elliot carter redux

My mom and step-dad are regular readers of the Nation and at some point they accidentally doubled up on their subscription so they gifted the extra to me.  Anyone who reads this blog (all 2 of you) knows that I get all of my news from the New Yorker.  However much I aspire to add another source to the mix, I rarely manage it.  Recently, however, I was enticed by a headline on a Nation cover that landed in the mailbox: "20 things Obama should do in his second term" or something like that and I thought, "A nice, tidy list, I can digest that."  I opened the magazine without knowing exactly where I would find the list and was greatly surprised to see an illustration of Elliot Carter that looked uncannily like a photo I took of him during an assignment for Fortune Magazine about people that were over 90 and still in the work force.

This is one of my all-time favorite assignments and while all of these nonagenarians were amazing, Carter was one of my favorites, for a couple of reasons:  this might sound shallow, but one of the things I loved best about him was that I could walk to this shoot.  This was during a time of a lot of air travel for me and so it was an incredible pleasure to walk the 3 blocks from my apartment to his. Second, he is a composer and I was deeply obsessed with learning the cello at the time so I was excited to glean what I could from someone who's entire life was music.  I lingered at his apartment, enjoying that it was such a short commute back home and breathing in what it means to have lived in the same place for such a long time.  I was invited to share lunch with Mr. Carter and his wife and walked home feeling quite full and optimistic and completely in love with New York for the creative lives it nourished.

I do have to say that I really don't love this picture of Carter.  He was lively at 92 and I think that is why this photo has been used over and over again, but after hanging with this over-90 crowd, they were all totally alive and thriving.  They loved what they did (even the woman that worked at McDonald's) and that was keeping them, all, spirited and full of life.  Carter, who died last year, was the last of this special group to go.

Here are some pics of Carter, that I prefer, plus a couple more from the series.

spring!

but can she bake?

A month or so ago I received this text from my cousin.  It totally cracked me up and I wanted to blog it immediately but it has taken me this long to get permission from him because he felt very embarrassed that he mistook Annie Leibowitz for someone else named Annie who apparently makes amazing cookies.  I told him that it must run in the family and recounted one of my first jobs for Fortune Magazine where I was sent with no information (and this was way far back in the days before google) to photograph John Bogle who, as I now know, is the founder of the Vanguard Group - an incredibly well-known investment management company.  When I arrived, one of the first questions I asked Mr. Bogle was if he had worked there long.  Oops.  He was very sweet about it and, I like to imagine, refreshed to spend the afternoon with someone who knew so little about the financial world. I haven't met too many celebs in my life but from the few that I have encountered, it seems like they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like us.  

Here's Mr. Bogle:

vassar

I was asked up to Vassar this week, to speak to budding photographers about my work and give them  a critique of  theirs.  It was great talking with students, trying to give them some sense of my process and seeing some of the really great work that they are producing.  Afterword, I wandered around the campus - here is a pic from the evening.

jello, installed

Recently, I visited some of my jello photos installed in a friend's super modern home.  The building is U-shaped and this is a picture of the hallway that connects the 2 sides.  It is full of muted tones but you catch glimpses of the hallway from almost every room in the house so color is always popping out at you (joyfully, I hope!).  

it was only a matter of time

Congratulations, David Rees.  It's a runaway hit.

edible recipe cover

Cover for the most recent Edible.  This was great fun.  I put out a call to friends to see if any one had their mom's box of old recipes and Erin Guinta came up with her grandmother's.  It was perfect for this shoot and an incredible walk back through time.  Each card is perfectly yellowed and filled with handwriting that just doesn't exist anymore.  It reminded me of my own grandmother who, for every dinner party she hosted, kept a card containing a guest list, what she served and any comments about how the food turned out.