BUSINESS BEGINS IN OUR STUDIO
Jim Houghton and I began our business venture, Steinbicker/Houghton Inc., in the fall of 1965 and by year's end had settled down in our new location, 215½ East 22nd St., New York City. We were subletting the upper floor of a large studio belonging to an older photographer named Bruce (Sorry — I can't remember his last name right now. Perhaps later). The photo on the right shows it 42 years later, on October 31, 2007. It still looks exactly the same.
After signing the papers, Bruce took us out to dinner at a nearby restaurant that had just been opened by a friend of his, Mickey Ruskin. Max's Kansas City, as it was called, soon became a mecca for creative types and our favorite place for late-night meals. New York's leading painters and sculptors practically made it their home, and before long it began to attract the rock 'n' roll crowd, including many of the most notorious performers. Always a good time, and not at all expensive.
By late spring we began working for our first really big client, Abercrombie & Fitch. This was a huge, very expensive sporting goods store on Madison Avenue that also carried an exclusive line of clothing. Not to be confused with today's A&F, which acquired the name after a bankruptcy. They put out several large catalogs a year, requiring hundreds of photos. Some we did in the studio, but for most we went on location to the Hamptons at the eastern end of Long Island. Of course, seasons are reversed in this business, so winter clothes are done in the late spring, when the models melt wearing furs in the heat and snow must be created with ground-up styrofoam. The only time that we had to do retakes was when the management decided that one of the male models we used looked too "Italian" for their snooty clientele. Yes, this was a really WASPy outfit! No wonder they're no longer around.
We also got ourselves a sales representative, Arthur Aaron, who schlepped our portfolio around to all the leading ad agencies and magazines. And got results.
One good assignment was a series of ads for Ford trucks, showing them hard at work in and around Somerville, New Jersey. One such rural scene required a mail box as a prop, so we searched around for a Sears to buy one.
A more exciting assignment was for Coca-Cola. This took us first to Los Angeles to photograph singer Ray Charles in a recording studio, drinking his favorite soft drink. An amazing man. Although totally blind, when we came in he was alone at the control console mixing his own tapes, completely unassisted. From there we journeyed to Las Vegas to do a similar photo of Diana Ross of the Supremes, to be shot onstage at the Sands. Just as we were setting up, a burly man informed us in no uncertain terms that only union people were allowed to work there, so we chose a different location.
And so it went. Within two years, however, Bruce began to tire of our loud noise and constant traffic, and gently suggested that perhaps it was time to move up in the world and get our own premises.
Interested in photography? Check out my "Assisting Avedon" blog.
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