29.

Spike  Lee

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BL!NK: On the set with Spike Lee

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

Photographer Anthony Barboza is asked by 1124 Design to photograph the official poster for Spike Lee‘s latest film. The heavily directed photo-session takes place on the set of Universal Studios in Hollywood. All the preparations for the complicated shoot appear to be perfectly arranged…  until some unexpected personnel arrive.  Will this shoot continue even with concerns for one of Hollywood’s biggest stars potentially at stake? What barring if any might this upset hold in turn for Barboza’s  future photo-session yet to come with the acclaimed director?

Continue reading this month’s article, now with previously unreleased photo-extras, to find out more.

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Spike Lee, poster and publicity photo-shoot for Spike Lee’s film, ‘Do The Right Thing’  and more (including publicity shoots for Spike Lee’s films:  “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Jungle Fever”)

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Date:  1986, 1989, 1990, 1991 (plus)

Location:  Universal Studios in Hollywood, California; Los Angeles, California; Brooklyn, New York

Published:  Sports Illustrated, USA Weekend, (more)

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MORE ON TODAY’S IMAGES AND STORY

“It was quite an ordeal to arrange this shoot, but it came off beautifully,” says photographer Anthony Barboza, commenting on the photo-shoot for the image that would come to be used as the official poster for Spike Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing”. Continue reading hear about the full story behind the official movie poster along with more photoshoots between photographer Anthony Barboza and acclaimed director Spike Lee.

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Article by Anthony Barboza

as told to Sean McCarthy

 

Spike Lee came on the scene in 1986. That was the first time I got to shoot him. He had graduated from New York University Film School, and had just released his first movie, “She’s Gotta Have It.” He filmed the movie in two weeks on a small budget of $175,000, and it wound up grossing over $7 million. He was hot.

I’ve been able to shoot Spike Lee many times over the years. I have found him to be quiet and congenial, always observing what was going on around him. I got the impression that he was always looking for movie ideas. Whenever he talked to me it would only be one or two sentences at a time. It was as if he wanted you just to think about what he said and leave it at that.

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Barboza photographed Spike Lee wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey for a Sports Illustrated shoot in 1991.

Barboza photographed Spike Lee wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey for a Sports Illustrated shoot in 1991

Barboza photographed Spike Lee wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey for a Sports Illustrated shoot in 1991

Barboza photographed Spike Lee wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey for a Sports Illustrated shoot in 1991

Barboza photographed Spike Lee wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey for a Sports Illustrated shoot in 1991

Barboza photographed Spike Lee wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey for a Sports Illustrated shoot in 1991

 

Click Image For Larger View

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The first assignment was to shoot him in a movie theater, so I went to a small theater in New York City in Greenwich Village. I photographed him sitting on the floor in front of a popcorn machine, and he had a lot of rolls of film in his hands.

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Director Spike Lee in NYC, image by Photographer Anthony Barboza

Click Images for a larger View

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My next chance to work with him was in 1989. At that time I was bi-coastal because my wife, Laura Carrington, was acting in the soap opera “General Hospital.” I was traveling from New York to L.A. twice a month. While I was in southern California I took my portfolio to a design company, 1124 Design, which was headed by a guy named Art Sims. He asked me if I wanted to do a movie poster for Spike Lee‘s new movie, “Do The Right Thing.” We planned to do the shoot at the Universal Studios lot in Hollywood. He handed me some sketches of what he wanted to do. He wanted a shot done down on a street from above. He had layouts of Spike Lee holding a pizza box. Danny Aiello was also in the movie, and he would be standing beside him in the top left-hand corner. He wanted to have some chalk lettering on the street pavement with the words “Do The Right Thing.”

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About images, below and above:

Photographer Anthony Barboza shoots publicity shot for Spike Lee’s new film “Do the Right Thing” at Universal Studios Hollywood’s ‘New York Street’ lot.

Click Images for a larger View

Click Images for a larger View

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I had to organize a lot of different things for the shoot. I had to hire a cherry picker so that I could shoot from above, which meant I had to search around for that. Then I had to find an artist who could do the lettering on the street with the colored chalk. I also had to hire extras, including a little girl to make believe she was writing the words in chalk.

When the day of the shoot arrived, I got there early in the morning. It was being done on a part of the lot called New York Street. The cherry picker was already there and I had the artist doing the lettering, which took about two hours to get done correctly. Spike and Danny weren’t scheduled to arrive until later.
But while we were setting everything up a car came down the street of the lot and all of these executives got out.They said, “Stop the shoot! Stop the shoot! What are you doing here?! We’re going to have to put you out.”

I said, “We’re doing a movie poster here, we got permission.”

They said, “You cannot shoot the buildings on this street. If you do we will put all of you out and close down the set.” The reason was that it was on a street where Warren Beatty was working on the movie “Dick Tracy,” so they didn’t want us using any images of the buildings, because it was top secret. I showed them the drawings and explained what we were doing and that we only planned to shoot the pavement. They finally said it was OK, but if they caught me shooting the buildings they were going to put us out, regardless of what anybody else said. They drove off and there were no more problems.

Spike and Danny eventually arrived. Spike was his usual quiet self, but Danny was funny, lively and kept joking around before the shoot. Once we were set up, he was really professional and followed directions like a pro. I had to go very high up on the cherry picker and arrange them all. We shot some Polaroids of the scene. We had Danny standing near the little girl who was doing the lettering and Spike was standing with a box of pizza. When we shot the photograph I had to do it on a slight angle, so you could see Danny’s entire body. Because of the angle I was shooting at, Spike looked much smaller than Danny in the photo.

At that time there was no such thing as digital retouching, so afterwards I had to take some photographs with a long lens of Spike alone so that it would look more natural in the poster. It was quite an ordeal to arrange this shoot, but it came off beautifully.

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Photographer Anthony Barboza shoots and organizes the official movie poster for Spike Lee’s film “Do The Right Thing”

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Art Sims said we also needed a second shoot day at a large photography studio for publicity shots. It was proposed that we would get a “trans” (large transparency, 20 feet by 40 feet) of a Brooklyn street with brownstones in it. The trans was huge. We had to have eight strobe flash units with two heads each, bouncing the light off a white wall behind the trans. Danny and Spike were in the street and we cast a group of extras to look like a rowdy mob with them. It was actually done in an L.A. studio, not a Brooklyn street. When the shoot ended we all had — guess what? — pizza!

“Do The Right Thing” was eventually nominated for an Academy Award for best screenplay in 1989, though it didn’t win.

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I would do more shoots with Spike Lee in the years to come. In 1990, I did the movie poster for “Mo’ Better Blues.” In 1991, I did the publicity shots for “Jungle Fever” with Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra. I also ended up shooting his collection of baseball caps for Sports Illustrated in the ‘90s.

I also did a cover shot of him for Essence magazine on a cobblestone street in Brooklyn and a cover of him and a protege for USA Weekend.

All in all, I’ll say I did “The Right Thing.”

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EXTRA:

Spike Lee, Michael Jackson, portraits by Photographer Anthony Barboza

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  Portraits of the  musical artist Michael Jackson taken by the photographer Anthony Barboza, can currently be seen in Spike Lee‘s new documentary film “Off The Wall.”

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Click exert above to view The New York Times article on Spike Lee‘s new documentary “Off The Wall” and view the film preview below:

 

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BL!NK, A Photographer’s Experience Between Exposures

This article is installment twenty-ninth of our monthly feature, republished here at the BL!NK online archive. Return to this site to view more articles in their re-release, now with new exclusive images and extras.

BL!NK

BL!NK, originally a printed monthly feature in South Coast Today, shares the recollections of Photographer Anthony Barboza, as told to writer Sean McCarthy, along with photos of some of his world-famous subjects from throughout his long and illustrious career.

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About Photographer ANTHONY BARBOZA

Anthony Barboza New Bedford native Anthony Barboza began his career in 1964 at the age of 20. His photographs have appeared in such publications as National Geographic, Vogue, Newsweek, Harper’s Bazaar, Playboy and Fortune, and belong in permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., Cornell University and more. He’s been a lecturer, curator, co-director of a TV commercial featuring his close friend Miles Davis and a grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives on Long Island with his wife, Laura Carrington, and the three youngest of his five children.

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12.

IMAN 

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BL!NK:  A young Iman learns to unleash her inner supermodel

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

The year was 1977 and photographer Anthony Barboza was about to meet a new sensation in the fashion world, a woman from Somalia named Iman Mohammed Abdulmajid — professionally known simply as Iman. _________________________

 

Date: 1977, 1978, 1980s (& more)

Location:

New York City

Published: Essence Magazine, Avon Cosmetics (& more… )

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More on Today’s Subject Supermodel Iman: 

In 2010 supermodel Iman was honored as a fashion icon with a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America-  But when Anthony Barboza first met her, she was a shy 22-year-old who needed some liquid courage to strike the poses that would eventually make her famous around the world..

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Story by ANTHONY BARBOZA

as told to SEAN McCARTHY

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It was 1977 and I was about to meet a new sensation in the fashion world, a woman from Somalia named Iman Mohammed Abdulmajid — professionally known simply as Iman.

The year before, while still a college student, Iman had been discovered by photographer Peter Beard, famous for his images of Africa. She moved to New York City and quickly become a rising star in the fashion world.

Images below by photographer Anthony Barboza

Click Image For Larger View

 Young Super Model Iman, model test shots by Anthony Barboza

Click Image For Larger View

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But she wasn’t a natural in the beginning. Though a rare beauty, Iman was camera shy, which I discovered during our first shoot. It was for Avon, and it was Iman‘s first national advertising opportunity. She was shy and nervous, but I gave her directions and it all worked out fine.

Within three months, I decided to do a one-on-one “model test” with her, an unpaid opportunity to get pictures for our portfolios. She remained kind of inhibited in her modeling movements, so I suggested a glass of wine to help her relax.

That helped, we went to work and three hours later had some nice photographs. Years later, when she’d become world famous as a model with really great movements, she would tell people that her shyness in front of the camera disappeared when I gave her a glass of wine.

Our next meeting came in 1978, and this was a major production. Essence Magazine booked Iman for a whole day’s shoot in my studio, 9 to 5. There were at least 15 people buzzing about, dressing her in different outfits, doing makeup, hair and styling. The whole time, she kept talking about her new husband, NBA star Spencer Haywood. He was arriving at Laguardia Airport that afternoon and she wanted to be there to greet him.

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Early Advertisement Campaigns featuring budding-supermodel, Iman. Images by photographer Anthony Barboza

Click Image For Larger View

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Suddenly, at around 3 in the afternoon, Iman announced, “I have to go, I have to go, I have to go meet Spencer!” She just got up and left. We were all standing there, looking at each other in amazement, but there was no more Iman. Consumed with meeting her husband, she was out the door.

After some more assignments together, our last came in the early 1980s, again for Essence. In one shot, Iman was dressed in lingerie, kneeling on a bed in a tiger crouch, draped over the young actor Mario Van Peebles. That session included some of my favorite photographs of Iman.

Through the years she did a lot of work in different magazines and appeared in about a dozen movies. Today she’s quite the entrepreneur, with her own cosmetics company, Iman Cosmetics. She’s been married to David Bowie more than 20 years.

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Super Model Iman, photographed by Art and Fashion Photographer, Anthony Barboza

Click Image For Larger View

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Of all of the models I have photographed, Iman is at the top of the list for her graceful movements. No one was better in my mind’s eye.

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BL!NK, A Photographer’s Experience Between Exposures

This article is the twelth installment of our monthly feature, republished here at the BL!NK online archive. Return to this site to view more articles in their re-release, now with new exclusive images and extras.

BL!NK

BL!NK, originally a printed monthly feature in South Coast Today, shares the recollections of Photographer Anthony Barboza, as told to writer Sean McCarthy, along with photos of some of his world-famous subjects from throughout his long and illustrious career.

THIS MONTH’S SUBJECT

In 2010 supermodel Iman was honored as a fashion icon with a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America-  But when Anthony Barboza first met her, she was a shy 22-year-old who needed some liquid courage to strike the poses that would eventually make her famous around the world..

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22.

HALLE  BERRY .

Scroll Down to View Photographs previously Unreleased during original Publication

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BL!NK:  Halle Berry forgets dinner date, but all isn’t lost

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

Photographer Anthony Barboza recounts photographing ‘former model turned Beauty Queen’ Halle Berry before and after she became an Academy Award winning household-name. _________________________

Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza circa the release of her performance in the 2001 film ‘Monster’s Ball’

Date: 1991,  2001,   2005

Location:  New York City

Published:  Elle Magazine (and more… )

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About the photographs in Today’s Story:

Halle Berry had just finished “Jungle Fever” in 1991 when photographer Anthony Barboza shot some of the first few photographs brought to you in this month’s article (originally featured in ‘Elle Magazine.’) Continue reading to hear about Barboza’s photographic encounter with actress, Ms. Halle Berry, in 1991, 2001, and 2005, both before-and-after this Academy Award winning actress became a household-name.

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Story by ANTHONY BARBOZA

as told to SEAN McCARTHY

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It was 1991 and Regis Pagniez, the editor of Elle magazine, wanted me to photograph an up-and-coming actress named Halle Berry. I had worked for Elle since the late 1980s and they were familiar with my work, including a previous shoot with Laura Dern.

At the time, Berry had just appeared in the Spike Lee movie, “Jungle Fever.” There was a lot of talk about it, but this was the first time I’d heard of her.

Halle was very nice and the shoot lasted most of the day. Her style was very free and loose and she did whatever was asked of her. She was very accommodating.

Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza

circa the release of her performance Spike Lee’s film “Jungle Fever” 1991.

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There was one uncomfortable moment during the shoot. After she made a change of clothes, we took a picture with one of her breasts accidentally exposed. I told her that we would have to cover it up, but she didn’t seem too bothered by the situation.

But there was another interesting development that day. At the end of the shoot she caught me by surprise by saying, “We should go out for dinner.” I agreed and she gave me her agent’s number. She’s a very beautiful woman, so of course I was interested.

The next day I called her agent and said, “Halle told me to call about the two of us going to dinner.” The man replied, “Oh, she had to run to do an interview in California.

 I never got my dinner.

When 2001 came along, Halle was up for an Academy Award for “Monster’s Ball.” USA Weekend asked me to shoot a cover of her. It was going to take place at a photo production studio in New York City. I got the crew together including a hair dresser, makeup artist and stylist. The clothing was quite elegant.

Right on time, Halle walked in with her agent, who turned out to be a tough little cookie. When I greeted Halle, she looked at me as if she wasn’t sure about something. I said, “You don’t remember me, do you? We did a shoot for Elle magazine.

She didn’t remember.

I spoke again. “We were supposed to have dinner 10 years ago.”

Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza, NYC, 2001

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She still didn’t remember, but she was very cordial. Her agent soon asked, “How long is this shoot going to take?” He had reason for concern. After all, Halle was a big star now. The agent didn’t want anybody at the shoot who didn’t have to be there. He was very protective.

The shoot lasted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. I photographed Halle with different lightings and backgrounds. I used some flower vases and some old-time Hollywood lighting techniques. A shot of her in a pants suit eventually made the cover.

Halle was an excellent model. She was very sweet, but I was still kind of disappointed that she didn’t remember me.

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Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza, NYC, 2001

Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza, NYC, 2001

Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza, NYC, 2001

Selected an Image for a Larger View

Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza, NYC, 2001

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Soon after that she won the best actress Oscar for her role as Leticia Musgrove in “Monster’s Ball.”

A week later I was interviewed by USA Weekend about the shoot I’d done with Berry — the last before she won the award. The article pointed out that this was the second time I had photographed an actress just before she won an Academy Award. The first was with Cher in 1988, just before she won the best actress Oscar for the movie “Moonstruck.” USA Weekend called me a lucky charm.

When “Lackawanna Blues” came out in 2005, I was invited to a premiere screening in New York by some producers who had used some photographs I had taken of my parents in their film. I was sitting in the audience when Halle walked down the aisle. She noticed me, walked over and said, “Oh, hi, Tony.” I thought, “Oh, now she remembers me. I can’t believe it.” She gave me a smile.

There was a party afterwards and the place was full of stars, including Halle. She came over to talk with me again. My heart was pounding.

She remembered me.

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Actress Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza, NYC, 2001

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BL!NK, A Photographer’s Experience Between Exposures

This article is the fifth installment of our monthly feature, republished here at the BL!NK online archive. Return to this site to view more articles in their re-release, now with new exclusive images and extras.

BL!NK

BL!NK, originally a printed monthly feature in South Coast Today, shares the recollections of Photographer Anthony Barboza, as told to writer Sean McCarthy, along with photos of some of his world-famous subjects from throughout his long and illustrious career.

THIS MONTH’S SUBJECT

Halle Berry had just finished “Jungle Fever” in 1991 when photographer Anthony Barboza shot some of the first few photosographs brought to you in this month’s article (originally featured in ‘Elle Magazine.’Halle Berry photographed by Anthony Barboza Continue reading to hear about Barboza’s photographic encounter with actress, Ms. Halle Berry, in 1991, 2001, and 2005, both before and after this Academy Award winning actress became a household-name.

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8.

MIKE   TYSON

Scroll Down to View Photographs Previously Unreleased during original Publication

BL!NK: Barboza takes a blow from Mike Tyson

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

Photographer Anthony Barboza recalls photographing Mike Tyson, beside the world famous boxer’s then newly-wedded-wife, Robin Givens. Among the photographs taken by Barboza, is an image which will be selected as one of LIFE magazine’s best photo’s of the year! But, what new ironic message will this photo convey when marital bliss doesn’t turn out as rosy as previously hoped or planned?

Also making appearance in the shoot, is Ruth Roper, (Tyson’s then new mother-in-law) along with the boxer’s infamous and iconic agent, Don King… 

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 Mike Tyson with Robin Givens & Ruth Roper, 

Also in appearance, Don King

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Date: May 1988

Location: Los Angeles, California

Published:  LIFE Magazine

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MORE ON TODAY’S SUBJECT

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Mike Tyson was at the top of his game when Anthony Barboza took these photos for Life magazine in May 1988. Just 21 years old, Tyson was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and had just married actress Robin Givens. But the unlikely couple (along with Givens’ mother) were already the source of media speculation. The actress and the boxer – he was worth $50 million at the time of the wedding – had not signed a prenuptial agreement.

Their rocky relationship would soon become public knowledge, with charge and countercharge. On the pleasant day in May, when Barboza arrived on the family’s front steps, however, the storm had yet to break.

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Article by Anthony Barboza

as told to Sean McCarthy

.“It was May of 1988 and I was on a flight to Los Angeles to shoot Mike Tyson for LIFE Magazine. He had a new bride, Robin Givens, and a new home. They had already been shot by another photographer, but LIFE wanted to get some more, so they sent me out there.

“I arrived with my assistant at their new white castle, a big, three-story house in the Hollywood Hills. It was a beautiful day in southern California, just like every other. I rang the bell and Robin‘s mother, Ruth Roper, answered the door and I told her that I was there to shoot Mike and Robin for Life magazine.

“After entering and walking up a flight of stairs to the second level, I quickly noticed that there was no furniture in the living room, just a gray love seat on a gray carpet. Sitting in the middle of the floor was Mike Tyson and his manager, Don King, looking exactly the way he does on television with his hair all spiked up.

“I entered the living room and Mike got up and greeted me. There he was in the flesh, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, looking muscular and rough — like a boxer. I started setting up the lights to get ready for the shoot and Mike returned to sit and talk with King in the middle of the living room.

“I remember parts of the conversation, which were basically about the next contender and money. Now I was ready to shoot, but Don King WOULD NOT STOP TALKING! I was trying to photograph Mike, but King just kept talking. He was a real pain in the neck and he was preventing me from getting a good shot. Finally, after about 20 minutes, I said to King, ‘Can I do my shoot now? I have a shoot to do.’

“King was apologetic and he let me know that after our shoot they were going to be catching a flight to Las Vegas.

“As I mentioned, the only furniture in the house was this one gray couch. So I said, ‘Let’s do a photograph of Mike and Robin on the couch.’ After that I did some shots of Mike alone.

“While I was waiting for my assistant to adjust the lighting, Mike comes over to me and he’s all buddy-buddy, being very friendly. He says, ‘You’re an OK guy’ — and then he surprises me with a punch to the stomach! I knew he was just doing it playfully, but the guy didn’t realize his own strength, and it didn’t tickle. It really hurt!

 “Once I’d caught my breath, I had an idea. There had been a lot of controversy in the media about Robin Givens and her mother manipulating Mike into marriage because he had a lot of money. Life wanted playful images, but because of the controversy, I thought, ‘I’ll do something a little different.’ So I said to Mike, ‘Let’s have you lie on your back on the floor and I’ll have Robin and her mother drag you across the floor in a playful way.’ I began taking photos, thinking, ‘Oh, this is wonderful! This really expresses what the media is talking about.’ I though of it as my knockout blow.

“As I was thinking about my next shot, I walked over to the kitchen to do a photograph as Mike and Robin were playfully throwing soap suds at each other from the sink. But every chance I had between takes, King was a pain in the neck.

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“Mike and Robin and her mother were very nice to me. They did everything I asked them and we had a lot of fun during the shoot. It was really interesting — the newspapers were saying one thing about them, but they seemed perfectly fine to me and they were wonderful together. They were very polite and accommodating.

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“I eventually recovered from the blow to the solar plexus.

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“I was surprised by Mike‘s warmth and intelligence. I gathered how smart he was when he was talking with King and objecting to some of his ideas. His public image was different, but I got along well with him. I’ve photographed many boxers and I thought he was smarter than any of them. He was a truly down-to-earth person and let me do my job.

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“King, on the other hand, was constantly interrupting. He came off as a pushy businessman.

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“At the end of the year, the shot I took of Mike being dragged across the floor appeared in LIFE’s ‘Best Of The Year’ edition of 1988. I called it ‘Down for the Count.’ By then, Mike and Robin were embroiled in a nasty divorce. The following February, their marriage was officially over.”

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Mike Tyson, undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, is pulled by his wife, actress Robin Givens, and mother-in-law, Ruth Roper, in this May 1988 photo. A slightly different version of this shot was one of Life magazine’s best photos of the year.

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More Image Extras:   Select an image below to view highlight-photos from this article, along with a photo taken from Barboza‘s solo photo-shoot with actress Robin Givens.

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BL!NK, A Photographer’s Experience Between Exposures

This article is the eighth installment of our monthly feature, republished here at the BL!NK online archive. Return to this site to view more articles in their re-release, now with new exclusive images and extras.

BL!NK

BL!NK, originally a printed monthly feature in South Coast Today, shares the recollections of Photographer Anthony Barboza, as told to writer Sean McCarthy,  along with photos of some of his world-famous subjects from throughout his long and illustrious career. 

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About Photographer  ANTHONY BARBOZA

Anthony Barboza New Bedford native Anthony Barboza began his career in 1964 at the age of 20. His photographs have appeared in such publications as National Geographic, Vogue, Newsweek, Harper’s Bazaar, Playboy and Fortune, and belong in permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., Cornell University and more. He’s been a lecturer, curator, co-director of a TV commercial featuring his close friend Miles Davis and a grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives on Long Island with his wife, Laura Carrington, and the three youngest of his five children.

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NEXT MONTH

BETTE MIDLER

“Bette Midler leaves diva on the stage”

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4.

MILES DAVIS (part 2/2)

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Scroll Down to View Photographs Previously Unreleased during original Publication

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BL!NK: The Many Faces of Miles Davis

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

A coast-to-coast friendship with Miles Davis  — a shared love of painting in New York City, a swim while on the job in Malibu California, collaboration on an album cover, and an impromptu hair-cut. _________________________

Miles Davis at home in Malibu CA. by Anthony Barboza 1985

Date: 1985    Location:

New York City & Malibu, CA

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Published (The Following Article Recounts the Photo Session of Published Images taken for):    LIFE Magazine, The New York Times (Sunday), Essence Magazine, and a Miles Davis Album Cover

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TODAY’S SUBJECT:

Photographer Anthony Barboza recounts spending time in the 1980s with his friend Miles Davis: Stretching canvases in New York for the Jazz Musician’s shared love of painting, photographing the musical legend

at home, at work, and swimming at leisure in Malibu California. 

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Click HERE to return to Part 1 of this 2 Part Series.

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BL!NK: The Many Faces of Miles Davis

This is Article #4 of BL!NK: a Photographer’s Experience Between Exposures

story accounted by ANTHONY BARBOZA
as told to SEAN MCCARTHY

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The phone rings.

Miles:   “Tony, what are you doing?”

Tony:   “Photographing women.”

Miles:   “Are they fine?”

Tony:   “Of course they are. What are you doing?”

Miles:   “I’m PAINTING women, and they’re dancing all around the canvas.”

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A Note On:  MUSICIAN MILES DAVIS

AND HIS INTEREST IN THE ART OF PAINTING

“Miles Davis began painting in the early 1980s. I was also a painter and he would occasionally call me and ask me to stretch canvases for him. He liked my canvases because they were sturdier than the flimsy ones they sell in the stores. Some of the paintings he did on my canvases would eventually be used as covers for some of his albums.

(Image Above) Artwork by photographer Anthony Barboza,

derived from his photographic portrait of Miles Davis taken in Davis’ home in Malibu.

 

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“In May of 1984, Essence Magazine called me to do a shooting of Miles [Barboza and Miles’ second collaboration for the magazine]. At this time, he was living in an apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

“When I first walked in, I noticed many paintings hanging on the walls, and there were many different-colored horns displayed around the living room. There were gold, silver, red, blue and black ones.

“The shoot turned out to be about three hours and was very uneventful. We did most of the shoot in his living room, which was kind of small. We did shots of him both sitting and standing, with a hat and without a hat. He did whatever I asked him to do. It was uneventful.

“Then, in May of 1985, The New York Times (Sunday) Magazine told me they were doing a story on Miles who, at the time, was living in Malibu, Calif. So I flew out there with my wife, (actress) Laura Carrington, and we drove up the highway to this beautiful home on the beach.

“Whoa! What a gorgeous house! We parked our rental car outside, next to Miles‘ Lamborghini. (Miles eventually told me a story about the car, about how the Los Angeles police pulled him over one day because they thought that a black man in a sports car must have stolen it.)

“Miles‘ living room looked out over the Pacific Ocean and it was absolutely beautiful. Laura soon began a conversation with Miles‘ wife, (actress) Cicely Tyson. Cicely was a health nut and was telling Laura about all the different vegetable and fruit drinks she would make for Miles to help him get into shape.

“So as the women talked, Miles said that we had to go to the pool at Pepperdine University (in Malibu) for his morning swim. The outdoor pool was less than a mile from his house, but we chose to take my rental car instead of the Lamborghini. I took my camera, and when we got there Miles took off his street clothes. I was amazed at how thin he was. I was also impressed with his skin — it was fabulous, and his coloring was beautiful. He was very fit and trim. He also wore two beautiful gold necklaces around his neck.

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“Miles began to do lap after lap. He eventually told me that he swims a mile every morning. I photographed him swimming back and forth. After he got out of the pool, he asked me to untangle the elastics he used to tie his hair back. I said, ‘Miles, I can’t get these out.’ So he said, ‘We’ll have to go to the hair dresser.’

“So we drove from the pool to the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, which is kind of a dangerous place. When we got there, we parked in front of the hair salon and there was this big, heavy black woman who was very tall. She immediately said to Miles, ‘What the heck did you do with your hair?!’ She slapped him in the back of the head. She was tough, but he was very cool.

“As she was working on his hair, Miles asked me to go get some chicken for us. It was about lunch time. When I went outside and put the key in the car, I noticed Miles‘ wallet on the passenger seat. It had fallen out of his pocket. It was just sitting there totally visible in this dangerous neighborhood. There were five 100-dollar bills in it.

“When I returned with the chicken, he was about done with his hair, and the lady was still yelling at him to take better care of his hair. I remember how he kept his cool when she was so rough with him. That amazed me.

“When I walked back into the salon, I said, ‘Miles, I found your wallet.’ He swiped it from my hand very quickly and didn’t say anything. That also amazed me. He seemed a little embarrassed about it.

“When we got back, Cicely was continuing to give Laura a lot of talk about living healthy. It had been about three hours. Miles told Cicely, in a humorous fashion, that, ‘Tony got my hair all messed up and we had to go to the salon. It was all tangled-up!’ ”

“When we resumed the shoot, I was happy with the results we were getting. One of the best shots was a nice, tight head shot of him that was eventually chosen for the New York Times Magazine. That shot was also used by LIFE Magazine for their edition of ‘Year’s Best Photographs’. We wrapped up that day of shooting at around 5 o’clock.

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The image above of Miles Davis was taken by photographer Anthony Barboza in 1985 at the trumpeter’s Malibu home. The photograph appeared in The New York Times (Sunday) Magazine as well as LIFE Magazine’s special edition on ‘The Year’s Best Photographs’.

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“The conversation that I recall so vividly from that shoot was listening to Miles talk about how great Prince was as a musician and he was excited about working with him. He also told me that he mainly listened to the pop music of the day rather than contemporary jazz musicians. He was always trying to find out what’s going on in the world of music.

“My fifth and final shooting of Miles came in June of 1985. Miles called me and said in that deep hoarse voice of his, ‘Barboza, I want you to do the cover for my next album. I don’t want the art director from Columbia Records to do it.’

“Miles told me that the album was going to be called ‘You’re Under Arrest.’ He said he wanted the two of us to collaborate on it. I told him that I would come up with some ideas. I was very excited.

“We started shooting on June 25, 1985, in my New York studio. Although he hadn’t finished the music for the album yet, he wanted to work on the cover. A couple of days later the art director from Columbia called me up and was saying, ‘This is reverse racism!’ I told him that I had nothing to do with it, that Miles asked me to do it.

“When Miles came for our shoot he had recently worked with the world-famous photographer Irving Penn for one of his album covers. There was some tension between the two because Miles wanted music to be played during the shoot and Penn did not. The Penn shots came out great, but I told Miles that I would definitely play music for our shoot. That was the way we always worked.

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“We spent the entire day shooting ‘You’re Under Arrest,’ working on the concept. I had bought two toy guns — one machine gun and one hand gun. I used a red background to symbolize blood. He brought with him two very expensive-looking black jackets, one with a phoenix embroidered on it and the other with gold and silver inlay. We did some shots with a black hat and used the black horn decorated with gold half moons and stars, with the word ‘Miles‘ written inside the rim. We did some nice shots of him putting the mouthpiece of the horn right under his eye. We had a tremendously creative day working as a team.

“It would be the last time I collaborated with Miles. He died in 1991. I cried that day.”.

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BL!NK, A Photographer’s Experience Between Exposures

This article is the fourth installment of our monthly feature, republished here at the BL!NK online archive. Return to this site to view more articles in their re-release, now with new exclusive images and extras.

BL!NK

BL!NK, originally a printed monthly feature in South Coast Today, shares the recollections of Photographer Anthony Barboza, as told to writer Sean McCarthy, along with photos of some of his world-famous subjects from throughout his long and illustrious career.

THIS MONTH’S SUBJECT

Anthony Barboza first met Miles Davis in 1971 and the two became friends over the course of the years and five photo shoots. In today’s monthly installment, the second of two parts, Barboza recalls a more intimate Miles, one who needed help untangling his hair after a swimming session and left his cash-filled wallet in an unlocked car – and was tight-lipped about its safe return.

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NEXT MONTH’S SUBJECT

Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union

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MILES DAVIS  (part 1/2)

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BL!NK: Demystifying Miles Davis

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

Miles Davis poses for a Van Liquor advertisement shot in 1982 by photographer Anthony Barboza, who also co-directed the TV commercial as part of a Japanese ad campaign.                                                                                                    _________________________

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Date: 1971 and 1982

Location: Manhattan

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Published: Essence Magazine, Advertisement for Japanese print and television

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TODAY’S SUBJECT:

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Barboza met Miles Davis in 1971, when the jazz trumpeter was in his mid-40s and experimenting with electric and funk music. The men would cross paths, both professionally and personally, in the years ahead, eventually becoming close friends. Today’s feature is the first of a two-part series on Davis (1926-1991), a legend worldwide who, Barboza recalls, had a difficult reputation, but welcomed the young photographer to his home.

.Article by Anthony Barboza as told to Sean McCarthy

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“In 1971, Miles Davis and his music were the talk of the town. I was just starting my career and I’d never imagined I would get an opportunity to do a shoot with him, but one day Essence Magazine called me and told me they wanted to do a spread on him and his fashion.

“I called a few people that I knew to find out what kind of a person he was, and some said that he was very unpredictable and very tough to deal with. One person told me a story about how he once made another photographer wait for four hours before he came down to do a shoot. I was excited — and a little nervous.

TODAY’S SUBJECT:        Barboza met Miles Davis in 1971, when the jazz trumpeter was in his mid-40s and experimenting with electric and funk music. The men would cross paths, both professionally and personally, in the years ahead, eventually becoming  close friends. Today’s feature is the first of a two-part series on Davis (1926-1991), a legend worldwide who, Barboza recalls, had a difficult reputation, but welcomed the young photographer to his home,                 and hospitably shared an exotic meal.

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“I walked to his (Manhattan ) brownstone apartment and rang the bell and he came right down to greet me. He stood about 5-foot-7, with beautiful skin color and piercing eyes. He spoke in this deep, hoarse voice which might have come from playing the horn so much. There’s a legend that goes around about trumpet players, that they blow the horn so much that they don’t get enough oxygen to the brain and it makes them a little crazy.

“I didn’t know much about him, but he turned out to be very cordial to me. It just so happened that he had a hair dresser there who I knew, by the name of Finney, who was responsible for bringing the style of cornrowing to this country from Africa . The two of them were in the kitchen working from a large French cookbook that must have had 2,000 pages. They were making a fish soup.

“Miles asked me in his voice, ‘OK, Barboza, where do you want to shoot me?’ and he showed me around his three-floor brownstone. We decided to shoot downstairs on the first floor, in front of a door that led to the back yard. He put on this long coat and some really nice boots. He did some modeling and eventually took his shirt off for some more shots, showing off his muscles.

“He took me into his bedroom and showed me a closet overflowing with clothes and shoes. He had a large number of shirts, and told me that when he performs he sweats so much that he can’t use them anymore and continually has to buy new ones.

“He was very nice to me, receptive and open to suggestions. We took a break and Miles went back to check on the soup. I took the opportunity to look around the house. It was full of horns and awards that he had won. The walls were all done in *stucco.

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Miles Davis at his home in Los Angeles, standing before his wardrobe                                             [ * Stucco interiors as mentioned ]       photo by Anthony Barboza, 1971

.“Eventually we got to try the soup. To this day, it was the best soup I’ve ever eaten. I’ve eaten in France in the past, but this was definitely as good as that or better. It was delicious.”Miles turned out to be the opposite of what everybody had said to me. It was a wonderful day. He wasn’t the Miles that everyone told me about. I gave him the phone number of my studio apartment and he called me almost every day just to talk and see how everything was going.”He became a good friend to me and would send women to me for photo sessions. One of the first women he sent to me was his wife, (R&B singer) Betty (Mabry) Davis . He would call me up occasionally and say, ‘Barboza, you’d better not be messing with the women I’m sending you.’ I told him not to worry, that I wasn’t messing with his women..

Musician Miles Davis with Photographer Anthony Barboza in Los Angeles, 1982

“Some of the photographs that I took from that first session in 1971 would eventually be used in Paris when the Citi de la Musique did a show called ‘We Want Miles’ (which is still ongoing and moves to Montreal next). They had blown up the format and hung these posters that were about 3 feet by 6 feet. The show contained two floors of Miles’ belongings that also included horns, clothes, films and music.

“Over the years he would call me and we would talk. He seemed a little lonely and I wasn’t sure if he had any close friends.

“The next time I saw Miles was when I was walking with some models on the upper west side to Riverside Park to do a fashion shoot. As we walked down the street, Miles was standing outside by his gate. I went over to him and said, ‘Hey, Miles, I’m doing a shoot for an Essence spread.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about the shoot, you can do it later, just invite the women in and we’ll have a party.’ I said, ‘Miles, I can’t do that, these women are getting paid by the hour.’ I had to leave him at the gate of his brownstone and go do the shoot.

“Then one night I was in a popular New York restaurant called Max’s Kansas City , getting some food. I was sitting in my booth and Miles walked in. I stood up and called him and he came over and sat with me. The waiter came by and Miles placed his order. The waiter eventually returned and said, ‘Mr. Davis, we can’t serve you because you have an outstanding bill here.’ So I told him that I would take care of the bill and that he could order whatever he wanted. He said thank you and we sat there for a while and had a friendly conversation, mostly about women.

“My next shoot with Miles was in 1982, when a Japanese advertising agency wanted me to shoot and direct a television commercial featuring Miles for Van Liquor. They wanted me to direct it because I knew Miles. We comprised the crew as half American, half Japanese. I used this as an opportunity to give some experience to some of my black brothers, who I took along with me. The shoot was going to last three days.

“Miles didn’t like the wardrobe that the Japanese people brought to him, so he went out and bought $7,000 worth of clothes, including a really nice leather jacket. “When we first met the Japanese crew they were extremely polite to us. Miles said to me, ‘Barboza, this is about respect. They respect me and I respect them.’

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Miles Davis, for Van Liqueurs, photograph by Anthony Barboza, 1982

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“The first day of shooting were stills of Miles’ image, which were going to be blown up and used as billboards. The second day we recorded film of Miles sitting with a glass, taking a drink of it and saying ‘Van.’ It took a little while to get it right, but they were very satisfied.

“The third day had us shooting down from a balcony on Miles, who was walking around with his horn playing a tune. Miles was very obliging and did anything they asked. The Japanese people were very happy and everybody got paid in cash. Miles made about $250,000 and I made five figures. We were able to take advantage of a booming Japanese economy.

“Miles would say to me, ‘People treat you the way you treat them. I try to treat people with respect.’

“Miles and I remained friends, but from these early years I realized that I really had a special relationship with him.”

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BL!NK, A Photographer’s Experience Between Exposures

This article is the third installment of our monthly feature, republished here at the BL!NK online archive. Return to this site to view more articles in their re-release, now with new exclusive images and extras.

BL!NK

BL!NK, originally a printed monthly feature in South Coast Today, shares the recollections of Photographer Anthony Barboza, as told to writer Sean McCarthy,  along with photos of some of his world-famous subjects from throughout his long and illustrious career. 

THIS MONTH’S SUBJECT

Barboza met Miles Davis in 1971, when the jazz trumpeter was in his mid-40s and experimenting with electric and funk music. The men would cross paths, both professionally and personally, in the years ahead, eventually becoming close friends. Today’s feature is the first of a two-part series on Davis (1926-1991), a legend worldwide who, Barboza recalls, had a difficult reputation, but welcomed the young photographer to his home and hospitably shared an exotic meal.

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NEXT MONTH

In part two of Miles Davis: “The Many Faces of Miles Davis.”

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2.

DAVID  LYNCH

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BL!NK:   ‘Hitting the Bull’s Eye, with David Lynch’

David  Lynch,  A  Photoshoot, A  Game

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

The story of Anthony Barboza Photographing director David Lynch for New York Times Magazine, as told to Sean McCarthy

Subject: David Lynch

Date: Winter 1989

Location: Los Angeles

Published: The New York Times Magazine, January 1990

.The Backstory:
Director David Lynch was wrapping up his latest film, “Wild at Heart,” when Anthony Barboza was sent to Los Anglese to photograph him for a cover story. Not long after, in April 1990, Lynch’s critically acclaimed series “Twin Peaks” would debut on ABC.

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“I got to David Lynch’s office, which was part of his production company, and there were a lot of different levels full of people working for him. When he greeted me, he was wearing his trademark outfit — a broad-billed hat, a dark blue sports coat and khaki pants.

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“Knowing that he was a director, I chose to listen to his ideas for the shoot rather than throwing a bunch of my ideas at him. If I want people to relax and be themselves, I have to do a lot of listening …   I have to know how people see themselves and how they want to portray themselves. This is an important element to any shoot.

 

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“From the beginning I sensed that he wanted to make me feel comfortable, in the way a director would want his actors to relax. I think he treated me as if I was an actor.

David Lynch, 1989, Los Angeles, Photo by Anthony Barboza

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“He quickly came up with a setting for the shoot — a set of railroad tracks on the other side of the city. He said he chose the tracks because they were a good representation of American history.

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“We drove for about a half an hour until he finally found an area where we could go through an opening in a gate and take the pictures. We walked for a few minutes on the tracks until we came to an area he liked. But before we could set up to do the shoot, he spontaneously made a suggestion.

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“There was a piece of paper on the ground by the tracks and he came up with a game we could play by seeing who could hit the paper with a rock first. This seemed a little odd to me, but I played along. He went first and missed and I went second and hit it. After the game was over we continued walking until he found a place that ‘looked good’ to him.

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“At this point it was my turn to do some of the directing. With the camera working, I was able to use some of my own ideas. I was able to get a perfect shot of him — capturing him without his hat, moving towards the camera, something different from the shy and serious side I’d seen until then.

David Lynch, 1989, Los Angeles, Photo by Anthony Barboza

 

David Lynch, 1989, Los Angeles, Photo by Anthony Barboza

 

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“As we walked back towards the car, he saw another piece of paper on the tracks and said that we should play the rock-throwing game again. He tried really hard to win this time, and he did.

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“Boy, was he happy to win. It seemed to me that he might have been very irritated about losing the game in the first place. I suppose he was bothered by it throughout the entire photo shoot. I can’t read his mind but, I imagine he’s someone who needs to win at whatever he does.

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Bl!nk:A photographer’s experience between exposures Today we introduce a new, and very different, feature called BL!NK, which will appear monthly in features section of The Standard-Times. In his own words, as told to writer Sean McCarthy, New Bedford native Anthony Barboza will share memories, along with his photos, of some of the world-famous subjects he’s photographed in his long and illustrious career.

Last month’s subject:  Cher   –    “Cher made for ‘sweet and mellow’ subject” (Photographing Cher for New York Times Magazine)

This February:  *A Valentine’s Day Special   –   “For Laura, with Love”

Next month subject:   Miles Davis    –   “Demystifying Miles Davis”

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6. *A Valentine’s Day Special*

LAURA  CARRINGTON

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BL!NK:  ‘For Laura, With Love’

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

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The story of how Anthony Barboza first met Laura Carrington as told by the Photographer himself to Sean McCarthy

 BL!NK: A photographer’s experience between exposures

Today Anthony Barboza turns his attention to a very personal subject – how he met his wife, actress Laura Carrington. This is a Valentine’s Day tribute to his love of 25 years. He was smitten at first sight by a beautiful woman in a music video. But he never thought he’d actually meet her – until the day he almost didn’t.

“The number 3 has always been a charm. Over time, it has appeared often, playing an important role in my life.

“One of my first encounters with the the significance of this number was in the 1970s. I took a photo of my shadow on a wall, and later when looked at the finished print, I realized there was a number 3 written on the wall just over my head. I felt it meant something, but at the time I didn’t know what.

Actress Laura Carrington strikes a sultry pose on the beaches of Antigua, where her husband-to-be, Anthony Barboza was shooting an advert.

“Over the years, I’ve had a lot of adventures and met a lot of women. As a photographer, you meet a lot of models.

“I was married once in the 1960s and again in the 1980s, and after that I was dating a lot. But eventually I got really tired of this. I thought about getting married again and settling down. Would I find love the third time around?

“In 1984, a psychic visited my studio in Manhattan. He said, ‘You’re going to marry a woman whose last name is spelled with the letters C-A-R.’ I quickly thought that it might be Irene Cara from ‘Fame,’ though I’d never met her before. That didn’t seem possible, so I just let it go.

“At the end of 1984, I was living in my studio and sleeping in a back room. One night I was sitting there by myself on the bed watching the TV. Eventually a music video came on for the song ‘Hello,’ by Lionel Richie. It featured one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. I said out loud, ‘I’m going to marry that girl.’ But as time went on, I didn’t give it a lot more thought.

“About three months later, I was working in the studio on a Monday morning and my assistants were out front, handling the model ‘go-sees,’ their portfolios, to see if anyone looked interesting. When it was time for lunch, I stepped into the elevator at the same time that this model was on. I looked at her and thought, ‘Wow, she’s absolutely gorgeous,’ and then it dawned on me — she’s the same girl from the ‘Hello’ video.

Actress Laura Carrington played the blind college student that Lionel Richie’s character pined for, in the music video for his song, the cult-classic balled, “Hello.”

“So I asked her, ‘What’s your name?’ and she said ‘Laura Carrington.’ I immediately remembered the psychic saying that I would marry a woman with the letters C-A-R in her last name. Wow! I said, ‘Would you like to go to lunch?’ And she said, ‘Oh, I have other appointments. I’ve been here a few times already to show my book and this last time I wasn’t going to, but my agency insisted that I go.’

” ‘Well, give me your number and give me your card,’ I told her. When she said OK, I nearly flipped. She had a really nice personality. She was basically an actress who did some modeling.

“I called her the next day and asked her to go to dinner. She said, ‘No, I’m seeing someone.’ And I said, ‘OK, I’ll forget about that.’

“Soon after, a job came up to do a shoot in Antigua in the Caribbean for a liquor ad. I had to pick two female models and two male models. I decided that Laura would be perfect for this, and she was interested, but I had to take her Polaroid first. At the studio, I took the opportunity to ask her if we could go to dinner, as friends, and she agreed. This was February 1985.

“Shortly after, a crew of us went to Antigua. I had an assistant with me, along with an art director, four models, a hair dresser and a make-up artist. But the adventure really got going when it turned out that the hair dresser was a woman I used to date. And oh my goodness! She still liked me. So we’re all gathered there shooting on this beach and I couldn’t take my eyes off of Laura. When we had some spare time I did some shootings of her alone on the beach.

“After the shooting we started dating and soon fell in love. I guess she forgot about her boyfriend.

Photographer Anthony Barboza with his wife, actress Laura Carrington in the mid-1980’s

“Having found out that her birthday was in April, I took her to St. Martin in the Caribbean as a birthday present. We decided to get married in June.

“When we came back, I met her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Carrington. We had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in the Soho section of Manhattan. They looked incredibly familiar to me. It was like I had seen their faces, that I had known them for years. Her family decided to set up the reception.

“We were really in love. This was the woman I’d been looking for all these years. I just knew it.

“Our honeymoon was a trip of a lifetime. We went to Paris, Rome and our last stop was Tunisia. We drove for hours into the Sahara Desert to a little town called Douz. Our first night there we checked in late, so we decided to go to the pool. The nighttime sky was full of stars, a million more than we’d ever seen. It was so romantic and beautiful. There was a musician playing a little metal flute that sounded magical and enchanting. Together with the stars and the music, we embraced and began to twirl in circles in the pool. It was like a dream from the ‘Arabian Nights.’

“When we came back from the honeymoon, we lived in New York for a while and then, one day, Laura got the part of Lisa Baron in the soap opera ‘One Life to Live.’ It was a steady part, and she stayed with it for a couple of years. Soon after she got the role, another woman got a part as well  —  my ex-wife Tery Ferman. Laura and Tery did not get along very well and pretty soon the whole industry knew that Tony’s wife and ex-wife were on the same program and they really didn’t like each other! It was like a soap opera inside of a soap opera. It was the talk of the industry.

Soap Opera actress and ‘Video Vixen,’ Laura Carrington featured in Elle Magazine

“After two years with ‘One Life to Live,’ Laura got an opportunity to work in Los Angeles on the soap opera ‘General Hospital,’ playing Simone Hardy. We decided that we would keep our two apartments in New York and I moved out of the studio and got an office.

“While Laura was working on ‘General Hospital,’ I was flying back and forth from New York to L.A. three times a month. I got to know the flight attendants and they would joke around that I was flying as much as them.

“Eventually, Laura got pregnant and took a leave of absence from ‘General Hospital.’ We drove cross-country, something she had always wanted to do. Along the way we would stop to eat at restaurants and she would be bombarded by people who recognized her and wanted autographs. We had a great time. She loved the trip.

“Soon after we returned to New York, she had the baby — Danica. It was Memorial Day weekend, 1988. Our second child, Alexio, was born in 1994 and Lien in 1996. Danica is an art student at Cooper Union in NYC, Alexio is an actor and Lien is a singer/songwriter. All are honor students.

“This year marks our 25th wedding anniversary. So it seems appropriate to use the line from the ‘Hello’ video — ‘Is it me you’re looking for?’…

“Yes, it was. Happy Valentine’s Day, Laura.”

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(Pictures Below:   View images of the original print publication of this article —  “For Laura, With Love,” taken from the BL!NK article archive)

 

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Bl!nk: A photographer’s experience between exposures

Photographer Anthony Barboza began his career in 1964 at the age of 20. His photographs have appeared in such publications as National Geographic, Vogue, Newsweek, Harper’s Bazaar, Playboy and Fortune, and belong in permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., Cornell University and more. He’s been a lecturer, curator, co-director of a TV commercial featuring his close friend Miles Davis and a grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives on Long Island with his wife, Laura Carrington, and the three youngest of his five children.

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1.

CHER

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BL!NK: Cher made for ‘sweet and mellow’ subject

By ANTHONY BARBOZA

Cher strikes a seductive pose as photographer

Anthony Barboza shoots images for a New York Times Magazine layout.

Date: November 1987

Location: Los Angeles

Published: The New York Times Magazine

“The New York Times Sunday Magazine called me and asked me to shoot Cher in Los Angeles. At the time, I was living between New York and L.A. because my wife, Laura Carrington, was working on the soap opera ‘General Hospital.’

“The Times sent my portfolio to Cher’s agents with mainly black people in it. Cher’s agents sent the book back, and said, ‘Do you have more with white people than what’s in your book?’ The Times said, ‘This is who we’re sending and that’s it. Take it or leave it.’ They backed me up. So they said, ‘OK.’

“We arrived at Cher’s house at 9 a.m. It was right near the famous Beverly Hills Hotel. I brought with me a black assistant from California. The house was shaped like a pyramid with the top of the pyramid cut off with glass on top so that the light comes through. I said to myself, ‘Wow, this is a big house.’ I eventually noticed that there was a house behind her house, which was a gym.

“We were greeted at the door and we stepped into a beautiful, giant living room with the light coming in from the top, with all of these couches and stuff. We put our equipment down while Cher was upstairs. At that time, we were downstairs with her makeup and hair people. Someone told me that they had told her that there’s a Rastafarian downstairs (laughs).

“The assistants came downstairs, looked at me and went back up, so they must have told her that. Eventually a guy comes down and says, ‘Cher wants to see your lighting, because if she doesn’t like your lighting she’s not going to do the shoot.’

“So I did a Polaroid, and there was beautiful lighting in there, and I combined it with my strobe lighting. They took the pictures to her and, soon after, a guy came down and said, ‘We love it, we’ll shoot.’

“Now, at this point, I’m nervous as hell, I don’t know what to think. So she comes down and the first thing she came down in was a pair of jeans, so I shot her on a couch and she loved the Polaroids I was taking. After she got to meet me, she just loved me. We shot from 9 in the morning and stayed until almost 9 at night. We were there all day. After the first shot she said, ‘You know, there’s plenty of food in the refrigerator, just help yourself. Whatever you want, Tony, whatever you want.’

Click an image for a larger view

“For the second shot, she had me go upstairs with her, where she had an unbelievable amount of clothes in a closet as big as her bedroom. I picked out another outfit and we went down to shoot her in that. It was a sexy-looking outfit, like something she’d wear on stage.

“We had a great time together. She was really wonderful to work with. She was so sweet and mellow. I was shocked that we had stayed so long. It took a long time to do the makeup and stuff, but she was very gracious. So after the shooting was over, we were sitting and talking and I mentioned to her that, ‘Your people didn’t want me to shoot you because they wanted a portfolio with more white people in it.’ But she said that she didn’t know anything about it.

“These were the last shots Cher took before she won an Academy Award in February of 1988. After that, she stopped doing photo sessions for magazines, sending them to buy the pictures from me instead. One of the photos ran on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal, but they were sold around the world through a stock agency, Contact Press Images. I got $250 to do the shoot and wound up making more than $30,000 from the sales of the photos.—

Click an image for a larger view

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Bl!nk:A photographer’s experience between exposures Today we introduce a new, and very different, feature called BL!NK, which will appear monthly in features section of The Standard-Times. In his own words, as told to writer Sean McCarthy, New Bedford native Anthony Barboza will share memories, along with his photos, of some of the world-famous subjects he’s photographed in his long and illustrious career. When asked which subject would inaugurate this new feature, Barboza did not hesitate – Cher, whom he met a month before the release of “Moonstruck,” the film that would shortly thereafter earn her an Oscar for best actress. Look for this column every month at South Coast Today.

Next month’s subject: director David Lynch.

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