While I like the modern advantages of having a smartphone that can serve as the one-stop shop for media production and global communication, I feel privileged to have been raised in the era of creative visualization, the decisive moment, film processing, the darkroom, 4x6 prints, handwritten journals, polaroids and snail mail. I have kept two decades of journals and images in safe keeping.
From time to time, I open the flat files or cabinets and flip through the pages of days past and draw certain images closer to my eye somehow enabling me to smell the reality of that moment more vividly because the click of the camera shutter and the advance of the film roll meant that my eye, index finger and thumb were in synchronicity at that moment and I knew I got it without question. Or maybe I didn't...
When you work as a professional photo assistant on global commercial campaigns, especially with celebrities allowing you only a fraction of their attention-- mistakes and excuses are not accepted as fortunes are earned and lost in an instant. Cut throat pressure takes on a whole new meaning on the road and on set.
But on the other side, if are the best at what you do, you are given access to an incredible world of sights and opportunities. When the job is done and the film is in the can, you feel invincible as even the superstars want to take a picture with you. Here are just a few of those snapshots...
Theo Stanley, Pedro Almodovar and I shot by Bruce Weber.
Snoop Dog
At other times, they enjoy an autograph with a personal note to encourage you to stay true to your dreams... and say thanks.
polaroids shot by Jonathan Mannion
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