Photographers

GEORGE A. TICE, Peter’s Valley, New Jersey, 1978
Black and white photograph created with 120 film, 20” x 20”, Artist’s Collection

George A. Tice, one of the great American photographers, was my teacher and mentor. In the 1970s, I was photographing my hometown, Hoboken, New Jersey, made famous in Marlon Brando’s classic film, On the Waterfront. George was embarked on a long-term project photographing old New Jersey urban and rural landscapes soon to be gentrified. His photographs mark a time and place that no longer exists. George agreed to pose in my masks. Looking at this young and vital 1970s photographer with the air of a 1960s hipster, I realize how much I wanted to be George Tice. What a remarkable moment it is to see him as me once upon a time.

MICHAEL IAN, New York City, 2024
Digital color print, 20” x 20”,
Artist’s Collection

Michael Ian is both a commercial and a fine arts photographer. He’s a dear old friend who has made portraits of many of the most important dignitaries of the past half century. Most recently, he photographed me in mask as Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Late at night, he paints small pictures on canvas that he later photographs and edits on Photoshop, creating stunning swirls of light and color and shape. In this picture, he’s wearing my smiley mask in his studio. And gazing at me as I gaze at him. I realize, in such a friendship, our faces are interchangeable as we slip into each other’s thoughts as easily as sharing a meal.