Yapping about Dick Frank and the good old days...

Just a quick post on some old thoughts. Here is a large format (4x5) shot of a whiskey glass from my first days in New York. I shot it at Dick Frank's studio...this crusty old Jewish guy from the Bronx who was one of those guys that defined photography back in the day. I assisted him for about 8 months full time. We did a food shot one day and the stylist made really awful looking enchiladas. I mean really off base...they were East Coasters making Mexican food. To a fresh off the boat Texan, they looked terrible! The dish was for some major food company.

We set up his 8x10, pulled around this huge light box powered by Ascor strobes. I think the Ascor company made lights for lighting up airports and other massive areas. So these power boxes dated back to the sixties. And you could really get some power out of this set up.

To make it short, we shot roughly 6 sheets of film in about two hours. He had this uncanny ability to move the f-stop exactly to where he wanted it and knew photography like the back of his hand. He was a really old timer that saw his career end by the new digital world pushing his old world ways aside. He was quiet amazing.

His buddies used to stop by and talk about the old days. Peter Eisenmann would stop by all the time. Pretty neat to meet that guy.

Anyway...we shot about two hours and after the shoot he turned to me and say..."thats how quick it takes to make $20 grand in this town."

That was that...those were the good old days of photography in New York. Big lights, big cameras, and fast money.

Here is my homage and his lessons for still life photography.



Shot around 1998? Can't remember but it was on film!