> [Original Message] LET'S DO A SURVEY!!!
> Q. What is the most unusual subject matter you have ever shot? > The most unique? Or the weirdest? Or simply the subject matter > that you have had the hardest time "capturing" (either because it > was hard to get to, or timing, or movement, or whatever)? I've photographed so many odd and unusual things and situations that, for me, they've become more or less commonplace. I think the first photos that fit into this category were for Art & Jim Mitchell (http://tinyurl.com/a44ox), owners and operators of the O'Farrell Theater in San Francisco, during the late summer or early fall of 1969, shortly after the theater opened for business. The O'Farrell Theater showed porn movies, most of which Artie and Jim made upstairs in the big room behind the projection booth. I was up there for a party one night (my girlfriend's brother was the janitor and he suggested I come to the party) and was photographing the band (which featured a one-handed guiutarist), when Artie called me over and asked that I make some photos for him. We went into another room where they were shooting some scenes for a rudimentary porn movie. In those early days things were pretty simple - production values were minimal, the lights were bright and omni-directional, the set was just a bed in the middle of the room, and the "actors" were usually college kids, a boy friend and girl friend, looking to make a spare $50.00 or so. Artie and Jim wanted some close ups of certain body parts and a few specific "acts of perversion" has Jim jokingly called them. I got paid $50.00 for my efforts and received a small bonus as well. Soon after that I moved to Berkeley and got a job processing baby pictures. The deal was that I'd make the rounds of local hospitals with a cheap camera and film provided by the company for which I worked. I'd give the loaded camera to the nurses who'd take pics of the new born babies, and would return home with the camera and exposed film, which I'd then develop and print. I'd return to the hospitals the next day with small proof prints - 5x7 I believe - which the nurses would then present to the parents. If they made a sale, I'd then print up some better quality pics and the nurses and I would split a commission. I much preferred making photos for Art and Jim. There were many more interesting photo assignments and opportunities I had over the years. Most recently (a couple of years ago, and perhaps, in some ways, the most unusual), I was asked to photograph feet for a very unusual woman who lived in an exclusive part of San Francisco. This woman would have what I called "foot fetish parties" about once a month and I was hired to photograph the bare feet of her guests. She'd choose the ones she liked and have them framed and hung around her house, which was a huge place on upper Broadway. This went on for about four or five months, and then the parties stopped, or so I was told, and my services were no longer needed. I got to meet some verrry interesting people ... Shel
