A long time ago, when I was in my early 20's a friend of mine said, “Make sure that at least one time in your life, you have a really excellent portrait taken of yourself…”
This photograph of me is certainly the one.
The year was 1983, and I was graduating college. Since I disliked how much my yearbook photo came out, I decided to commission a local photographer whom I heard very good things about.
His name, Jean Deer, with a small studio in Westwood NJ.
I remember the day fondly. I went to his studio with a copy of Andy Warhol’s INTERVIEW magazine, known for its stunning photos by artists such as Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber. There was a great black and white layout of actor Timothy Hutton by Matthew Rolston, and it was totally the look I wanted for my photo.
When Jean and I met, I expressed the look I was after and I remember saying that I always felt that I come out “fat in the face”! He laughed, assured me that he’d keep that in mind and shot about 50 images with his Hasselblad portrait camera.
When I went back the following week to see my proofs, I was very excited with the results. I thought, if I could only look like this all the time!
In hopes of getting a copy struck from the original negative, I found in searching the internet, that this talented man had suffered a stroke over twelve years ago, making it necessary to leave his then profession.
Please see his website to read about his courage. I hope to meet up with this artist again sometime in the future…
