photographer / director / publisher
[slidepress gallery=’tropic-of-cancer’]
TROPIC OF CANCER FOR DON’T TELL IT MAGAZINE
This was my first published photographic series. I shot this in New York at Casa La Femme Restaurant on Wooster Street in July of 1993 (the original location) with 5 female models from left to right: Ama Leu, Belinda, Gigi Stoll, Stephanie Roberts and Danya Hachey. The series was inspired by Henry Miller‘s books Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, in which he recounted his experiences living in Montmartre, Paris in the 1930’s. I wanted to depict with all female characters the essence of the era, in which Henry Miller depicts with rather colorful debauchery his tales of gambling, drinking and sexual exploits. I casted the models with this in mind, women with character and a joie de vivre that encapsulates this era. All the clothing was provided by designer Mark Eisen, who had a very 1920/30’s inspired collection that season. My friend Sandra Shaffer was the head of marketing at the time, so she was able to lend me most of the collection to photograph. Mark’s clothes were regularly featured in American Vogue at the time, and were a favorite of Edward Ennifel from i-D. All of the models were friends of mine, and actually knew each other well, so there was a natural energy between them . Stephanie Roberts (who was the girlfriend of model – now photographer,Gigi Stoll) had recently been on the cover of American Vogue, and the other girls were all established names in the industry. Ama Leu was well known as the girlfriend of photographer Amelia Papadimos, otherwise known as “Mils”, who had married Modonna’s boyfriend Tony Ward. The series was initially exhibited with an opening party at Casa La Femme Restaurant that summer, and later was chosen to be published as a 10 page story in the launch issue of Don’t Tell it Magazine’s December 1993 / January 1994 Launch Issue. It’s very sad that Don’t Tell Magazine only ran for about 5 years… I regularly see the ex-fashion editor Aurelie Lambillon at shows in Paris and London, as she is now an editor at Jalouse Magazine. It was a brilliant magazine, and an amazing start to my career, as they published many stories I shot for them between 1993-1997.
I shot the series with traditional tungsten lighting, on a Mamiya 645 camera using TMAX 100 black & white medium format negative film. I hand printed all the prints for the exhibit, which were all 48″ x 60″ black and white and sepia toned fiber prints. I printed them in the photo district of New York at a rental lab, and as the prints were so large, I had to project the negatives onto the wall where I had taped the photographic paper. I later hand mounted and framed them for the show, which was attended by 100’s of guests. Kelly Blevins did the PR for Casa La Femme restaurant at the time, so he organized the PR for the event. I recall the band Nancy Boy (lead singer was “it boy” Donovan Leitch) making quite a presence at the party. I was dating the drummer, Mike Williams, and we managed to have a party that even Henry Miller would have written about.
Hair and make-up was by Susan Giordano, Michael Delfino, Ingrid di Liso and Dean, with styling by Joe Alvarez and yours truly.
The prints to this day remain in the same frames, hidden in a back closet … I don’t think they have seen the light since I moved out of my New York 9th street loft where they covered the walls until I moved in 2004.
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