Toss Him a Line

Excuse me sir but I think I can make you a star. There must be a million lines that have been used to ask a woman to pose for a photographer. Well now, how does an older male photographer approach another middle age man about sitting for his camera. That was kind of the case with Roy.  Roy Fauber was attending the music fest on the mountain our first night in Virginia and I was looking for subjects to use while there. I think there was a quick introduction from my friends and I just got right to the point. He took the invitation quite in stride and performed beyond my expectations when the shoot day arrived.

A kind and gentle man with a pleasant since of humor, you can see the real Roy relaxed and comfortable with himself in this shot.

Another banker by trade, he spent a hundred years working for the Fed. It seemed like everyone I met in Virginia was either a musician or a banker.  I only wish he had been my banker when I was younger.

Maybe I should have started with..."Pardon me Roy..." 

Nah, I did just fine.

A Creative Masterpiece

This post could maybe become a novel or at least a long short story.  I'll try to contain myself. 

Jack Thorwegan has been the mastermind behind multiple Ad Agencies and Ad Campaigns. I've known Jack for probably 35 years.  He came into St Louis after running the hottest Ad Shop in Chicago, if not the country. Hot Buttered Graphics.  While here he birthed probably 5 or 6 more significant agencies before finally taking an offer too good to refuse and now has become a consummate wine tester.  Well, now let me not paint him as some kind of lush. He legitimately enjoys trying as many varieties as possible. 

Stand fast Jerry, don't drift off into another Galaxy. Stick to the pertinent.

We have only of late, rekindled our past relationship and I managed to persuade him to sit for me.  I must admit, it was a little intimidating photographing someone obviously superior to me in this field all the while trying to seem confident and in control. What I didn't expect was that he ended up art directing the shoot for me. He gave me every conceivable pose I could ever imagine.  I would look back to the monitor to see what direction I might give and when I turned back, he was already doing something far more interesting than what I was about to suggest.  This from a self professed creature not liking the other side of the camera.

I think we both came away with a little more insight than we expected.

Thank you Mr. Thorwegan, save a glass for me.

Sallie, Dear Sallie

This lovely lady is my Sallie.  My Sallie that saved the day by renting me her storefront to use while doing my thing in Virginia.  A joy to be around and appreciative of my sense of humor- I think- she busted her kiester to make sure everything went well. Save the defective Air Conditioner that was beyond help.  I shot this in the heat of the moment, literally.  We were all pretty, shall we say, moist from the heat and she had the courage to sit for a second until the next person was ready.  I took her image into a different direction because it wouldn't be fair to turn her into the worn faced subject I'm used to. I'm pretty sure she deserves better.  Beside, the next time I do this, I have high expectation that she'll deliver some key folks for the shoot.

Thank you "My Sallie"

Peace, Love and Longevity

Today, my good friend John Frangoulis, married the love of his life, Christine Sanford-Frangoulis. John is a fine photographer himself but somehow he has become the president of the Jerry Tovo fan club. Not only is he the President, but its only member.  Some time back he hinted around about taking an engagement foto of this couple.  While he and Christine had been dating, I had no clue that they were the couple.  I tried playing him off because he knows I don't do more than one person in a portrait except for rare occasions. Later that week they were more subtle hints about weddings and engagements and rings and I'm still oblivious as to what he's going on about. Well finally, during a moment of complete repose, it strikes me, he's been talking about he and Christine. Talk about living in a fog.

Of course, I was delighted to do their engagement picture for them, though I must admit a bit of apprehension because I really like the focus of shooting just one person to a session.

So today was their day and a delightful day it was.  They were married at the incredible St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church in the Central West End of the city. I have never been inside but I immediately knew I wanted to get in later to photograph it. It's stunningly beautiful.  The ceremony was so very intriguing in that has a great deal of similarity to the Catholic church in which I was raised but they seem to have held much more to tradition, something I found very enticing. I have felt for some time that churches have sold out tradition to keep the young (spoiled and easily bored) people coming. That is a conversation unto itself.

As so many times in the past, I have rambled astray from my original intent. 

The loving couple will reside in the house John bought in Ottowa Illinois as an escape from the rigors of city life in Chicago.  

We all wish the best for them and bid them, Peace, Love, Laughter and Longevity.

With Little Fanfare

Unfortunately when you do some hit and run portraits as we did in Virginia, you don't always get to spend a lot of time with your subjects.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm conflicted about knowing the person better before I shoot and not knowing them at all.  If I don't know a person very well, I don't find myself trying to force the image to fit their mold. On the other hand it has proven that at least having a lengthy conversation with the victim, I mean, subject, I can break the ice and really draw the person out, based on what I have discovered.  

This is Peter. Peter O'Shaugnessy, to be more precise.  An artist himself, he works with his hands and steel and fire.  His craft, Blacksmith. 

I haven't known him very long but I can say, I've never seen him with his shoes on. I asked him if he would mind releasing his hair from the ponytail he usually wears.  From past experience, I have found, not only does the hair come down but the inhibitions along with it. A much more relaxed poser was he.  

Thanks Peter for trusting me with your face.

So This is Finny

Elmer (Feenie) Foster is another one of those guys you just hafta call "One of the nicest men you'd ever wanna know".

They pronounce Feenie like a fish fin.  Finny.  At least that's how I heard it.

When we went to meet Feenie, he was sittin in a lawn chair out back of his house, armed with a .22 rifle and waiting for a ground hog to shoot.  Now I hope I'm not spillin the beans to the sheriff.  I just assume shootin ground hogs in your backyard is perfectly acceptable in Natural Bridge Station, Virginia.

When I asked him if he'd pose for my camera, he didn't even blink an eye.  What time and where?  Although he didn't necessarily follow my instructions, I'm pretty sure he shaved and got a hair cut.  Actually, he had this very cute little rooster tail cowlick when  he walked in.  I tried the old spit on the fingers mousse on it but it didn't seem to help.

I didn't see it at first but now that I look at this image, he strikes me as Arnold Palmer's Father.

You can look at this and just about figure there's some serious BS about to come outta that mouth.

One of a Kind

I hope you're happy you old curmudgeon. 

This man, Virgil Mantle, has been my friend for, as he puts it, decades.  He was perhaps my best client and supporter. Although there was a time when I thought I may have killed him.  Normally the most patient man on the face of the earth, I drove him into an anxiety attack and I thought sure he was going to go into heart failure and die.  It was all because of a silly little incident where I may have spent a wee bit too much time chatting it up with a model friend of mine.  Certainly, I hadn't completely ignored him or his job, except for maybe the better part of an hour. I think maybe he needed a dose of prunes or something, because it was certainly not like him to react like that.  One thing for sure, I never ever took him for granted again.

In this image, he was the first to volunteer to allow me practice time with my new desire to become a portraitist. 

Now there have been a few people who have quietly pointed out that his eyes are closed.  Very observant. But this image, "Mr. Cute and Happy" as we call it, portrays him as he is, a very gentle man and a man who is comfortable enough with himself to let me display him in this moment of calm. His silvery hair and beard are always perfectly coiffed without looking obsessively cared for. He turned 71 or was it 72, and we'll be doing our annual vegetarian lunch soon. Now don't get the wrong idea.  We'll have steak or ribs or some fanciful hunk of meat but we will also have a couple of very dry Martinis with lots of vegetables, usually called olives.

I'm a bit embarrassed that I had to be reminded that after all these years, that I had neglected to include him in my blog.  Never let it be said that I'm the curmudgeon here. To you Mr. Mantle, you deserve your moment.  And I for one will not take part in the life's end celebration that you desire.

We Interupt Regular Programming to Bring You This Message

At last, the spot where vegetables go to die, has born fruit.

For three years now, I've sweat and dug and tilled and fertilized and almost prayed for my little cottage garden to produce anything.  Each year we had a few scrawny tomatoes and a Zuke or two but this Bush Bean harvest has to be the most significant yield yet.  Maybe the soil has homogenized and things are finding comfort and nutrients or whatever.

Praise the lord and pass the string beans.

Hope fully more to come.

Amen

Alright, Enough Already

This is James. James Pannabecker, Esquire. Author, Lawyer, Banker, Concert Pianist, Farmer, long distance runner, Photographer's Assistant and my Friend.

I've known James for a long time but not very well, until recently. James and his equally talented wife, Karen, were our host on the recent photo safari to Virginia.  There's a trip I'll not soon forget. They invited us to visit them on their farm just south of Lexington. If you haven't driven Route 64 east into West Virginia and then into Virginia, you should.  You should do it at least once in your lifetime. The National Forests are totally amazing and the drive takes place mostly on a ridge with hundreds of small towns sprinkled below. I commented to my wife that I knew how the Grinch felt looking down on Whoville. It would make a superb motorcycle trip and you must stop along the way to visit some of those burbs.

I digress.

James was an open book and he practically tripped over himself to help me on my journey as best he could.  Photography, at least on a Commercial Professional level, was something that he had not experienced and he was all ears and open minded not to mention secretly thrilled at the prospect of the experience. I think at first he took it a bit lightly until he recognized my focus and determination was for real.  Once we got on the same plane, his involvement shifted into high gear.  I now realize, this story could become very lengthy and a chapter or two in a book, so I'll cut to the chase.

Once we had determined I would take a two day rental on a storefront in Lexington, James and Karen launched into a frenzied mental and physical search for Virginians who might best suit my need as subjects.  They made call after call and quizzed others as to who might be best suited for the cause. At one point James and I worked out a system, with a simple unnoticed nod, as to who to ask and who not to ask to sit. We went in and out of local shops and offices until we had more than enough subjects to fill my time there.

An interesting aside came the day I called the number on the building with the storefront for rent.  A very nice lady answered the call and I explained my dilemma...would she be amenable to renting her space for just a few days, I asked.  Cautiously she deflected answering the question until she consulted her husband.  I left my contact info and went on looking for a backup space just in case she deferred to accept my proposal.  After I had ended the call, I thought, I should have directed her to my blog as a reference to what it is that I do.  It had seemingly only been a few minutes when she returned my call.  "Jerry," she said with a certain amount of glee, "I went on-line to check you out and I found your site. I love it," she said. She then said something about did I know that Sally lived there. The cell connection was not the best and I didn't quite grasp her point.  The conversation went on through the crackling of the phone and the subject of Sally came up again.  I'm sorry, Sally?  Sally who?  Sally Mann she replied.  You mean THE Sally Mann, I responded?  At this point, maybe everyone is not familiar with The Family of Mann, it was one of the most successful photo tomes of it's time.  A bit of a documentary piece about Sally's family as they grew up. It was a bit controversial then and it reared its head through the decades over and over whenever someone would bring it up again.

Again, I digress.

It became quickly evident that James was more than willing to be my test subject, you know, someone to set up on, to test the lighting so as not to be embarrassed when the time came to shoot for real. Now, James is not a hulking mass of a man, nor is he old enough to wear his life on his face.  A phrase which became the the buzz words when approaching prospects.  I was concerned, how I would be able to apply my technique to someone not in the mold of my usual subjects. "James," I said, "you're not going to be able to shave for the next several days." I think if he could have sprouted a beard on the spot, he would have. I'm thinking maybe we could combine your farmer look with your concert pianist look.  Hence the the Tux shirt and Bow Tie and bib overalls (which got cropped from the shot).
I mulled that proposition over for a while because I try to avoid corny or costumed folks in front of my lens.  I think if I would have said I want you to pose naked with your goats walking on your chest, he would have done it.  You gotta love a guy like that.

When the time came to begin the James Portrait, the theme quickly emerged. He is a gentle man, an intelligent man and has a likeness to Bruce Willis and in some of the outtakes, he displays a slight essence of Kevin Costner.  Karen was thrilled and she assures me that James was equally delighted.

This is a very long written piece for me, I think I'll have James edit it for me. We'll see what comes of it then.

And Voila, the king James version has arrived.  My friends have long been eager to assist me in my grammatical quest for putting the correct words in the correct order so as to somehow make my copy seem as competent as my imagery.  It's not that I'm a moron, it's just that in my haste to embellish a thousand words to equal the picture, I sometimes skip over the little idiosyncrasies a good writer would never miss.

Click on the edit pages to see a readable version.

Oh, Alright Already

I've been trying to get some of the work I did in Virginia ready to print but yet I'm being torn to be, of all things, business like.  Pay the bills, file the taxes, unpack everything from the trip, and family too.  Can you believe my mom has the audacity to expect me to pay some attention to her too.  She's seen me for 65 plus years and I haven't changed that much in the last 3 weeks. Well, truth be told, guilt has something to do with it. I have neglected her a bit of late.

Phillip Welch, Lexington, Virginia.  Artist, Craftsman and nice guy.  Phillip is one of those locals that allowed me to interrupt his life long enough to pose for my series. Without much fanfare, we dropped into his studio and basically didn't leave until he agreed to subject himself to my lens. Keep in mind none of these folks, save James (our friend), know me from Adam.  If it weren't for the introduction from our friends, my chances of getting any shooting done would have been severely hampered. 

Phillips forte is the art of creating fine furniture pieces from wood unlike anything you might find at Crate N Barrel or Ethan Allen or even Sotheby's for that matter.

The image itself is not how most folks who know Phil would picture him. I'll run more later.  As a matter of fact, the shoot ran so smoothly and quickly because, as it turns out, he is a natural. He sat down and went through poses almost faster than my light would recycle.  He was a Master of using his hands in the poses and feared no capture that might someday come back to haunt him. Mugging it up, he looked more like an experienced actor than a small town artist.  In fact, I asked him if he would like that I submit images to various agencies, because he has a very commercial face and an ability to follow direction that is usually only found in very experienced model/actors.

This image went right to my heart.  It portrays so many possible emotions, it could be the modern version of Rodan's, the Thinker. This may be one of my favorite portraits from the past 4 years.

Thank you Phil, you rock dude.

Getting Warmer

I don't wanna say just how hot it was in Virginia but these guys might. Melt down!

I'm eking closer to a final edit of the last week.  Unfortunately there are other matters at hand.

Till then.

Fodder Me Home

Well, the foto gods did more than their share.  It'll take me a while to edit through everything but there should be some blog worthy material for some time.  Till then.

Fodder

I will be traveling to Virginia this week and hope to bring back much blog fodder.  Pray to the foto god for me. Till then.

Eye Bank

I changed the image from the original post.  This is a big improvement. Attention image thief's, be reminded that all the images on this blog are copyrighted, Jerry Tovo. Eye will track you down.

If you go way back on the blog you'll find an eye (mine), that I shot to check focus on a little point and shoot camera.  It was nicely sharp and quite detailed.  Of late I have decided that since my portraits are so weighted toward the subjects eyes, that I should really look closely at how our eyes are really structured.

With that in mind I have begun to stock eye shots so that I can compare, as necessary, the true make up of the human eye and how it relates to my portraits

This is the first of those.  I'm sure I'll refine the lighting as I go but this is a good start.  Right away, I've learned that I don't like it when you force the eye to stop down by exposing it to too much light prior to capture.  The  pupils get out of proportion to the rest of the eye and it becomes unnatural.

Clicking on it makes it sweller

The Grrrreat State of Illinois

About a year ago a woman sold a cornflake on eBay, that supposedly looked like the State of Illinois, for around $1,500.  Well, all I have to say is I found one before her and mine is most definitely better than hers.    Actually, if you have ever sifted through a box of Frosted Flakes, most of them do look like this.  Should you happen to see the guy that bought hers, give him my blog address and we can negotiate.  Oh, wait, I forgot I accidentally stepped on it and it's now a powdered form of the State of Illinois.

Young Ryan and Parallel Universes

A couple of years ago I had a very significant comment posted on my blog.  Frankly, I don't remember what it said other than it started a very interesting relationship. This is that poster, Ryan Walters.  Over time we have come to realized that we share so many similarities that we have kidded about one mind living in parallel universes, separated by maybe, 40 years.  This image came from a lighting test for a shoot Ryan was doing in the studio.  One shot and nothing more, not bad under circumstances.  Of course there has been significant Photoshop work done to get to this look.  It's a bit of a homage to Ryan who certainly has this formula down pat. As of today, we are slowly merging out respective talents  into one studio.  Hopefully soon, he'll be steering the ship while I lounge on the deck, so to speak.

OMG

From the Archives...another hundred years ago, 1983 to be exact, I began doing a trendy calendar called "The Saint Louis Crackerjack Calendar."  At the time, I often referred to it as my Junior Achievement project.  The original idea was conceived before the famous "Chippendale Calendars" but after a few enterprising college students had done it as the men of ______ University.  My intention was to do a local women calendar but I got very little support.  The men version or as they became called, "Beefcake", ran for four consecutive years and while I really never made any money on it, I did learn a bunch about getting free help with marketing and the stories that came from it could have filled a couple of volumes.  This week I had occasion to dig out the leftover calendars and copy a few images for another use.  I have had several suggestions to do a reunion version but no one has stepped up to take the reins on that project.  It was a huge undertaking and while I'll never regret it, I don't have the steam to go it alone again.   BTW this dashing man is Steve Ruzicka and I haven't heard from or about him since.

Just for Impact

In today's world of cameras and computers you can really add impact that might have eluded you in the film world.

For example, this image of my friend Ed, (see below) depicts him maybe as a strong, rugged warrior or a weathered salty, sailor, where age and sun have taken their toll.  In real life he's a sweet, kind, intelligent man.

As much as I loved the old film days, the control one has now is nearly without limits.

click on image for closer view

Not so fast, Eddie

This is one of my best friends and his name is Ed.  It's not the first time Ed has appeared on this blog, however it was never under these circumstances and I must say this image nails how he feels these days.  Without going into detail, I will tell you his last 10 years have been extremely exhausting and when I look at this image and think of all his trials and tribulations, I just wanna give him the biggest, most secure hug, one man should ever give another. In his prime Ed was a world class designer and most everything he touched turned to gold.  We, his friends, are confident that, the good lord willing, he will bounce back to his previous form. 

I'm sorta responsible for the beard in that, after a brief illness, this scruffy brush forced it's way out of his normally clean shaven face.  I suggested that he keep it, at least until he could be properly photographed. Not one to pose for any such attention, I think the premise of the beard shot got his juices flowing. Now he's considering letting it grow into a full monte of a beard, if you would.  

God love you Eddie and thanks for patronizing my need to capture your essence.

clicking on the image will give you a slightly better quality view

Oh, the indebtedness

As I prepare to renew my mini exhibit for the month, I find myself choosing this image, an image that should have been up front in the very beginning of the blog.  Here, I give you my best resource, supporter, fan, editor and friend, Laurie Shoulter-Karall.  This woman adopted me, in an artistic sense, probably 15 years ago and hasn't for a second allowed me to waller or hesitate or despair or procrastinate-well not for very long.  Maybe patron saint is the best description for this fan spectacular.  Now mind you, I'm not the only one to be taken under her wing but there is a special connection that we share.

I must tell you what an honor it was to have her sit for me.  She has very stubbornly disallowed anyone to capture her image until this setting. Not only to capture her likeness but exposing her early onset Arthritis was a huge hurdle to overcome.

We have shared many an artistic moment and I'll be forever indebted to her.