MY FIRST EXPERIENCES AT WRITING FOR PAY
Long before trying my hand at travel guides, I had a brief career of writing technical articles for photography magazines. This began in 1964, when I still worked for Richard Avedon, and lasted into 1967 after which our studio became busy and I no longer had the time. As studio manager for Avedon and later with my own business, I had contacts with professional equipment manufacturers and distributors. One of these, Fred Thomas of the Thomas Instrument Company, suggested to a trade journal named Photographic Product News that I should write for them as I was familiar with the latest trends in studio equipment and techniques. Avedon was okay with this and even allowed me to use some of his pictures as illustrations. And so it began.
In those pre-computer days we used a long-forgotten device called a typewriter to put words on paper. I was familiar with these even as a child in the 1940s since I had an old one called an Underwood on the desk in my bedroom. And most of my time in the U.S. Army was spent pounding the keys of a Remington manual. Later, around 1960, I had purchased a Smith-Corona electric portable for personal correspondence, and this turned out to be all I needed for writing articles.
My first effort, which appeared in the November-December 1964 issue of Photographic Product News, was called MOBILITY IN STUDIO LIGHTING! and discussed the various techniques we had worked out in using moving strobe lights with moving subjects — mostly with an 8x10 Sinar camera. Not only did it look great in print (a snippet of it is above), especially illustrated with an Avedon fashion shot from Harper's Bazaar, but it got me more assignments and a nice check. A year later I did a similar article called LIGHTING ON THE RUN for Popular Photography Magazine, aimed more at their amateur audience. This also used an Avedon photo as well as one of my own as illustrations. I will be elaborating on this technique in a future posting, so stay tuned.
My next article for PPN, entitled TRANSPARENCY vs. NEGATIVE COLOR…AN OPINION caused a bit of a stir, and was later reproduced by the city's major color lab and sent to all New York photographers. In it I maintained that the use of transparency color films such as Ektachrome instead of the negative films that Kodak was then promoting would be much more profitable for studio operators — from both a time and cost standpoint. It also made for happier clients.
The insert on the left shows the writers who were then contributing articles to PPN. The only one I really knew was Victor Keppler, who along with Avedon and a few others founded the Famous Photographers School.
Some of my other articles for PPN were concerned with preparations for overseas assignments, traits to look for in hiring an assistant, and various odds and ends to make darkroom work more enjoyable — or less miserable.
The most elaborate article that I wrote for PPN was called IDEAS FOR THE STUDIO OF TOMORROW, which appeared in the November-December 1965 issue. In it I described in detail the workings of the new photographic facility that I helped design for the Paris office of Harper's Bazaar magazine. Although totally obsolete today, at that time this was really state of the art, thanks to the efforts of Dick Balli of Balcar fame. The photos below show the rapid print and photostat room.
The same article also described in detail the London Sunday Times studio perched atop Thompson House in central London. This was mostly used by Anthony Armstrong-Jones (now Lord Snowdon), who at the time was married to the Queen's sister. I worked there in January 1965, assisting Avedon as he photographed some of the Beatles. Two-and-a-half years later, after I had left his employ, he again used this same futuristic studio to do the famous solarized color photos of The Beatles that became a best-selling poster, a cover of Look Magazine, and was used on their album 1, issued in 2000. You've certainly seen these. Many times. Alas, this wonderful studio no longer exists.
Another trade journal that I wrote for at the time was Photo Methods for Industry, who were particularly interested in my experience with an unusual machine that automatically processed most color films (not Kodachrome) and all B&W films. Called the Color Automat (photo, right), it was installed in Avedon's studio in (I believe) 1964. This is described elsewhere on this blog, CLICK HERE TO VIEW, and scroll halfway down the page. While we used it exclusively for Ektachrome in 8x10 sheet format as well as 120 rolls, I did test it with 35mm still film and 16mm movie stock.
After I left Avedon in late 1965 I continued to write for Popular Photography magazine, mostly about adapting professional techniques to amateur work. This ended as the Sixties came to a close and I became too busy at our studio to find the time to write.
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