My friend Gayle just published a funny essay about her travails in obtaining author photographs. You know, the kind that appear on the jacket of a book.
When Ariel and I edited Breeder we had the advantage not only of living in the same city, but also of having a trained and MFA certified photographer taking a sabbatical in my basement. He spent most of his time shooting pictures of the detritus of my household, so why not a few shots of two writers? Seemed like an easy plan.
Twelve rolls of expensive film, dozens of costume changes, and many ponderous hours later, we learned that it was not going to be quite as breezy as we had hoped.
James is an excellent photographer but his normal subject matter does not include live humans. If we had been broken toys, distorted family vacation slides, mercenary training manuals, or airports, there would have been genius results from even a short session.
But instead we are wiggly, talkative, blinking people. Even setting aside issues about depth of focus, the contrasts in the clothes we were wearing, our differing heights and hair texture, we just could not coordinate looking good at the same time. When one of us had the pose and smile in place the other was gawking at the window, or wrinkling her nose, or adjusting a garment at just the wrong second.
In the end there were lots of excellent pictures of us separately, and a few truly amazing pictures of us talking to each other. But nothing that fit the requirements of the publisher. The expenses for film and development at a professional lab? Completely out of our pockets. Plus I felt bad infringing on James, even though he was living rent free in my house.
Next we tried having a friend shoot some rolls of casual pictures as we stood around admiring fall foliage. These shots ended up much the same; the best are good souvenirs and catch the camaraderie we share, but there was not a single image that worked for the specific requirements of the press.
Finally we went to the photobooth at Newberry’s. Our kids fed quarters to the bubble gum machine while we sat on the swiveling stool and zapped through a couple of bucks. We had decent photos within ten minutes – and in fact, we had at least a dozen to choose from, all of which worked perfectly for our purposes.
I am working on two books that will come out next year, and even though they are not finished, the issue of author photographs looms large. Particularly since one of my colleagues lives in a different state. At this point I’m partial to the idea of separate photobooth sessions – but maybe we should do something entirely different. What, I do not know. Perhaps we should be illustrated.