Anthony Bourdain: An Homage
There will never be an opportunity to have a conversation with Anthony Bourdain while sitting in a small plastic chair hunched over a bowl of pho on a street in Vietnam. The whizzing screams of hundreds of motor bikes passing by will not drowned out the sound of chopsticks and slurping on soft beef and noodles. I will never hear candid tales of globetrotting adventures Tony had in search of food and stories of cultural importance. There will never be an opportunity to pose Tony, asking him to turn his chin to the right a bit more, lower, and bring your eyes towards the lens. The sound of the shutter clapping, opening and closing at 125th of a second or slower, documenting his travels is something I will never hear, moments of exhilaration that I will never feel. I will never get the chance to thank Anthony Bourdain for his influence, how he helped shape my life as a creator, and for his unrelenting passion to seek, eat, drink, and tell stories from various places around the world that I never would have thought to travel to. Undoubtedly Tony influenced a lot of people and his reach was far and wide. Shit, if it weren’t for him I wouldn’t have the desire to wander around Laos.
I did not learn to cook from watching Tony beat competitors out on Chopped. I did however watch him through the lens. He entertained millions through the screen, telling stories charged with politics, cultural significance, and of course food. While his shows changed networks, what did not change was that he used the camera and screen as an instrument to educate those willing to learn. I found inspiration in his travels. It left me with a desire to travel, more than I thought I would want to. Tony was a brilliant creator, gifted with the ability to tell a story. The stories he shared influenced me early on and quickly I set a goal, I wanted to photograph Anthony Bourdain.
Back in January I sat across from my friend Jason and his wife as we sipped on locally crafted beers, freshly poured from a tap at a brewery in SoCal. I am not sure how the conversation turned to the topic of Tony, but I told Jason that I had missed out on seeing Tony when he was in the area a few years back. Jason lit up and with bravado exclaimed that he did in fact go to that show and it was great, but he also bragged about having a polaroid photo with him. My heart sank and we both became a little bit sad as we took another sip. I did not immortalize or heroicize Tony, rather I looked up to him with much respect and regard as an artist, a photographer, an author and of course, most importantly a Chef.
Anyone who knows me, all my friends on Facebook who are status blasted with my food porn, know that I love to cook. I have never worked in a restaurant and chances are I won’t unless I am making photos or producing a film. I don’t want to be a Chef because Tony was some hero to Chefs around the world. I cook, eat, and enjoy food because I learned from him that there is more to life than standing in a line to order a pile shit by numbers. There is an entire world out there full of ingredients that I either can’t pronounce yet or do not even know exist. Somewhere right now there is food being passed around a table made by someone who learned it through a generational practice of incorporating ingredients in a way that defines their family, their culture, their people. That’s why I cook. That’s why I want to travel the world. Thats why I am still saddened by his passing. Primarily the sadness exists because I will never have the ability to share with him, to create with him, to eat and drink with him. One day, thats what I keep telling myself. One day. I said that to myself for years. One day I will make some images and those images will land me the dream job, meeting Tony, photographing him, talking about how as a child I would spend summers on Cape Cod and how Provincetown is as much a part of me as it was the beginning of his career as a chef. That day will never come.
Recently I asked Chef Andrew Brow to come into the studio to be a part of a portrait project that I am working. This series is due to be release around the start of summer. He eagerly agreed to be a part of the project. Once he was back from a trip to wine country in Cali, he would come to the studio. I had an idea. After seeing a portrait of Spike Lee that Art Striber made at the historic Beverly Hills Hotel hours after the Oscars, an homage to Terry O’Neil’s iconic post-oscar shot of Faye Dunaway in 1977, a photo that Art has wanted to recreate for a long time, I took inspiration and asked Chef if he would like to recreate the cover of Tony’s book, “Medium Raw.” I made a screen shot of the cover and sent it over. “Hell yea” was all I needed to hear. We set a date and time and my excitement peaked. I immediately fired off an email to my assistant and told her what we were doing, when we were doing it, how we were going to do it. I shared the cover image of the book with her and said, THIS.
I knew it was going to be impossible to reproduce the background of the image that Tony posed for. That was one aspect of the image I wouldn’t be able to recreate, nor did I want to. As an homage to Tony, an homage to his work, it was important that we nail the look as best as we could, as best as I could recreate. I racked my brain as to what I could do for a background. I wasn’t even going to attempt to research the location, knowing it was probably to far out of reach. I decided I would try and get the look as close as I can with props and the table, leaving the background to be “similar.” I searched google for a distressed table, made a screen shot, posted on Facebook with an ask if anyone had something similar. Someone I know must have a distressed table, something, anything. Perhaps a table sitting in the back of a garage or barn somewhere. Almost immediately my friend John Grossman, Chef/owner of Holyoke Hummus, left a comment, “I have what you need.” He did indeed. He sent me a few images of the table and I was shocked at how similar it was. John is the kind of friend who would dismantle his dinning room table and lend it out for a photoshoot. He is the kind of entrepreneur that supports other creatives, so it was no surprise he let me rob him and his family of the table for two days.
Once in the studio and set up, the table was the prime focal point to build the image around. I just needed Chef, his knives, a small cup of wine, and the background. The day before the shoot I procured the background you see from a Home Depot. I managed to fit a 4x8’ panel into my wife Subaru. Sorry honey I made it fit. The light source would be dialed in once my assistant was in studio the next day. Once Chef arrived we dressed the set with his knives and he cracked a bottle of wine, which we would toast and share throughout the shoot. The results of the shoot were a direct result of both of us channeling the energy and spirit of Tony.
Chef Andrew Brow, Homage to Anthony Bourdain
Once we nailed the look, leaving a few details to be a mismatch, a juxtaposition of sorts, our take on the image, we moved on to some images that I dubbed “influenced by the cover.” We had a little bit of fun with the set up that we built and totally played off of it. We used this as a Segway to lead into the portrait project, the very reason I asked Chef to come in. Those images will be released soon, expect to see them.
I said to Chef, who can out a “who can out a knife in your face and get away with it, a chef and a photographer, thats who.”
My wonderful assistant was able to capture some behind the scenes of the set up and of me photographing Chef Brow.
New York City: Hell's Kitchen Froze Over
For the first time since July I had more than 1 day off to do nothing. Sure, the holidays just came and went, but when the holidays arrive, you're constantly running around, doing something, spreading cheer and money faster than you can make it. There really isn't to much downtime during the holidays. The weekend away was a welcomed trip. It was a break from the daily grind and the planning I have been doing for the up-coming year.
Without a doubt, this past weekend was the coldest weekend I have ever experienced. I survived. My wife survived. We are stronger, still a little cold, but stronger. Saturday morning we made a quick "breakfast" stop at Levian Bakery. We went to the hole in the basement one off of Amsterdam. It was my second time there. We parked about 200' from the door. In the 30 seconds it took to walk from the car to the door, I was consumed with a bone chilling cold that nearly paralyzed me. Even with a sweater, a jacket, a scarf, I still fell victim to the frigid negative number temperatures. Having half a cookie is hardly a breakfast item, but it is still worth it. Their chocolate and peanut butter cookie is amazing. Sue order some bread, butter, jelly something or other. It looked great, but being that I am still heavily into a very strict diet, half a cookie was enough for me.
We stayed at the Riu in Times Square. The Riu is a chic, fashionable, and very affordable hotel on Restaurant Row. This is not review of the hotel, so I am not going to embellish beyond the fact that it was a warm, welcoming stay in the heart of one of the greatest cities in the US. To be honest, I am not even sure if Times Square is the heart of NYC, it just seems to feel that way because of the tourism and congestion that fills the area. Being that it was the coldest day in the history of man, there wasn't nearly as many people out as you'd expect there to be. The cold obviously played a factor in that. After we checked into our room we redressed to get outside in the cold. I had with me a few different types of hand warmers. I thought they would be great to have with me to keep my hands and camera warm. I was wrong.
Frozen hand warmers
So what do you do when it feels like it is -35 degrees outside? Well, you walk around, grab an iced coffee from Starbucks, its the New Englander thing to do. I had with me, in my front two pockets of my jacket, some re-usable hand warmers. Within about 15 minutes they were frozen blocks of some kind of solid material.
Rockefeller Center
Times Square is a fun area to visit. There is a lot happening, a lot of people trying to get you to take bus rides, sell you hot dogs, or get you to a comedy show. We met two people in two different areas of Times Square who have connections to where we are from. This world really is quite small. Times Square is an impressive mecca of shopping, the land of massive billboards, (some day I will see my photos up on them buildings, I promise you that), and an area with a lot of talent and energy. One of the things I got my wife for Christmas, to help with this weekend away, were tickets to a Broadway show. When we were in town last December we almost saw Kinky Boots. This weekend we made a point to see it. We made our way over to the theater, scored some tickets, and got back out into the cold. We walked a few blocks, up over past the Christmas tree that was at Rockefeller Center. When we saw it two weeks ago, you could hardly walk. This weekend, there was hardly anyone there. There were however a bunch of people skating.
iPhone 7+, Portrait Mode, processed using RNI Films app (highly recommend)
As cold as it was, there were still people out enjoying themselves. Some people were dressed inappropriately, given the temperature. Others were dressed as if it was a snowpocolypse. I wasn't as cold as I thought I would be, walking around with an iced coffee in my hands. My logic was this, yes I am from New England and I am used to the cold, but if I drink something cold, it would help me adjust to the temperature a bit more than if I was to suck down something hot. Sure, I was the only one thinking this while everyone at Starbucks was ordering a venti hot frapahlapa chia tea blonde blend. But it seemed to work for me. Call me an idiot or a brave pioneer, regardless I am a fan of cold coffee so I was just keeping within my routine. Plus, there are far more fun things to drink to stay warm, such as the pitcher of mimosas we had at a late lunch at the Bourbon Street Bar & Grille. I had some chicken wings and 3 mimosas. We started to warm up.
Following a short trip down about 5 blocks to look for something that was closed, not open, "due to the weather," we hiked back up towards are area. We didn't want to venture to far away as we did have an 8pm show to get to and needed to be back to the hotel to get ready prior to the doors opening. After some yelping, an unsuccessful attempt at once place, we ended up at The Rum House. The dim lit, off the hotel entrance bar was the perfect spot to unwind, warm with some small bites, and cheers to a good day and the upcoming show. When I finally did decide on what to drink I had to include a pretzel. Breaking the rules of my lifestyle, the whole no carb thing, I just had to. It looked to good to pass up. We needed something to absorb the drinks we were about to have. After another warm, delicious pretzel and a drink or two more it was time to make our way back to the room to get ready for Kinky Boots.
Hot Toddy
Sushi Roll
Squid
For someone who has photographed dancers for the last several years, its kind of sad to admit that I have never been to a Broadway play, musical, or anything. I like dramas. I love movies and films that tell a great story. I am not so much a fan of musicals. However, Kinky Boots was fun and did tell a great story. I am not going to try and be a critic and review the play, but it was good, worth seeing! Following the show it was time for dinner. The 2 hours and 20 minutes, with intermission, went by quickly. We had spent a few minutes on Yelp prior to the show so we had a place in mind. It was 2 blocks up from the Kinky Boots theater so it was going to be a fast and easy walk in the brutal cold. An'Nam is a Japanese fusion restaurant. I am a lover of Asian food. On the menu I had spotted some fried squid. It is so so so damn hard to find any kind of Octopus, calamari, or "squid" that isn't breaded. To many "chefs" are so quick to ruin the dish by breading the shit out of it. But, this squid dish was spicy, bathed in a sauce that sobered one up from an intoxicating and paralyzing frost. After some sushi, I know I know, more carbs, shhhh, sushi is healthy so no judgement...and a few other little bites of small dishes, we closed the restaurant out. Sufficiently full and ready to call it a night we jumped back into the arctic and made our way back to the Riu.
Sunday's plan was to wake up, get the car from valet, and head up to The Met. As an artist, someone who went to school for art, this is very pathetic to admit, I have never been to The Met. I know shame on me. What a disgraceful artist and art student (when I was in school). We didn't spend as much time in the museum as I'd have liked. There were a few works that I didn't get to see that over the weekend, but we will see them in the spring..
We really like the West Village. After grabbing a quick bite at Chirping Chicken we made our way to the West Village. If you want a quick bite of chicken with a semi southern flare, grab lunch at one of their locations. There three places in the US that I want to reside in. It goes in this order, West Village, would settle on Brooklyn, on the island of Manhattan, L.A. region of Cali, and Charleston. Obviously New York City and LA are incomparable, but both offer something unique. I am going to be writing about LA next week and make a compare and contrast to NYC as I thread my images into the article. But Cali, well thats obvious why I would want to live there for work. Charleston, well, the work I want to do, the work I like to do, doesn't really exist in their market. Charleston would be the ideal place to own a portrait studio for families, weddings, and seniors. I am not opposed to owning a studio of that nature, as I have in the past, but at this juncture in my career, shooting that type of work is not on the horizon. That goes without saying that I might not form a business in that area to do so, as that has been on a my "wishlist" for some time. Charleston is a beautiful area with a lot of cultural diversity. Of the three aforementioned places, the West Village comes in first place above LA.
One of the best ways to get used to an area, walk around. Just get lost, just go and explore the area and see what there is. It was cold as hell, but it was still a beautiful walk around the West Village. We did not end up having dinner in the West Village like I had hoped. With the fading sunlight and the fact that the restaurant I had chosen closed at 3:30 and didn't open again till 5:30, we decided it was time to head home.
Below are some scenes from our walks in the cold, the hotel, and The Met. I have my Fuji X-Pro II set to black and white. While Lightroom and Photoshop do not read the color profiles, it is still fun to shoot in black and white. One of these days, soon, I am going to start using Capture 1. Almost all of my shoots are tethered, so it would make sense to use the best software for doing so. Capture 1 allows for Fuji profiles to be imported. So, all of those amazing profiles that mimic Fuji Film can be shot and imported using their software. SOON! Comment, share, follow, and check me out on Instagram @jeffreybphotography
