Cogitating on this latest photographic memory I’m struck by two things. First, gosh it was fun shooting in my apartment, using my life for props. Second, it is remarkable how little supervision I had on some of these shoots and it seems amazing that a young whelp such as myself actually got to execute whatever cockamamie idea popped into my pretty little hea.. And whose idea was it to have noted disco pop sensation Deee Lite do my dishes?
I don’t remember what order we actually shot in, but there are rolls upon rolls of Lady Miss Kier, DJ Dmitry, and DJ Towa Tei dutifully, repeatedly, and apparently happily lathering up the suds in my disgusting downtown kitchenette at 275 Church Street (we’ve talked about this.)
They say James Brown was the hardest working man in show business, but Lady Miss Kier could give him a run for his money. The guys are good to go, kind of toying with the props and suds, but Miss K is just killing it in every shot. Diva? Maybe, but if the diva act allows the leader of a trio to shine, bring it on. People talk about Ginger Rogers doing everything Fred Astaire did but backwards and in high heels; that’s the vibe I get from these pictures. Lady Miss K is just killing it in every one, smiling, laughing, duck lipping, swooning, all of it and then some.
Their vibe was all about the dayglow colors of the New Psychedelia and I lit my set accordingly. The cross process (which I also wrote about, God, try to keep up!) thing was still kind of iffy and hard to control sometimes. I remember being kind of miffed that the palette wasn’t brighter. But with hindsight that setup does look pretty cool, even as I miss my modern ability to dial in color in the computer with merely a click.
I do wonder where the washing dishes idea originated. Generally speaking my subjects were happy to be getting the publicity of appearing in a magazine and therefore willing to try pretty much anything for the camera. And that’s the zeitgeist I recall here. We were all hanging around downtown trying to come up with something fun. In this case, that heart shaped iron oval is actually one of my dining room chairs, repainted for the occasion.
Shooting commercial jobs in my apartment set the tone for a kind of “hey kids, let’s put on a show” aesthetic. Using the dining room chairs, repeatedly repainting my front corner with the nice light, having the stars wash dishes, it was all of a piece. I loved a nice professional day-rate studio, but working out of one’s home gave a certain charm. Oh, and a certain kind of person who would know about and be impressed by walking past LaMonte Young’s place and the Dreamhouse on their way up the stairs.
Deee Lite was so painfully hip I was kind of afraid of them. But then they turned out to be the most disarming, joyful bunch it was delightful working with them. You can see it on their faces, especially Lady Miss Kier, who just works every moment and wrings even tiny little nuggets of happiness jnto every frame. Such hipsters in image, then so nice and normal (and fun) in real life. The perfect combo.
A couple months after our shoot, I was down in Washington, DC visiting my father. We went out to dinner at a crowded and (for stodgy DC) hopping restaurant. Sitting there with my dad and his wife I became aware of a commotion, someone trying rather flamboyant to get my attention.I had dreadlocks down to my butt at that juncture, and had gotten quite good at ignoring unwanted attention. But try as I might, I couldn’t actually ignore the couple loudly calling my name. There they were, the grooviest downtown NYC hipsters it’s ever been my pleasure to encounter, right there in this uptight Georgetown fern bar. LAdy Miss Kier, DJ Dmitry, and Mr. and Mrs. Kier, her parents were dining out in the same uptight brasserie as us. We did not join them, but it was clear they remembered our shoot fondly (maybe the magazine had come out?) and the surreal juxtaposition of the fluorescently clad Lady and DJ in the sea of Brooks Brothers and khakis was nothing if not hilarious. Everybody has parents, all the best people share conservative Georgetown dining family. There’s a great scene in the movie The Krays where someone asks if they know the Beatles. “Well, it’s really more that they know us.” I may not know Deee Lite