The Picture Down The Hall Part Four

I was given an opportunity to shoot a cover photo for HX Magazine. I never had my picture on the cover of a magazine before. I've been IN magazines and newspapers -- I've even been the cover story of a magazine; but I never had a photo I took on the cover. It didn't matter to me that it was a local gay magazine, rather than PEOPLE or VANITY FAIR. It was still the cover and it had to be flawless. I was told the photo needed to be an iconic image of male beauty. So I called my friend Gabe.

I went to college with Marci. She and I ARE Will and Grace. I have heard it said that a good friend knows your parents' names; a true friend has their phone number. So when Joe and Ruth were in town, I asked Marci if her parents would sit for me, with her. What I love about this photo is that, to me, you can see each of the individuals; you can also see the family as it operates as a unit. To break it down, further, would be an unwarranted invasion of Marci's privacy and that of her family. Suffice it to say, a picture is still worth a thousand words; and knowing the back story, I feel like I got those thousand in this pic.

I was an actor for a moment. I stopped acting when I was in my 20s and focused on what had, previously, been a hobby - photography. During my days as an actor, I often had the opportunities to play with my friends. This photo of Deborah is the result of some borrowed costumes and an afternoon running around my apartment complex (that's right, this ghetto of a parking lot was right outside my back door) in Dallas.

I have always loved the resulting picture.

I do not remember how I came to have the job of doing the poster art and publicity pictures for the original New York production of VISITING MR GREEN. I only know that I was thrilled beyond belief to get to photograph the man that I think is the greatest living American actor. I know there are other actors who are more awarded and more high profile; but I am a lover of the American theater and Eli Wallach was, is and always be a legend to me. He is also one of the nicest people I ever met in my life. And speaking of nicest people, the gig introduced me to David Basche, who scores an A+ in my book. He has it all - looks, talent, integrity and humanity. I loved that job.

Working with Daphne Rubin-Vega was so much fun and so unexpected. I never dreamed she would call me and I never dreamed that when she got to my studio she would tell me she wanted to do something different - something that wasn't in keeping with the Mimi image from RENT, something that broke away from her work as a rock singer, something that said she was more than THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. This, by the way, was just after she was nominated for the Tony Award for acting in a play - not a musical. Daphne was growing up and wanted some glamourous, grown up, gorgeousness to celebrate.

I think this is my favourite celebrity portrait I ever did. It is my favourite because the woman in this family isn't a celebrity; she is a wife and a mother. People don't see celebrities the way they are (most of the time). They see the star, the famous, the iconic. When Judi Dench is with her family, she isn't an Oscar winner, a Tony winner, an Emmy winner and Olivier Winner. She isn't M from the James Bond movies. She isn't all of those things that the public sees or thinks of when they think of Dame Judi Dench. At the moment this picture was taken, she was Mrs Williams, Mom and Granny.

And she was, and is, my friend.



One of my greatest artistic collaborators is this man who I, lovingly, call "son". It should be said that I have no children by bloodline -- but I have many friends for whom I act as a patriarchal figure. This young man is one of my family by choice. We spent years working as artist and model; and though he is living in Los Angeles and works with greater, more noted, famous photographic artists.

But I got there first.