Fashion, Chinese, Kids

I was watching a "behind the scenes" photo shoot on Youtube today that someone forwarded me. It mentioned somewhere in the text that there were 50 people on set. I remember an interview with 60's photographer David Bailey talking about some shoot he did for Vogue back in the 60's and his model met him at a coffee shop with her makeup done, ready to shoot. They walked in the rain on the beautiful streets of Paris and snapped beautiful iconic photos. Just the two of them. So what happened to fashion? If you watch a typical shoot these days with a top photographer there are people everywhere. Photographer, model, three photo assistants, a stylist and their assistants, makeup artist, hair stylist, an art director and maybe a few interns. Peter Lindbergh has 50 people on set, Leibovitz has 50 people. Who are all of these people? Okay, add a few lighting techs, a digital tech or two? Who are the rest? I shoot with maximum 12 and five of those are usually worthless employees who came just to get out of the office for the day and eat the catered food. Sadly, these days you almost need all these people to get that "over-produced" fashion look so popular today. Smoke machines, animals, huge sets, clowns, pools of water etc. etc. Like all things in this world, photography and film have gotten too big. Everything is over produced. The average film in 1978 cost $5 million to produce, in 2008 it was $34 million. That's just bullshit.

Tonight I went to the Chinese place across the street as I do about three times a week. I walk in, nod to the guy behind the cash register and he turns and barks out some Chinese to the cook in back. "Dong ping wahh. Keem fo poo." Translation: "That douche nozzle from across the street is back getting the same thing for the 800th time". As my order is being made some guy walks in who I've seen about 30 times in the same restaurant. He's about 60, grey hair, flannel shirt, wearing a camo baseball hat and looks like he just stepped out of a coal mine. He walks in, nods and mumbles "same thing". The guy behind the counter shouts out "Bing fo ming, kong bah wat" Translation: "That other older dildo who get's the same thing every night just walked in".

Seven minutes later I have a delicious bowl of steamed chicken and broccoli to go. I love that place. A bargain at $4.95.

I'm on a roll. About 20 years ago I was a photo assistant for some pretty big name photographers. I looked one of them up today who moved to LA to seek fame and fortune, which he actually achieved. On his website he has beautiful provocative images of many famous celebrities. Also on his site are photos of his kids. What is he thinking? Note to all: Everybody loves their kids and thinks they're amazing but putting them on your website is stupid. Nobody else except Grandma wants to see your kids. WTF? Put them on Facebook or Flickr. Not your website you use to get work. Parents, they have kids and lose their minds.