“The Masters” continues my 35 years of exploratory portraiture of people who inspire me. These new portraits owe a debt to 16th and 17th artworks, Durer to Rembrandt-- their burnished quality, minimal palette, and heightened colors to invoke the surreal or extra-ordinary. I photograph in public places, not studios, and after comes substantial darkroom work to achieve a unique portrait embodying a personal quality of each individual Master—,the radiant energy of poet Gary Snyder, the matchless LouReedLouReedLouReedLouReed, the scribe-like precision of William Klein signing books, and the endless mystique of conjurer Duane Michals.
