Dylan's 2001 CD 'Love & Theft' - it kind of sneaks right up on you - "Big Joe Turner looking east and west from the darkroom of his mind." It's a photography reference sure enough - right there at the opening of the song 'Highwater (for Charlie Patton)'.

What's up with Bob Dylan and photography? Just recently he's put out 2 CD's with photography illustrated covers. Not pictures of himself. Just cool photographs picked out by himself? When the CD 'Modern Times', came out in 2006 - I immediately recognized the cover photo. A beautiful black and white shot by Ted Croner - 'Taxi, New York at Night, 1947' - which I had seen, and ogled over, many times at the Museum of Modern Art. And on this year's CD 'Together Through Life' there is a cover photograph from Bruce Davidson's 1959 teenage gang essay, and a back cover photograph from Josef Koudelka's book on Gypsies. Both great black & white photographers themselves. Now I also happen to know that there was almost a photograph by Andre Kertesz on the cover of his recent book 'Chronicles'. So there's obviously something happening here.

Bob Dylan's always been involved with the photographers that shoot his covers. There are the great middle sixties shots done by Daniel Kramer (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited), Jerry Schatzberg (Blonde on Blonde), and Barry Feinstein (Times They Are a Changin' + the No Direction Home DVD). All are collaborations with the photographer. The dangling camera on the cover of Highway 61 - truly a visual non-sequitor - is in itself a nod to the presence of the photographer, prominently placed within the portrait of the artist as a young motorcycle rider. And recently it's been revealed by Schatzberg that it was Dylan's decision to use the slightly out of focus shot for the cover of Blonde on Blonde.

What I find truly interesting, is that Bob Dylan goes not just to great musicians to record his music, but he goes to great photographers to capture his image. Most recently, the cover portrait of 'Tell Tale Signs' last year, was shot by William Claxton - noted for his fashion and jazz photography. While the inner sleeve of 'Love and Theft' has a portrait by David Gahr - he had shot Dylan as far back as the village and Newport Folk Festival days. And these many years later in 2007, known to be in ill health, Dylan seeks him out to shoot his portrait. Both David Gahr and William Claxton died in 2008.

One last storyline here, about photographer/musician/filmmaker John Cohen, who is name-checked in the liner notes for Highway 61 Revisited:

"You are right john cohen, quazimodo was right...there is no eye...i cannot say the word eye anymore...your rooftop - if you don't already know - has been demolished."

It was John Cohen who shot the first film footage of a pre-signed Bob Dylan on his 3rd Avenue rooftop - you can see it in the Scorsese doc 'No Direction Home'. John Cohen, by the way, shot stills on the set of the Robert Frank/Jack Kerouac film 'Pull My Daisy'. Cohen and Frank were neighbors on lower Third Avenue, when Dylan dropped by there in 1961. And many years later, in 1970, the very reclusive Bob Dylan would call in John Cohen again to shoot pictures on his very own MacDougal street rooftop for the LP 'Self-Portrait'. Dylan doesn't live there anymore, and John Cohen's 3rd Avenue loft was indeed demolished to make way for a building that Joey Ramone would eventually live in.

The last lines of the Highway 61 Revisited liner notes are to John Cohen: "you are lucky - you don't have to think about such things as eye & rooftops & quazimodo".

talking pictures

2009-11-21T18:07:00.008-05:00

Ray Davies, NYC 1977

Have you heard the Kinks song "there's too much on my mind"? Well it seems I've been keeping it all well hidden lately. I'm all photography all the time. But lately I think I've got myself a case of the "Not talking enough photography blues". Been neglecting my duties. Taking too much time off. Now I'm back with a vengeance.

Speaking of the Kinks, have you heard their song "Picture Book"? I love that one. It didn't even bother me to see it in an HP advert a few years back - that song deserved the big replay. But how did HP not follow it up with "People Take Pictures of Each Other" (...just to prove that they really existed!) from the same great LP Village Green Preservation Society?? Ray Davies - he should really be doing the Nikon ads instead of Ashton Kutcher.

And then there's my other crazy photo centric favorite Bob Dylan. "Big Joe Turner looking east and west from the darkroom of his mind". I've got way too much to say about Dylan and photography, so I'm going to save that for the next post.

In the meantime, I've included the photo I took of Mr. Ray Davies on August 16, 1977, on the upper west side of New York City, the day Elvis Presley died. There was definitely too much on all our minds that day.

opening day

2008-03-31T18:33:00.009-04:00

St.Patrick's day has come and gone - unofficial Opening Day of the Street Photography season. March 17th is usually a cold and dreary day - leave it to the Irish to tough it out in the first Fifth Avenue parade of the year. They lay it right out there, come hell or high water.

All the better for Street Photography batting practice -Erin Go Bragh is the umpire's signal to "play ball". Grab your Leica, and warm up your shooting hand. Whether you're shooting the color green, or black & white. Digital or point and shoot. Gloved or barehanded. Take the field.

This year it was bright sunny green all over. Even the Hassids in the diamond district turned out on their lunch break.

But wait, in this crazy calendar year the Easter Parade, another Street Photog ritual, arrived extra early - within days of St.Pats. And so it was a two for one week. Like a double header. Get yourself up to shutter speed for the boys of summer.

don't judge a book by it's cover

2008-01-02T10:47:00.000-05:00

Go see this new animated film Persepolis - you probably won't be drawn in by the title - unless you're a fan of the "graphic novel" by Majane Satrapi, who by the way directed this film. It was the closing night film at this year's New York Film Festival, which is a big deal - that's Marjane and her co-director Vincent Parannoud in the photo below on opening night. The picture above from the film is Marjane as a kid trying to go out and buy rock music illegally on the streets of Iran -and I don't mean RIAA "don't steal music" illegally - this is post-revolutionary Iran. Funniest scene is Marjane doing kung fu to her illegal copy of "Eye of the Tiger". This is a humorous coming of age movie about a kid in the middle of a historic political mess. The voices are done by Catherine Deneuve and her daughter Chiara Mastroianni (her father was Marcello). And word is that Iggy Pop was going to do the english dubbing for the DVD release. Catch it on the big screen where you can really see it - Persepolis.

fairytale of new york

2007-12-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

This is Matt Dillon visiting Shane MacGowan backstage after a Pogues show at a club called The World in NYC in 1986. The World used to be down near Houston and Avenue C, and many a video was shot there in the 80's, including Talking Heads "Burning Down the House." But when the Xmas season rolls around, it's the Pogues 1987 video - Fairytale of New York - that tops the charts. Right up there with hearing John Lennon or Phil Spector. And so enjoy your xmas and say a prayer for the great Kirsty MacColl.

it's a wonderful life - xmas 2007 in florida

2007-12-24T22:03:00.000-05:00

that was then & this is now...i gotta say i was running out of ideas for xmas pictures in new york city - who how where when? then it came - an invitation to florida for christmas - no snow, no cold weather, no cleaning off the windshield, no shoveling snow. a serious no brainer.

so here i stand, head in hand - cool calm collected - with a ton of great xmas pictures laid out right in front of me - look out & say cheese...

gone fishing

2007-09-12T22:25:00.000-04:00

this is my friend mitch's mom's gefilte fish. you see this stuff, it means the jewish holidays are here.

what holiday? new year's 5758. how did they do that? i don't know - i was wondering how heinz ketchup didn't take more advantage of last year being 5757.

everyone in New York loves the jewish holidays. Schools out, alternate side parking is cancelled - i.e. you can park for free - the streets are quiet, there's no road traffic, no standing on lines, empty seats on the subways, and if your boss is jewish, he ain't at work.

but check out the gefilte fish - this is the real thing. Not from the jar - made by hand, by mitch's mom Helene. And you gotta love the way it's laid out on the plate. Look at all those plates. You make this stuff by hand, you bet you're inviting lots of people over.

And if one of those people is a photographer - a jewish photographer (is there any other kind?) - you can bet he's gonna photograph them fish.

9_11

2007-09-11T12:15:00.000-04:00

NYC 1999

In 2001, I was living down near the world trade center, just a few blocks east on Maiden Lane - had been living there since 1995. I was knee deep in a project to photograph the downtown area at night - based on the template of the old New Amsterdam, when New York City was under Dutch rule. Same area photographed by Berenice Abbott in the 1930's.

I was busy trying to get pictures of old buildings around the financial district and the seaport that I figured would soon be gone. In the process, I tended to avoid the World Trade Center - it was the place I went on hot summer days to get good air conditioning, but I didn't think it was something I would have to make top priority on my soon to be gone list.

Who knew??

this year's model

2007-09-05T18:05:00.001-04:00

While it still feels like summer, one more look at the july 4th girl of 1909

Here are a few more pix of her that I found at the same flea market. This girl really had it - coulda been a star.

This is her again. Same room. I'm guessing she's on her father's lap - is she relaxed or what? This little model should have hooked up with Lartigue.

And here's my favorite of the bunch - same room - the piano, the wallpaper - this must be mom - reading the newspaper. The question is - did she take this - and all the others? I think so.

Last Days

2007-09-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

With the end of summer, I present this found at a flea market photo from someone's July 4th in 1909.

R.I.P. Hilly Kristal

2007-08-30T14:37:00.000-04:00

Hilly was our Dad. He landed on the Bowery, set up shop, and let us all hang out in his house. Whatever we wanted to create, as long as we played by his rules - and there weren't many - was ours to create. It was like going over to your friend's house - the one with the good parents - and being able for the first time to really be yourself. Full out. Nobody watching. Nobody commenting.

That's how the New York punk scene happened, right there in his backyard. Just a bunch of dumb letters that sounded like chord changes and would eventually, beyond anyone's expectations land on t-shirts, and symbolise more than they were ever intended to be. Hilly was our protector. He was our enabler. There's not enough that can be said about him. And not that much you need to say.

Ultimately undone by the forces of NYC real estate and an organization ironically called the Bowery Residents Committee. Hilly was the original Bowery Resident. His spirit will live forever on that boulevard he called home.

camels in new jersey

2007-08-28T12:11:00.000-04:00

ok, so it's the end of the summer, and i'm out in new jersey driving the back roads to ikea when i pass upon this scene - 2 camels in a parking lot. bingo - camera time. lady next to me is groaning - i shoulda brought my camera - she's not yet in the 21st century my cell phone's got a camera mode, so she just looks.

shooting is looking and showing everyone else you're looking. szarkowski called it pointing and saying look at that!

so here's my return to the blog - did i tell you i saw two camels in new jersey last weekend?

lost and found

2006-07-27T12:01:00.000-04:00

Summertime and the living is easy. Here's another old photo I found at a flea market many years ago for 25 cents (still written on the back in pencil). Back when 25 cents was really worth something - before a dollar was the new quarter.

Anyway, check this one out. Another one I stare at endlessly. Never ending, like a moebius strip - the two balls and the kid in perfect balance. And look at those knees. She (he?) is carrying a beach ball, but standing on what - another ball, a stone, a World War I mine? That great bathing suit, the joker-like bathing cap, the toes. Taken on a bright sunny day, the focus drops off with the brush in the background, where there seems to be a body of water - maybe even a pool? And to top it off, literally, the uneven black border from the negative's edge.

This is one of my favorite photos.

artistic license

2006-07-26T20:45:00.000-04:00

As a Twilight Zone fan who is quite often on the "short list" of those who would love to use my work, but are "on a tight budget", this is the ultimate fanatsy. Getting ripped off is the name of the game in the art world. Either they're using you by paying you nothing, or you're successfully using them by charging high prices for all the years you've been cheated.

So whoever drew this comic knew exactly what they were delivering. Check it out:

It would be so great if the people in my photos could help me collect. Like the sideshow performers at the end of Tod Browning's Freaks, turning she who rips off the midget into a chicken lady. Now that's Artistic License.

out of the past

2006-07-24T16:11:00.000-04:00

Speaking of Diane Arbus, she said "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." Here is a perfect example - a small old portrait photograph I found at a Flea Market last year, and it's haunted me ever since. What is it about this discarded view of the past that give me such pleasure? I stare at these two women I don't even know and they stare back at me - endlessly.

Garry Winogrand said, " there is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described." Lisette Model said "photography is the art of the split second." And Lee Friedlander said, "The pleasures of good photographs are the pleasures of good photographs, whatever the particulars of their makeup."

But who was it that said, "a picture is worth a thousand words"?

Fur What it's Worth - the Diane Arbus movie

2006-07-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

I was just wondering what was up with this project. Last summer, there were pix in the Daily News and the NY Post of Nicole Kidman spotted around town dressing down as Diane Arbus for the long awaited & feared (well, by photographers anyway) Hollywood biopic. This may be small potatoes for most of the world. But for photographers it's a big deal - Citizen Kane meets the Decisive Moment. Now, according to a big story in this month's Vanity Fair (photo above by Mary Ellen Mark) it will be coming to a screen near you this November. Well, one can only hope for the best. It has Robert Downey Jr. as...her neighbor???

Arbus died in the summer of 1971. Within 2 years - an amazingly quick turnaround - she had a monster major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and an accompanying monograph catalog - perhaps the greatest photo book ever. I was one of those standing on a very long line to see the pix at MOMA in 1973. Their influence on the world of photography can not be understated. Every photographer post 1967 owes her a debt. And I believe that the effect of these photographs on New York City in 1972-73 greatly influenced both the NY Dolls and the soon to be created punk scene at CBGB's. Transvestites, midgets, freaks - gabba gabba we accept you. Arbus, like the Ramones was a big fan of the Todd Browning movie.

So hang on to your cameras, and hope for the best, while I shutter at the thought of Nicole shooting a Jewish Giant at Home With His Parents in the Bronx.

naming names

2006-05-24T12:27:00.000-04:00

Well, at least I have the right last name. No way you're going to be remembered as a great photographer without a great last name. Where would Gyula Halasz be without Brassai? Or Arthur Fellig without Weegee?

Like Atget, Aristotle and Cher, Godlis falls into that single surname category common to many of the world's great thinkers.
Guess you've got to be thankful for the little things.

third hand experience

2006-05-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

Fenway Park 1975. I'm sitting on the first baseline, and the batter fouls off a pitch behind home plate. I aim my camera the other way and get the whole stadium virtually looking in my direction. This was a lucky break, but also a damn good picture, even for a photography student -which I was.

Cut forward a couple of years and I'm taking my "portfolio" around to galleries, where this one old crankpot Dealer running a well known space in downtown Boston, tells me my work is "nothing special". And the kid in me asks him to elaborate on what he obviously doesn't like.

His response was to pick out this photograph as an example, and told me "the problem with this image is that you're photographing a THIRD HAND EXPERIENCE". As he so smugly explained it - the batter was the first hand experience, the foul ball was the second hand experience, and the crowd watching it was the third hand experience - that's what's wrong with your photograph."

Which left me stunned - the guy was obviously too confused for his own good - and my only response was to turn his fools' logic around and tell the him that he had it ass backwards - my picture was the first hand experience, the ball was the second hand experience and the batter was the third hand experience.

And then he kicked my butt out of there.

You see, good photography has it's own logic.

Nur in der dunkelkammer offnen!

2006-05-17T16:01:00.000-04:00

Where have all the good times gone?

Agfa Brovira has been my preferred darkroom paper since the early 70's. The bright orange box with their cool logo was as familiar to me as Corn Flakes or Crackerjacks. Their paper was superb - great black and white tones. I used it to print all my vintage CBGB's night photographs.

And now, gone - real gone. The company went under last December, and for me it was like a death in the family. Hey - Ilford's ok -just not my type, Kodak - I don't miss their paper a bit; dull grey paper in a mustard yellow box.

But Agfa - that was a company with style. No more evident than in the inscription on their label - "NUR IN DER DUNKELKAMMER OFFNEN." Don't open shmuck unless you're in the darkroom. You gotta love how they say that - the darkroom - der dunkelkammer.

So let's all raise a glass to Agfa. An unsung casualty of the digital revolution. Man I'm gonna miss that paper...

hassid vicious

2006-05-05T12:52:00.000-04:00

So shoot me. I'm addicted to Hassids. They call me Hassid Vicious. Now Hassidim, now you don't. Come on - they're like cartoon characters. Men in Black dressed up for Black & White photos. Spy vs. Spy.

Hey they sell me all my camera equipment. So there's some kind of kosher karma at play here.

Look here they are at the airport. Running with their luggage. How can I not take their picture? I mean these are the same guys that stop me on Fifth Avenue every spring and fall with their Mitzvah Tanks asking: "Excuse me - are you Jewish?"

Case closed.

gallery wok

2006-05-05T12:38:00.000-04:00

Stopped in at Nitpick Gallery to see the current show: "eccentric dreamlike collages from colored black and white prints of multiple negatives, punctuated by verse with charming typos." Somehow it just didn't move me. Maybe if I had been at the opening and met the artist

Everyone told me not to miss the show at Blight Gallery: "color photographs of semi-abstract fields of fragmented imagery."
Now there's an idea whose time will never come. Got on the mailing list though.

This was really on the wall at a photography show I saw last year - "He began to explore the problems of making photographs without a camera." Yeah, that could be a problem.

nyc, sometime last century...

2006-05-05T10:15:00.000-04:00

New York City is my beat. The street photography capitol of the world. Atget had his Paris. And Adams had Yosemite. But New York is mine. When fellow photographers come in from out of town, they drool at the opportunity of shooting on Fifth Avenue. A metro card and a roll of tri-x are all I need. I am the King, and all these little people on the streets are my subjects.

The ghosts of Winogrand and Evans look down from the clouds to say - "good job little man." Of course, it's just one of life's cruel little jokes that the best place to shoot 'street work' is the worst place to show it. Big town, you can be so cold.