PORTRAITURE (NUDE & OTHERWISE) is a most enduring interest. A good deal of the work is informal, but there is a fair amount of studio work. Some pieces deserve special mention.

The THOMPSON SISTERS is located here but requires no sentimentality to justify its survival. Hard as it is to believe, the day was blistering hot in Buffalo and I paid a visit to Jan Thompson’s apartment when her younger sister Chris was visiting. Bother are terrific people. When I came to read Gravity’s Rainbow I thought about re-designating this picture as an ode to Bernie the Bulb.

THE BRILL’S AT HOME is one of the great lucky shots of my camera life. I set the camera on a desk and pointed it in the direction of the subjects and asked them to sit very still with the shutter set at one second. The result was a printable negative, though it was years before I acquired the skill to make an acceptable print. Before long Kastle became pregnant with Zeke and we did a nude each month for the duration. Two images survive in this collection: KASTLE & ZEKE and KASTLE.

Although there were hundreds of photos made of JOAN MCINTOSH, to whom I was married from ‘67 to ‘71, she was not very comfortable nude. ME AND JOAN was not successful as a White Picture, but certainly belongs in the family archive. JOAN SHORT DRESS is as soft an available light shot as you will find. After our divorce we did JOAN JEANS, a reclining topless portrait that was very successful. She looks ravishing.

SERIOUS HEADS are head and bare shoulder portraits done of women I knew or asked to sit for the purpose. I was working on a tonal intensity in tandem with an expressive intensity. I also hoped for sensuality from the acres of skin.

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