I have reviewed and edited the images of dancers I photographed over the last 30 years. Each Wednesday, starting with today (Act I, 1995-2002), I plan to post images in four “Acts,” from four periods of work.
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Dance in Four Acts: Act I, 1995-2002.
Amazed, learning, and in awe: I began working with dancers primarily from The San Francisco Ballet in 1995, and then, later on, in New York City with dancers from many companies, especially Alvin Ailey, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, David Parsons, Paul Taylor and others. I made images that were new to me. Dancers are fantastically athletic as well as artistic, capable of expressing a vast array of human emotions with incredible physical talents and skill. They are also committed and tenacious.
Every one of the hundreds of photoshoots with dancers filled me with wonder, astonishment and immense admiration. Here are a few images, from many thousands.
There is nothing like a dancer!
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I would appreciate your sharing this work.
If interested in publishing these images, please contact our
producer Bryna Levin [email protected].
Models, young women, even girls, who are working in NYC in the fashion and beauty industry, come from all over the world: Sweden and Senegal, Chile and China, Brazil and Bangladesh. Alone in this country's largest city, understandably their mothers come to visit, often.
I communicated with many of the modeling agencies and asked them to inform their models about my portrait project, “Models and their Mothers.” I asked them to come to my studio in Manhattan with their mothers, in order to create a portrait for them and for my project.
The experiences for all three of us were great fun and emotionally rich.
Thanks to Ariel Jordan for suggesting the music.
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I would appreciate your sharing this work.
If interested in publishing these images, please contact our
producer Bryna Levin [email protected].
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
In the continuum of my enduring photographic study of the human body, I have observed very closely, even within inches, lines, curves, hills, valleys, lumps and bumps of its form. Innumerable searches have provided a wealth of visual imagery. Herein, an assortment from revealing explorations.
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I would appreciate your sharing this work.
If interested in publishing these images, please contact our
producer Bryna Levin [email protected].
How I discovered a Body Knot.
I was working with a pair of professional dancers, a married couple. Near the end of the session they sat down on the studio floor, exhausted, in a sweet and sweaty hug. With a very wide angle lens on my camera, I came very close to them and made photographs. Voila!!!!
From then on I invited dancers, mostly pairs, to come to the studio, sit on the floor and squeeze, scrunch, bunch, cluster, entangle, contort, warp and bond as close together as possible. I circled around them with my camera looking for unusual lines, curves, lumps, bumps, twists and turns.
I would appreciate your sharing this work.
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If you are interested in publishing these images, please contact our
producer Bryna Levin at [email protected].
In the dark, with Mozart operas filling/permeating my large studio space, I spent many evenings for a few years creating images of flowers, plants and other botanica. I experimented, explored and discovered, and after photographing, spent innumerable hours on my computer attempting to make imagery that surprised and delighted me.
It was a rich and fulfilling journey that lead to a book of photographs published by Bullfinch, /books/botanica.
If you are interested in publishing these images, please contact our
producer Bryna Levin at [email protected].
HOMELESS
Portraits of Americans in Hard Times
Sometime in the early 1980s, in San Francisco, I saw a middle-aged woman sitting on a downtown street, her back against the wall of a shop. She held a sign that read, “Hard Times,” and in front of her sat a cup. I had my camera with me but felt it would be wrong to make a photograph of someone who seemed so desperate and vulnerable.
I began to talk with homeless people and to ask them about themselves. I introduced myself, sat down on the sidewalk with my back to a wall—shoulder to shoulder—and I tried to strike up a conversation. I felt confident that a photographic project was possible.
I wanted to see—to look directly at each face. I asked each person to look at the camera and never suggested a mood. Working on this project, seeing these faces, and having these experiences has profoundly changed me.
Since the sight of homeless people in the streets has become so common, we have stopped noticing. We don’t want to be caught looking. It is easier to keep on walking, to ignore them, and to imagine that they are not there. I made these photographs because I had to look.
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This project was published as a book:
"HOMELESS,
Portraits of Americans in Hard Times.”
Design by Milton Glaser.
A remarkable philanthropist, Ms. Gladys Valley of Oakland California donated funds for its publication by Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA.
All sales from the book were donated to the Comic Relief for National Heath Care for the Homeless. Available on Amazon: https://bit.ly/Schatz-Homeless
And, finally, the interviews in the book are powerful, revealing, moving and terribly difficult.
HOMELESS
Portraits of Americans in Hard Times
After graduating from medical school many years ago I began my rotating internship on the Obstetrics ward at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Over the course of two weeks I personally delivered 125 newborns. My memories of the exhilarating human experiences and deep satisfaction from those 14 days and nights have remained with me my entire life.
And so many years later I undertook a photographic journey to explore pregnancy. I wrote local obstetricians and midwives about my interest and women began to call me asking about the project. I explained what I had envisioned and asked those who were interested to call when they were about 37 weeks pregnant. When they called we scheduled a photo shoot.
I offered each new mother the chance to return with her newborn so that I could make new photographs. In some cases I created images of the new mothers and newborns together.
These are a few of the ‘Instagram-safe” images from the two projects each of which has
been published as a book:
“With Child” (a book of photographic studies of Pregnancy) available on Amazon, https://bit.ly/Schatz-with-child, and
“Newborn” (a photographic book of newborns) available on Amazon, https://bit.ly/Schatz-Newborn.
Finally, I asked the new mothers to return yearly with their child so that I could follow the children into adulthood. That is another project entitled “GROWING UP” that I hope one day to complete.
If you are interested in publishing this work, please contact our producer Bryna Levin at [email protected].
I recently came to an understanding, one that is probably universal in the world of creativity: there is an inner force that subconsciously
guides the creative “hand”, revealing a common thread causing an
individual creator’s work to be particularly recognizable.
In selecting work for this missive I found a “vein” running through many of my images, like first cousins, that I had not realized was “in” me.
Studying them has revealed that each image evolved from a deep,
creative wellspring—me!
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#photography #photographer #fineart #howardschatz #artoftheday artcollector artlovers fineartcollector artcurators collectingart humanbeauty beauty art artist aPHOTO bodyart instaart dance dancer NYCdancer alvinailey @alvinailey
The marvelous dancer, Miranda Quinn of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, came to the studio. We explored, played and discovered, collaboratively; i.e. we “created together.” It’s not possible to
accurately describe the amazement and delight we experienced;
perhaps one can “see” it in these six images.
Recently I had the opportunity to work with a world class dancer, Kali Oliver, of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The creative experience, collaborating with this special young woman was...well, have a look....
A "Pairs" shoot with two ballet dancers, Elizabeth Gaither and Sean Stewart. They understood my vision and direction with impassioned imagination. To see other images not allowed on Instagram please visit howardschatz.com/blog
Fashion In Dance
I have been working on a project, “Fashion in Dance,” and plan to hold a casting in a few weeks in preparation for a major photo shoot next month. These are a few of the images created thus far.
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The images are available as fine art prints in series of eight at the galleries listed on my website, under “ABOUT/Galleries.
These images were created recently, following the publication of my recent book, PAIRS.
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If you are a professional dancer interested in working with me on this project, please contact my producer Bryna Levin ([email protected]).
