Sandra Bernhard
NYC, 1988 3
Sandra Bernhard, Manhattan NY, 1988. Sandra was becoming known—visible in pop culture. She was an outspoken entertainer, very rock and roll. Perfect for Rolling Stone Magazine.
She was hard, in her look and her personality, so I lit the set with hard light to bring out her features and expressions. Music is always a part of a photoshoot, but I did something I wouldn’t normally do to really amp it up—I blasted The Rolling Stones—and I mean blasted—at the loudest volume possible. The music was so loud that my assistants and I couldn’t hear each other, neither could she hear me. It was the kind of sound that you’d blow speakers on, you know...it was the Rolling Stones. She was wearing this cut-off tee band tee, dancing, boxing with me. It was so high energy, and you can feel it in the picture.
There are certain actresses that you have to photograph a specific way to make them look good—soft, glowy light—glamour shots. But Sandra wasn’t that kind of glamour, so I could kind of do anything: a wide-angle lens, a hard light, a high angle. It worked for her. It accentuated her character, and it gave me space to play without strict boundaries.
She was performing her one-woman-show on Broadway. After the studio shoot, she brought me backstage to her dressing room. It was something out of a movie set—the most picture perfect old-school dressing room—mirrors and lights all around. She was in this colorful sequin mini dress, and I shot her laying across the counter. Then I took her to a building at One Times Square over looking the city. There was a doorman I befriended ($$) and he’d let us up onto the roof to shoot. It had this wall that I still can’t believe they let us go out on. If you fell over, you’d fall 15 stories...right into Times Square. But it was beautiful. She’s in a fur, it’s cold, it’s windy, she’s clutching onto this coat. And now, she’s glamour. I did a time exposure with the lights of the city behind her.
And what we accomplished was this really great photo story of her—the rock-and-roll hardness in the studio, the entertainer backstage on old Broadway, and then, a star on top of the world over Manhattan. Sandra Bernhard, in all her glory.
Each photograph is produced as an archival pigment print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper. All prints are hand-signed by the artist and offered as editioned Artist Proofs (A/P).
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