Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to Photographic Masters

I believe the big question here that has been asked of me, is, Why? Why would I want to re-create these iconic images made by these great masters of photography?  Why wouldn’t you just leave these classics alone.  All these images are famous and for many of the photographer’s their most memorable portrait ever taken.   Did I believe I was going to improve on these images?  Was I riding on the coat-tails of these photographers fame? Was I looking to capitalize and profit from the idea’s of  these master?

Each and every one of us has a hero or someone we look up to and put them on pedal stools, we praise them  For some of us it  might be a religious figure, or a Hollywood actor or some sports sensation like a Tiger Woods or a Michael Jordan. For me these great master photographers are my Mickey Mantles, my Babe Ruths and Joe DiMaggios. Yes I praise Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Annie Liebovitz and every single one of these photographers that I represented in my “Homage to the Masters”. I re-created these images out of respect, love and admiration for these greats.

In late fall of 2012 I would be diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer. Although I never believed it would happen,  the illness took me down hard and left me thinking about my future as a father, husband, Photographer. As a photographer I had had a pretty good run on nearly thirty-eight years, working with some of the biggest clients in the advertising world. I had won a handful of the industries top awards and had exhibited my personal work in many beautiful galleries around the world.  I felt I had achieved more than I ever thought possible.  I was a self-taught photographer receiving my education from over the eight hundred photography books that I have collected over the past forty years.  It was in these books my life changed. I will never forget the first time I saw an Irving Penn portrait, sixteen years old, my life would change forever.

Days would pass during my recovery and I would think, would I ever take another great picture, would I ever get the chance to create another iconic image that future young photographers would be moved to feel the way I feel about Sasse, Newman, Karsh, Lange Korda, Watson or Skrebneski. I wondered did anyone else feel the way I do about these great iconic images and photographers or was I just this nerd that loved these images so much that the only way I could ever come close to showing my appreciation for their mastery was to collaborate with my friend and muse John Malkovich and go thru the painstaking chore of researching every aspect and details of these marvelous images. I never thought of fame, I never thought of stealing their thunder, I never thought of doing it better, I never thought of making a single dime. I only though of admiration, saying thank you for giving me so much inspiration, drive, passion, and knowledge. Something I hope to do for someone like myself someday. Yes maybe there will be another photography loving nerd out there who someday will take a look at my work and he too will be driven to be better, create memorable work, be able to provide for his family or maybe he will take a close look at the “Homage to the Master’s” project and research these Masters and find bodies of work that would otherwise have gone unfound and they to will be inspired to go on beyond their potential and they to can create that iconic image or body of work. 

May it be known it was such an honor in my own way get to know each of these Masters better, feeling a bond, understanding the difficulties and the trials it took for them to create such masterpieces. I love the images that each of them created, they left a mark on my soul and they are imbedded in my memory forever