As I made the all-important discovery that my gridded panoramic photo collages had genuine limitations for usage on the commercial assignment side of things (magazines, corporate, advertising, etc.) I began devising some styles and approaches based on other photo experiments I was doing. I was always a little squeamish about the vibrant collective warning against ‘selling out’ that was popular amongst the young idealistic arteest set, even if it was a little vague. It took a little while to realize how no one actually gave a shit – it was an adorably constructed phantom value I adhered to, like many. If Picasso managed to find himself doing a painting for the cover of IBM’s Annual Report, I’m sure that painting would still fetch 50 million bucks today. (I suddenly smell a raft of letters to the editor…) Anyway, I felt better leaving my gridded collage work unscathed over in my fine art production side. I was moving quickly thru styles at this moment in time, sometimes inviting an art director or photo editor to take a chance on an experimental approach. Those poor fools. I must make amends someday. Yep, sometimes it all worked, sometimes, not so much. Thankfully I kept my feet moving. For this Interview Magazine assignment I had the privilege of photographing the emerging house band Kraze, who had the hit song ‘The Party’ playing at those deep-house clubs in the 80s. They were awfully nice, but I could tell they were a little nervous; this is not a photo shoot they were accustomed to, coming out to our strange loft in Astoria Queens, no typical hair, make up, wardrobe, catering, just me and my rickety homemade lighting arrangements and weird music. They had that look of bewilderment, like they were wandering around an airport in a foreign country. At one point the lead singer just gently leaned in and said. “ please – just make us look good“. For these photos I was shooting in color film, and doing my special stencil easel treatments under the enlarger, which I have subsequently categorized as ‘Proto – Photoshop’. I do like the way the Interview art director arranged the four individual portraits, thank God, because the group photo was kind of a fail. The joy of flying by the seat of one’s pants.
David McGlynn 