Ric

Ric is a writer/actor friend of mine. I've shot him many times, but

this one is my favorite. I'd like to hear your comments.

 

Thanks - Bob.

Clever montage. Easy to see the whole face. I like how you have put this together.

Neat Idea, I really like this.

This is a great portrait -- projects a strong sense of who Ric must be and very memorable. How could a casting director resist?

Fun- it's both interesting and revealing. How would you frame it?..

I've always found David Hockney's print somewhat put-offish, and distant. Too much technique and mosaic, not enough guts in the subject matter. Well, this conveys the visual message with fewer photographs. The borders are a nice touch, adding dimensionality. Plus, the b/w is a welcome change to this particular method.

Cute! I wish I thought of it. Actually I did, but never done it. Good for you!

:-)

Nice sense of humour and a good portrait!

 

:-)

This sort of thing is very easy to do but very difficult to do well. I think this has been done very well because the expression matches the idea perfectly.

 

I wont rate your friends... but this one is irresistible!

For me this shot is a bit too shy with the collage possibilities. Comparing it to Hockney's, here we have the impression you took all the pictures with the camera mounted on a tripod that didn't move, only moving the camera. Is that the case?

 

So the different frames are not perfectly aligned, and your friend tilted his head slightly, but still I have the impression looking at this that it is almost one picture with white frames drawn on it. I say almost, because I can tell it's not the case.

 

So overall I'm a bit "Hmmmm..." about this one (but in the good sense of "Hmmmm").

Hi Ilan & Robert!

 

Thank you both for taking the time.

 

Robert, I sincerely hope Ric never reads your comment. Because knowing Ric as I do he will think you found HIM irresistible! And none of us will ever hear the end of it. :-))

 

Ilan, "Hmmmm" in the good sense of the word? Thanks!

 

You are correct, it was a 4X5 camera on a tripod that I was swinging around as quickly as I could while building the image. It's a little embarrassing to admit but I can't remember seeing Hockney's image! I shot this well over 10 years ago, so hopefully Hockney did his since then. I would prefer to think mine came first:-)

 

Same thing happened with my goofy poles sticking out of the ground. I post one, and start hearing about this Fokos guy. I go check him out and he's doing poles sticking out of the ground! What's going on!!

 

Sheeesh! :-)

Here are a few of David Hockney's collages:

Pearblossom Highway

Place Furstenberg, Paris

Kasmin Los Angeles

Mother I, Yorkshire Moors

My Mother, Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire

All these taken from here.

I'm sorry Bob, but he did these before you... ;-)

I wasn't sure where i'd seen someone else do this type of shot before. Not that it matters a jot.

 

I thought this shot was very well done, had a sense of humour, and stood out from normal portraits.

 

I really enjoyed it, cheers.

 

GOS

 

 

Thanks Jason.

 

Ric is a very interesting person. His career has branched out to include being an author of horror novels, a movie critic, columnist for a kung fu magazine, actor, radio personality, and a few others I can't recall. If you ever get the chance to spend an evening with Ric you will find him to be very intelligent, amusing, and at times infuriating. But never dull. He's good people.

 

I didn't set out with any specific plan when I decided to shoot Ric this way. I had just finished shooting another portrait so the lights were still in place. Ric wondered into the studio for no particular reason and I said something like, "stand right here, we're going to take some pictures". The whole thing just evolved on its own from there, and probably took no longer than 15 minutes to complete. It wasn't until after the fact that I realized how fitting this approach was for him.

 

BTW. I did work very hard on that left shoulder. :-)

What Jason said above certainly goes for me as well. All the comparison to Hockney aside, what I like is the "slightly off" or subtle disjointed quality where each component image is slightly off from the others immediately surrounding each component image. In light of what you said about your friend, its executed extremely well. And setting aside the technical aspects, it just plain old makes me giggle. Great work.

Interesting comment from Jason indeed about ... how to resume it in less than 15 letters... psychomorphotography!...

and Please tell Ric he is resistible... :-)

Original!