Original subtitles

[MUSIC]

I had a studio.

I had a glamorous, big, beautiful studio in New York.

And it had this wonderful cement floor and a cement wall.

And for the longest time, I was looking at Irving Penn's work

And for the longest time, I was looking at Irving Penn's work

and just loved how simple, and direct, and strong it was.

And it became my sort of, my background.

And I did several portraits there.

They're very, very graphic.

I mean, they don't have too much to do with the people.

They just have to do with the studio

and the idea of presentation.

It is what I do do when I go into the studio.

The very least, I know how to compose.

And these pictures are very graphic, and very composed.

And these pictures are very graphic, and very composed.

I think I've learned after all these years

that I'm an observer.

I don't have enough to sort of grab on to in a studio.

I don't have enough to tell a story for myself,

personally, in the studio.

I like a story.

I like to be somewhere.

I like to see something unfold.

I like to see something unfold.

If you're in a studio--

for me, this is a personal issue--

if you're in the studio, you pretty much--

that's what you're getting.

Not that you're making it up anymore.

You're not really making it up.

And things still do unfold, and things still happen.

But they're not as interesting to me.

I just like to watch something.

I like to be somewhere.

I love the light changing.

I love observing.

I love observing.

I just feel like at a certain point

the studio doesn't give me any of that.

I never felt comfortable as a studio photographer,

but I was enamored and loved Irving Penn's portraits

in a studio.

So this floor and this wall sort of

So this floor and this wall sort of

became my Irving Penn exercise.

And in this particular series of photographs--

which I now think of coming from having that studio,

and having that floor and that wall--

to me, I look at them now and I see the floor and the wall

more than I see the people.

But they really are very good examples

of very simple composition using the perspective of the horizon

of very simple composition using the perspective of the horizon

line--

of where the horizon line hits.

You see Chuck Close, and that's really

coming down lower to look at the wheelchair from a lower angle.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, I can

see that I'm basically just standing up and just

using my own height to shoot back at the people.

And I'm sort of definitely seeing

where is that horizon line hitting in the photograph.

where is that horizon line hitting in the photograph.

And I'm using that as part of my composition.

I'm not even so aware I'm doing that.

And Lucinda Childs-- who's a dancer--

she's like a diagonal, cutting across the horizon

line in the back.

And you see much more floor.

So this is just a simple exercise.

By looking at these--

these are four of probably many, many photographs

I took in that studio where the floor and the wall

I took in that studio where the floor and the wall

became part of the composition.

I think on some level having worked the studio like this,

I became very aware of how I wanted

to get out of the studio.

Because I know one thing about myself is I

can always back myself up with composition.

And I feel like it's a little bit of a crutch when

it comes to portraits.

And even though I kind of like the simplicity

of the portrait that way, I'm not

of the portrait that way, I'm not

too sure it says enough about the subject.

And I miss the storytelling aspect in my photographs

that I love the most for you can get that on location.

And it is a lot harder.

But I think in these pictures, you

can see the simplicity of composition.

can see the simplicity of composition.

I know that my photographs when they're on location--

if they're in someone's house and someone's sitting

in a chair that they sit in or we're in a place that has

something to do with that person--

it's going to be a much stronger photograph for me than for me,

personally, in the studio.

I sort of use the studio as for like passport pictures

or something.

I mean, I'm not bad at it.

If you get someone like LeBron James

If you get someone like LeBron James

and you want to do sort of a body study,

I think the studio is a very handsome place to work.

I think I've learned that the being on location--

I mean, I'm looking at the Agnes Martin picture.

She still had not agreed to let me take her picture.

She still had not agreed to let me take her picture.

And I went out to Taos, New Mexico, with the idea

that she still hadn't agreed.

It was just one of those things that you just--

I had lunch with her.

And then she said I could come to her studio.

And I went to her studio the next morning and walked in,

and there was this bed and there was the canvas.

And I said, well, what do you do when you come in here?

And I said, well, what do you do when you come in here?

She said, well, I come over, and I sit here,

and I wait to be inspired.

I'd love that.

I just love that.

Isn't that what we all do?

We wait to be inspired.

And so I said, would you just sit there?

And so she sat there, and it's just

like one of my favorite photographs of her just

sitting here.

It's what we all--

we're waiting to be inspired.

we're waiting to be inspired.

She thinks of herself as a writer.

No, she's, of course, so much more than that to us,

to all of us.

It was like I asked her how she would like to be photographed.

And she said, well, I like to sit

on the rocks in Central Park.

And so I said, OK.

Which rock do you like to sit on?

Which rock do you like to sit on?

There's a lot of rocks in Central Park.

This story is more complicated than that

because the rocks in Central Park mean a lot to her.

She feels like the rocks were there before all mankind.

But I found a rock that I thought was kind of nice

and it was a rather large rock over by the pond.

So we went out and did some photographs

of her sitting on that rock.

And they were nice.

They were nice.

And then we went back to her apartment

and she sat down at her desk.

and she sat down at her desk.

And I just looked at her over at her desk and I just said,

this is great.

You know, this is--

and I just took some photographs of her sitting at her desk.

And it's quiet.

We're so complicated as human beings.

There's so many parts to us.

It's really one of the complications

of doing a portrait of someone is that I just

of doing a portrait of someone is that I just

can't get it in one photograph.

I don't know if I believe it.

I think you have--

this portrait is going to be like a small piece

of that person.

And it's also my point of view.

So when I look at this picture of Gloria

in the room at her desk, I think, well,

that is part of Gloria but that's not like Gloria.

And I'm glad to see that part of Gloria.

This is a difficult assignment because I'm not too sure what

I think about it myself.

But you'll find out yourself that if you photograph someone

with a simple background versus a location that means something

to the subject, it'd be interesting to see

what your results are.

See how it affects the subject being in a place

See how it affects the subject being in a place

that there's a studio-like feeling.

It can be just the wall.

And then try being in a place that means something

to the subject or that is a location that it has something

to do with the subject.