Sunday, May 18, 2008

Some thoughts over time about things that have changed in the Art World

During the first 42 years that I have been photographing and creating art there were some things that changed but not until 8 years ago has there ever been such profound changes in my opinion and view in the Art World and Art Industry and I am not sure that most people are really consciously aware of just how much of a change and how profound the change has been and how this will effect just about everything in everyone's lives from now on -

I have been now photographing and creating art for a little over 50 years. When I took my very first photograph in 1959 there was little doubt in my mind how much of a big step this was for me to be able to capture things that I saw and that were important to me with the push of a button rather than all of the effort that had to be put into painting the scene that I was looking at - but what I did not fathom at the tender age of 8 years old was that anyone else in the world would ever see any of my work -

Later on during my years at different colleges I did submit my images to various exhibits in those colleges and even had centerfold spot in the Literary Magazine Whereas at Queens College - not a bad start as things go - but as soon as I graduated college I became very driven to create my own business rather than stay at any clerical jobs that I was qualified for and so I stuck my sights on getting published in Vogue Magazine - and achieved this not by getting hired for editorial work at the magazine but by capturing the interest of a clothing store that had just opened its doors on Fifth Avenue and which I envisioned needed some American/New York Photography to fit into its new environment - so with the Ted Lapidus Boutique on Fifth Avenue I put my foot in the door of the fashion world - began my business and became published in Vogue Magazine all at the same time:

The Ted Lapidus Collection

That was quite a powerful beginning but I was also looking to grow at a very rapid rate and so with the collaboration of David

The David Caruso Collection

- whose sister Joyce along with David himself had helped me secure the Ted Lapidus assignment for the ads in Vogue *(the Ted Lapidus store was my client already before I met David and only was friends with Joyce since I photographed the store for their annual report and had photographed the store window displays for the window designer Nicole's portfolio) - I proceeded to work together on creating a motion picture script with David centered around a client that I had at the time *(The Iranian Armenian Association) and an assignment that I had to photograph the welcoming of the Shah of Iran in Washington, D.C.:

Lead Photograph #1 for "Zip 11375"

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