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I found myself standing in
mainland China surrounded by escorts who had
machine guns slung over their shoulders. I was deep in China
with my partner, and we were inspecting our production line. It
was a
long row of girls from the age of 10 to 20 years of age. I stared at
the most beautiful Chinese girls I had ever seen. They were being
forced to work in a factory just to build products for my company,
because my world now consisted of creating fashion accessories and
promotional products. Every day I wondered how I got into the
mess but
we had to make payroll for our employees. Inside I really just
wanted
out. My world yearned to come back to film but I couldn’t. I had
already made a commitment to this business. I was on a ride that
I
couldn’t get off. When this part of my life finally stopped I looked up to the blue sky and said, “What the fuck just happened to me?” Once again, like years before, I stared at that Nikormat camera that gave me so much pleasure with my neighbor. I had no choice but to begin shooting headshots for actors. I would shoot headshots by day and test by night. During testing, I would apply homemade filters that were made of broken glass, gauze and nail polish. I tried everything to discover my personal style and mood. At this time I lived in an old Spanish Villa Hotel. There was a beautiful courtyard for photography and the rooms had high ceilings that were great for flying an overhead light if need be. In this strange hotel actors, models, artists and musicians lived and lingered. I would generally run into somebody in the lobby and ask them to come over for a test shoot. |
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