Paparazzo
This image is from my first photo session with Judith Chapman right after she started working on General Hospital as Ginny Blake. When Judith raised her hand, already clutching an earring she'd removed, to shield herself from the stare of the camera and the glare of the lights and to tell me she was through for the evening, I clicked off the last frame and that spontaneous moment became our signature shot.
We called it Paparazzo.
There was nothing posed about this shot - Judith was done and what you see here is her telling me so.
It was in that first photo session with Judith back in 1984 that the pace and style of my photography work would be set. When Judith stepped in front of my camera for the first time it was pure and simple magic. She knew what to do with herself, how to work with her hands, lengthen her neck and how to play to the camera without staring it down. In a fluidity of movement that allowed me to capture any given moment and guided by her own unspoken fantasies, Judith created a magical setting that evening wherein I was able to shoot frame after frame of flawlessly beautiful images; many of which remain my favorites to this day.
With Judith I felt like I had started with the best and worked my way up from there. And I always expected everybody else who stepped in front of my camera to deliver in much the same way she had - with little if any direction from me; confident and sure of the reason why they were there in front of the camera to begin with and relying on their own inner sense of attractiveness to make things work.
My quietness behind the camera can be unsettling to many of my clients at first but once they get used to it and realize that they aren't going to be getting much direction from me, they usually settle into their own quiet spaces and give me what I'm looking for.
I love this image for its spontaneity, for its rich blacks and sparkling whites and because it's Judith - a gifted actress and fascinating woman who's been my best friend for twenty years now.
You can see more pictures of Judith and read about some of our adventures together here.
