Life's Little Adventures

On Being an Assistant Photographer

 

What's Expected of You

Here I'd like to discuss just what it takes to become an assistant to a talented photographer such as Avedon. Especially as a learning experience, and as an apprenticeship before heading out on your own.

The first, and most important point, is to choose your mentor carefully. It should be someone whose work you really admire, and from whom you can learn. To assist the wrong photographer will just be time wasted. Preferably someone located in a major city that is home to various media (magazines, ad agencies, etc.) — Americans should think New York or Los Angeles, Europeans London, Paris, Milan, or Berlin. Places that are hotbeds of creative activity.

The first lesson, therefore, is: Determine who you want to work for and pursue them. Relentlessly.

A second consideration is to make a list of ways in which you can make yourself most useful to the photographer. Some obvious choices are:

• Hardworking.
• Dependable.
• Willing to take direction.
• A strong body that can lift stuff.
• A good, safe driver with a clean record.
• Handiness with tools, paintbrushes, etc.
• Ability to do minor repairs.

Some valuable traits are:

• A well-rounded education, especially with some knowledge of the arts and philosophy.
• Ability to anticipate needs and act without having to be told what to do.
• Ability to live within your means, without becoming a burden. Face it, you're not going to make much until you acquire real skills.
• A good appearance. You are representing the boss. Look it.
• Good language skills, especially English. A smattering of foreign tongues wouldn't hurt, either.
• A good conversationalist.
• Computer savvy.
• Curiosity about the world around you.
• Lastly, a burning passion for photography; a real fire in the belly.

Notice that I said nothing about being a talented photographer. You're there to learn and assist the photographer, not to take the pictures. In the past, darkroom experience would have been a valuable asset; today it would most certainly help to at least be familiar with Adobe Photoshop.

And if you get the job, don't blow it!

The worst case of missed opportunity I ever heard of actually happened in Avedon's studio back in 1965. An international service club had a program of finding trainee jobs for talented but impoverished youth. Avedon agreed to take on a young guy from an underprivileged background and train him in studio ways, paying him a modest wage. He showed up the first day full of enthusiasm and really tried hard to please. We were quite happy with him. The next day, however, he never came to work. Concerned that something might have happened to him, we called his mother. She answered that he just didn't feel like working today, so that was the end of his brief employment.

Another one occurred in 1960 when a trainee decided that a weekend social engagement was more important than assisting on a sudden, unexpected weekend photo assignment. He was told not to return. As long as you are a junior assistant you are expected to be available at any time.

Some other things that could nip a career in the bud are:

• Displays of personal drama. Be cool.
• Taking attention away from the boss by showing too much personality, dressing too sharply, or otherwise being too noticeable. Be invisible at times.
• Contradicting the boss in front of clients. They won't have much confidence in him if even his assistants think he's wrong.
• Allowing your cell phone to ring during jobs. Turn it off.
• Asking stars and VIPs for autographs.
• Being a pest.
• Ordering the most expensive food and drink when dining out with the boss and/or clients.
• Taking your own photos while the boss is taking his.

IS THIS ASKING TOO MUCH? If you think so, you may be better off pursuing a different career.

ANOTHER APPROACH, and for some a better one, is to set yourself up as a FREE-LANCE ASSISTANT, working by the day or job. This allows you to learn from different photographers with varying techniques and to get a better oversight of the entire business. The downside is that work only comes when the photographers' own staffs cannot handle the load, and that there will be dry periods of no income during which you can work on developing your own portfolio. It helps to have worked for a well-known photographer who will recommend your services to others.

 

RIGHT NOW I'm looking to tell my whole story, the whole unvarnished truth about Photography's Golden Age, as the basis for a book, e-book, or documentary. Interested? Leave a comment below and I'll get back to you.

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Katz's Deli

The other day a friend and I became ravenously hungry for a really good Rueben sandwich, a treat that is difficult to find here in the Philadelphia suburbs. Okay, you can get a good one locally, but not a really, really, superlatively good one. One that just oozes Russian dressing, melted Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and plenty of sliced corned beef — all between freshly baked rye bread.

 

So we headed over to New York City, to its Lower East Side, and thence to Katz’s Deli on East Houston Street. Long a favorite of both New Yorkers and in-the-know visitors, Katz’s has been at that location since 1888 and is widely considered to be among the city’s best sandwich joints.  A visit there is a real experience, one that is quite rare in this age of chain eateries whose only interest is the bottom line.

Not that Katz’s is especially cheap. It isn’t. Nor is it fancy or even comfortable. Upon entering the premises you are handed a ticket, which you present at each food station as you assemble your meal. On this is kept a running total, which you present to the cashier on the way out, making payment there.

 

 During World War II Katz’s advertised with the phrase “Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army,” a tradition they still honor with free shipping to overseas U.S. military addresses including Iraq and Afghanistan. Another catch phrase from the 1950s became part of a popular Tom Lehrer song with the words “Remember Mommy, I’m off to get a Commie, so send me a salami, and try to smile somehow.” 

Well, we didn't get a commie, but we did smile after sharing that delicious Reuben (way too big for one person!) and washing it down with two large beers.

www.katzdeli.com

The top photo is by Ernesto Andrade via Wikipedia Creative Commons. The other snaps are by me.

 

SO, just what Little Adventure am I up to now in 2013? Why, just the most challenging one of them all! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.

 

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Revisiting Ground Zero

Two days after the Ninth Anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, a friend and I traveled to New York to see how reconstruction of the World Trade Center is coming along.

We began by driving from the Philadelphia suburbs to Hamilton, N.J., from where we got a Jersey Transit train to New York's Penn Station — riding upstairs for a good view. Since we both qualify for Senior fares, this was a very inexpensive journey.

Here comes the train! 

Then a quick subway ride to Lower Manhattan.

 CLICK ON MAP TO MAKE IT MUCH LARGER
From the subway exit it's only a few steps to the best place to see what's going on, the churchyard of Saint Paul's Chapel. Built in 1766, this is the oldest public building in continuous use in Manhattan. Flanked by a picturesque graveyard, it was modeled after London's Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Inside is the pew from which George Washington worshiped just after becoming our first president, and the wonderful altar attributed to Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the man who basically designed Washington, D.C. Above the pulpit is the symbol of the Prince of Wales, testimony to the fact that this was a royal church back in Colonial days. Inside also are memorials to 9/11 documenting the role that the church played in the recovery, and the support it gave to the rescue workers. The Bell of Hope, outside in the graveyard, is a recent addition, a gift from London, rung every September 11. 

The Bell of Hope, St. Paul's graveyard, and Ground Zero in the background. 

Visitors can't get any closer than this. The two buildings on the left are part of the World Financial Center, which survived the attack, as did the buildings to the right. The structure topped by two cranes is the rapidly growing 1 World Trade Center, also called the Freedom Tower, scheduled for completion in 2013. With its mast, it will top out at 1,776 feet, a figure of great historical significance.

 Nearby, a Memorial Wall (photo, right) erected in 2006 honors the ultimate sacrifices made by heroic New York City Firemen who perished on 9/11 while helping others to survive. 

Strolling around, we came across other views of the various buildings under construction and of the workers erecting them, although we could not really get close enough for a good view. The photo below is about the best I could do using my tiny pocket-size digital camera. After this we repaired to a nearby Irish pub for lunch and a Guinness Stout. This was certainly most welcome as neither of us had eaten since early morning back in Pennsylvania, and it was now in the middle of the afternoon.

Getting here from Penn Station is quite easy, just a matter of taking the clean, modern Eighth Avenue E Train to the WTC station at the end of the line.

Here's another photo:

Lastly, we walked north a few blocks to 45-51 Park Place, the highly controversial proposed site of a new Muslim-American Community Center. Since this, if built, will contain a prayer room, it is being referred to as a mosque. There is a substantial Muslim population among the bankers, traders, and other businessmen here in the Financial District, and the existing mosque is simply not large enough for their growing numbers. 

That's it above. As you can see, there were precious few protesters there and only a small police presence. The guy to the right of the small tree was showing his rather badly executed painting of a Trojan Horse, while to the left of that a hand-drawn sign listed reasons why not all Muslims are terrorists and in fact most are good citizens.

From there it was back to Penn Station and home. 

Copyright © 2010 by Earl Steinbicker

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Another Stroll Into the Past …

 McSorley's on East 7th Street. That's Charlie and John on the right.

… With a Delicious Ending.

9 a.m., Wednesday, April 21, 2010. My friend Charlie Reilly and I took off from suburban Philadelphia by car to Hamilton, N.J., where we boarded a Jersey Transit commuter train to New York City's Penn Station. Incredibly, every paved parking spot at the station was already filled, so we had to park in an old overspill lot. When we asked the conductor why so many people were heading for the Big Apple he replied "because it's Wednesday." It turned out that Wednesday is Matinée Day on Broadway, attracting thousands of Jersey housewives.

Once there, we took a Fifth Avenue bus past my old studio down to Washington Square, where by prearrangement we met Charlie's friend, John. From there we more-or-less followed a variation of the route I described in my 2004 guidebook, Daytrips New York. 

After soaking up the atmosphere of Greenwich Village we headed over to the less-explored East Village, following The Bowery up to Astor Place and the old Cooper Union building of 1859. It was here, on February 27, 1860, in the Great Hall, that Abraham Lincoln delivered the historic anti-slavery speech that won him the presidency later that year. The very next day following our walk another president spoke here. That was Barack Obama, who addressed a group of Wall Street bankers, chiding them for their "failure of responsibility" and calling for tighter regulation of their industry. Lincoln and Obama were not the only presidents to have given speeches in this room — others include Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, and Clinton.

By now we were hungry and, more to the point, thirsty. Fortunately, just around the corner from Cooper Union stands the world-famous McSorley's Old Ale House, here since 1854 and virtually unchanged since then. Oh, they do allow women in now, following a 1970 lawsuit. Tradition has it that Honest Abe imbibed here after his famous speech.

McSorley's serves their own ale, and only their own ale, dark or light, two mugs at a time. The prices are quite reasonable, but don't ask for any other beverage because they don't have it. They do have food, a selection of inexpensive sandwiches and hot meals from a daily menu on a chalkboard.

Ten dark ales coming up … our table was the one to the right, but that's not us. This photo was swiped from Wikipedia..

Prohibition, that vile social "reform" of the 1920s, hardly affected McSorley's, which continued to serve their own ale as if nothing had happened. The fact that this was a popular hangout for politicians probably helped avoid police raids. Back then it was brewed in the basement; today it's made by a major brewery and sold in bottles throughout the nation.

With an atmosphere reminiscent of Olde New York, McSorley's walls are covered with faded memorabilia, none of which has been removed since 1910. The floors are still covered with sawdust, the waiters and bartenders still emphatically Irish. And the suds, called "the ale which never lets you grow old," by the poet e.e. cummings, remains unchanged to this day. 

McSorley's old motto, "Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies," however, is no longer in effect following a 1970 court ruling concerning gender discrimination. Its remaining mottos are "Be Good or Be Gone" and "We Were Here Before You Were Born."

The definitive book about McSorley's (and a few other New York oddities) was written in 1943 by Joseph Mitchell under the title McSorley's Wonderful Saloon. It is still in print and available on Amazon (see below). To learn more check out McSorley's own website (click here).

 Thirst sated, we wandered through Cooper Square, passing Lafayette Street and Broadway to LaGuardia Place, where we stopped at an outdoor café for a final libation before returning to Penn Station and home. Near the café stood a statue honoring the "Little Flower," Fiorello H. LaGuardia, New York's exceedingly colorful mayor from 1934 to 1945. That's him on the right.

Text, top 2 photos and bottom photo copyright © 2010 Earl Steinbicker

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New York City

A growing number of entries on this blog concern New York City. Here's an easy way to find them — just click on the titles that interest you.

Katz's Deli. Ravenously hungry for a fabulous Reuben sandwich, we head to NYC's Lower East Side and its most famous sandwich joint.

Revisiting Ground Zero. A friend and I check out what's happening at the World Trade Center reconstruction.

Another Stroll Into The Past. McSorley's Wonderful Old Ale House in the East Village is visited.

Bicycling in New York. Braving Manhattan traffic on two wheels. 

I Love New York. Why a small town boy got hooked on the Big Apple.

Avedon's Manhattan. A guide to places associated with the great photographer. This takes you to my other blog.

The Avedon Years. All about my association with New York's famous photographer.

Our Studio in New York. Two dozen entries about our Fifth Avenue studio, 1965-1979.

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SO, just what Little Adventure am I up to now in 2013? Why, just the most challenging one of them all! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.

New York 400

I've just found the most marvelous picture book ever about my favorite place, New York City. 480 pages of oversize drawings, paintings, maps, posters, playbills, music sheets, photographs and assorted artifacts — all beautifully printed on heavy stock in a hardbound coffee table book  — chronicle the entire history of the metropolis from its beginning in 1609 right up to the present in 2009. This is an absolute must for anyone who loves the city.

And it's a bargain! 

Even at the list price of $40.00 it's more than worthwhile, but Amazon (bless them) has it for only $21.60 (and eligible for free shipping).

New York 400 was created from the vast archives of The Museum of the City of New York, whose mandate is to explore the past, present, and future of the Big Apple. You can read all about it, along with reviews, by clicking on its name in the box below.

 

Interested in photography? Check out my "Assisting Avedon" blog.

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SO, just what Little Adventure am I up to now in 2013? Why, just the most challenging one of them all! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.

 

Walking The High Line to the Chelsea Piers

New York City's latest attraction just opened on June 8, 2009, so naturally I had to give it a try. Imagine an elevated park, 30 feet above street level, winding its way through Lower Manhattan and piercing right through buildings. That's The High Line, and it's quite an accomplishment.

UPDATE: On May 4, 2012 I walked the High Line again, from 14th Street to 23rd Street, on my way to the Avedon photo exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery on West 21st Street, practically under the High Line. It's amazing to see just how much this elevated park has been extended and improved, with many snack vendors along the route! A few new photos are added at the bottom of this entry.

How did this come about? Its history actually goes all the way back to 1849, when the Hudson River Railroad ran a street-level line to the junction of Chambers and Hudson streets. Its locomotives tended to frighten horses, so each train was preceeded by a man on horseback blowing a horn. As the city grew and motor traffic replaced horses, this became more than a nuisance and a very real safety concern. By the late 1920s congestion had become so bad that it was decided to elevate the rail line, then owned by the New York Central Railroad. This work was completed in the mid-1930s and continued operation until 1980. After that, it was abandoned and slowly reverted to nature. Slated for demolition, the High Line was saved by activist citizens and in 2006 restoration by the city began.

A friend and I began our walk at the southern terminus, Gansevoort Street at Washington Street, in the heart of the historic Meatpacking District and next door to the new (2015) Whitney Museum of American Art. We got there from Penn Station via the 8th Avenue subway to 14th Street, then walked three blocks to the southwest. The line south of here had previously been demolished. Here, a stairway (photo, above) leads up to the park with its magnificent views across the Hudson River to Hoboken, New Jersey.

The map above shows both the currently opened section, from Gansevoort Street north to 20th Street, and the section north of that to 30th Street which should open next year. Another section, from 30th Street northwest by the Penn Station Rail Yards is under negotiation with its owners, the CSX railroad.

Leaving Gansevoort Street (photo, above), we climbed the stairway (there are also elevators at 14th and 16th streets) some thirty feet to the linear park. From here a paved pedestrian walkway leads north to the end, bordered on the sides by remnants of the abandoned rail line. Between the tracks grow flowers, plants, and even trees (photo, right). Volunteer gardeners were busy at work making it even more attractive.

 Oddly, the High Line passes through several buildings along the way. Most of these were once industrial structures and warehouses, with rail sidings leading in at the third-floor level. Some of them have recently been converted into highly desirable loft apartments, and others into art galleries.

At 15th Street the trail cuts through the old Chelsea Market Building, formerly a Nabisco factory. Beyond this is the Northern Spur, where a side track went into a meat warehouse. It is now a horticultural preserve.

The High Line crosses Tenth Avenue around 17th Street, and a section of the structure has been lowered in steps to form a viewing platform looking out across the midtown skyline. A glass wall prevents those carried away by the view from falling off and tumbling down to the streets below.

Plans are afoot to build a grand staircase at 18th Street, leading down to a public plaza. Above this, a cantilevered snackbar will hover above the site. 

Strolling through the Chelsea Grasslands leads to the present northern terminus at 20th Street. Beyond this, the High Line is still under development and should open in 2010. Another friend, reached by cell phone, joined us nearby.

   From here it is only a short walk across Eleventh Avenue to the famous Chelsea Piers. Built in the early 1900s to accomodate ocean liners, the piers have a colorful history. This was the destination in 1912 of the Titanic, which of course sank on its maiden voyage, and it was here that its 706 survivors arrived aboard the RMS Carpathia. Three years later the RMS Lusitania (photo, right) sailed from these piers on its fateful journey to England. It was torpedoed by the German Navy off the coast of Ireland with great loss of life, an event that hastened America's entry into World War I.

In the mid-1930s passenger ships were moved north to new, larger piers around 50th Street, and the Chelsea Piers reduced to cargo handling as well as World War II troop ships. Nearly demolished in the early 1990s, they were saved by the abandonment of the Westway Project, and now form a major sports and entertainment complex.

We ended our day of exploring the High Line and Chelsea Piers by visiting a few of the sports facilities spread over 28 acres above the Hudson River. Among the many activities available are gymnastics, soccer, basketball, rock climbing, a golf driving range, health club, and more. But after shooting a few hoops my companions agreed with me that a visit to the Chelsea Brewing Company at the southern end of the complex was in order. There we had sandwiches and a variety of craft beers brewed on the spot before returning to Penn Station for the train ride home.

 

NEW PHOTOS, May 4 2012:

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I Love New York

So imagine my joy when I stumbled across this website: www.nyc-architecture.com! Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of photos, dating from the 19th century right up until today, all images of the buildings and street scenes of this beloved metropolis. A feast for the eyes, and one not to be missed. An especially good recent page on the site is: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SPEC/GAL-BW.htm.

Another interesting site is www.nycsubway.org, all about subways. 

My love for this town began in the late 1930s when my dad marched my little legs off all over downtown, and was solidified at the 1939 World's Fair. Our family visited relatives there several times after the war, and in the summer of 1948 I and a buddy, both 14 tears old, spent nearly a week there alone, sleeping at my mother's aunt's apartment in Queens and exploring the whole city on foot and by subway. Being strapped for cash, we lived off Nedick's hot dogs with an occasional splurge at the Automat. The next year my dad and I went to Game 5 of the World Series at Ebbets Field to watch the Yankees beat the Dodgers — the Brooklyn Dodgers — 10-6. 

In 1952, fresh out of high school, I realized my dreams and moved there, becoming an assistant to the great photographer Richard Avedon. Except for time out for military service, I remained there until 1989, forming my own studio in 1965. Although I now live near Philadelphia, I can't get New York out of my mind, and go there whenever the creative juices need refreshing.

CLICK HERE to find out why our studio HAD to be in New York.

 

Interested in photography? Check out my "Assisting Avedon" blog.

 

SO, just what Little Adventure am I up to now in 2013? Why, just the most challenging one of them all! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.

 

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Our Studio, Part XX

A Chance Meeting With A King

 

Just two blocks from our Fifth Avenue studio was a wonderful Indian restaurant called the Shalimar. Located on East 29th Street between Madison and Park avenues, it was considered by many to be the best of its kind in New York. In fact, one time we when were doing a job for Air India the client remarked on how lucky we were to be so near to such tasty food. So we began taking our clients there for lunch, and sometimes went by ourselves for dinner after work. 

One time in 1979 my business partner Jim Houghton and I went for our usual dinner. At the table next to us was seated a quite distinguished-looking Middle-Eastern gentleman who was dining alone and receiving extra attention from the wait staff. At one point he turned to us and remarked that this was indeed the very best Indian restaurant in town, and that he came here every time he was in New York. He then said "let me introduce myself — I am the King of Afghanistan." 

And indeed he was. He then went on to recount the troubles visited upon his nation by the Soviet occupation (1979-1989), and how he had gone into exile and was now living in Rome. His meal finished, he rose and said goodbye as the entire restaurant staff practically bowed to him. They also did not present him with anything as crass as a bill. 

After he left, the owner came over to us and expounded on how honored his restaurant was to serve the king whenever he was in town.

Mohammed Zahir Shah (portrait, right) was born in 1914, educated in France, and became king in 1933 at the tender age of 19 — although real power remained in the hands of his uncles until the 1960s. His main achievement was in opening his landlocked country to the West and in creating a national university. He was deposed in 1973 by a cousin opposed to those reforms, living in exile in Rome until his return to Kabul in 2002. There he renounced the title of king and was given the new title of "Father of the Nation." Seriously ill and frail, he died at his home in Kabul's Presidential Compound in 2007.

 

Interested in photography? Check out my "Assisting Avedon" blog.

SO, just what Little Adventure am I up to now in 2013? Why, just the most challenging one of them all! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.

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Our Photo Studio, Part XV

WHY WE HAD TO BE IN NEW YORK

CLICK HERE for the previous entry on this thread

For our photo studio there was no other choice, at least not in America. Even though the city was rapidly sinking into bankruptcy at the time (mid-1970s), we had to hang on until conditions improved. There was a reason why the top publishing and broadcasting businesses were headquartered in New York and not in, say, Los Angeles.

Talent was that reason. Concentrated talent. Lots of it, in all related fields, and all within minutes of each other. Where else could we find such a selection of top models, artists, designers, stylists, and other skills practically next door? If you operated outside the city — or even outside of midtown Manhattan — you would have to pay traveling time, if you could get them to come at all. And then there was the vast number of available locations, to say nothing of professional photographic services such as overnight Kodachrome film processing or the easy rental of highly specialized equipment. Another plus was the number of qualified freelance assistants on call, ready to help when you needed them. And if your studio was not quite large enough for a particular job, there were several rental studios that were more than adequate.

The photo above was taken from the entrance to our studio on Fifth Avenue.

I learned about this early on, in the late 1960s, when we had a huge catalog job to do in Los Angeles, one that would take over a week of shooting. There was no way we could afford to bring New York models along with us, so we counted on the leading local model agency, and held "casting sessions" at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Now, the models there were certainly pretty and may have been very good at acting, but they were more "girl next door" than "high fashion." The resulting pictures, shot on location anywhere from Palm Springs to Topanga Canyon, were perfectly okay for the purpose, but nothing we would want in our portfolio.

Actually, at the peak of the mid-1970's fiscal crisis we momentarily entertained the thought of moving to nearby New Jersey, probably Jersey City or Hoboken. That idea quickly vanished, but I did briefly investigate the possibility of Long Island City, a part of Queens that is just across the East River from midtown Manhattan. It was only one stop from Grand Central on the number 7 subway, was relatively quiet and free of crime, and had plenty of old industrial buildings available for cheap rent. But then we realized that no one really wanted to travel beyond the area bordered by the East River, East 60th Street, Sixth Avenue, and East 14th Street. Unless, of course, it was to an exotic location for a few days.

Yes, there were plenty of reasons why our studio HAD to be in New York City's Manhattan. PLUS…there was also the sheer joy of living in such an exciting place, always filled with an almost electric energy.

 

Interested in photography? Check out my "Assisting Avedon" blog.

 

SO, just what Little Adventure am I up to now in 2013? Why, just the most challenging one of them all! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.

 

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