GAYLETTER

Narcissister ain’t called Narcissister for nothing…

I had a very interesting photoshoot with the New York based performance artist, let me see if I can break it down for you. It’s the first time in 26 years of taking portraits that I didn’t manage to make it through an entire roll of film—there are 12 frames on a roll. Narcissister and I nailed 7 in under five minutes.

She walked on set and leaned against the wall and pulled her hood up. I asked her to look in the camera but she was wearing a mask so it was hard to determine where the mask eyes were looking when she moved her head, it was bizarre. After a few frames Narcissister stood still and said “You’re the photographer, direct me” so I asked her to turn to the light, I took 2 more frames. I stepped back and asked her to take her hands out of her pockets, she refused, they weren’t “done,” she protested, so she left them in and I moved on taking another 2 frames. Then I looked up and saw those vacant mask eyes looking back at me and realized we were done.

Ultimately I think Narcissister was very generous to allow me to photograph her as she herself is also the subject of her own work as a studio photograph. I was thankful for the experience — I am very pleased with the outcome.