I had a few minutes at the Meyerson this afternoon with Hamlisch who’s in town to promote the DSO’s pops series. Hamlisch will be conducting the series and intends to feature American composers. For Mark Lowry’s story on Hamlisch, go to TheaterJones.com.

Hamlisch, a child prodigy who attended Juilliard as a seven-year-old, is one of two humans to win The Oscar, The Emmy, The Grammy, The Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. The other is Oscar Hammerstein.

We shot in the Meyerson’s green room, which is your basic DARK space with rich mahogany-colored walls. This was going to be an interview session, which meant I’d shoot while my colleague, Mark Lowry of TheaterJones.com, asked questions. While 11 minutes might sound like a short time, anyone who works with celebrities knows it’s more than enough time to make a nice portrait.

I make it a point to arrive at least an hour early to every shoot. I like to see the space well ahead of time and set up lights, test, and correct early. Typically, I have an assistant with me to help but none of my favorites were available today, so I schlepped the gear myself–with Mark’s help.

I used a 48-inch softbox with a Profoto 600 monolight camera-right and a white tri-fold reflector camera-left, just an inch or two outside the frame. Hamlisch, 65, had been up and running since 5 a.m. and was grateful for a few minutes to sit before walking into the Mort’s foyer for a evening-long reception.

Hamlisch is ever the gentleman and a delight to work with. His face lit up when he talked about the master class he’ll teach later this month for students at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Hamlisch, the teacher, can’t wait to get in front of those kids.

This and other images from The Robert Hart Studio are available in my searchable online archive:

Brooks and Dunn gave their final Dallas performance Saturday to a sold-out crowd at Superpages.com Center. While Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks put on one hell of a show, they don’t get that close together onstage–at least not during the first three songs, which is all the promoter will allow photographers to shoot.

My assignment was to photograph both performers in one vertical frame. That image didn’t blow my skirt up but this shot of Ronnie downstage was a nice moment.

This and other images from The Robert Hart Studio are available in my online archive:

The third annual Marfa Film Festival got underway yesterday evening to the sound of Cinco-appropriate mariachis, two excellent Mexico-centric films and plenty of Patron and New Belgium libations. Post-film viewing, rock music played into the night, but not far into the night as Presidio County sherrif’s deputies showed up in force–I counted five officers–two hours before the midnight curfew. I suppose you gotta keep a close eye on these artist-types. You never know when they’re likely to go all minimalist on your ass.

Despite the chilling effect of Presidio County’s finest, the crowd kept their chill and dispersed into the night.

Marfa Film Festival founder/director, Robin Lambaria, kicked off the third annual festival Wednesday afternoon at the Crowley Theater.

This and other images from The Robert Hart Studio are available, here, in my searchable online archive:

Moby Dick, Herman Melville’s classic, debuts tomorrow night with the Dallas Opera. There’s a huge buzz about how director Leonard Foglia intends to portray the whale and it’s been one of Dallas’ best kept secrets. Given Mr. Foglia’s reputation for putting audiences in the middle of the action, the leviathan’s first appearance onstage in Dallas should be stunning. Stories this week in the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have only added to the suspense.

Back on April 1, I had the opportunity to meet and photograph Moby Dick‘s composer, Jake Heggie, and librettist, Gene Scheer, for www.theaterjones.com inside Dallas’ gorgeous new Winspear Opera House. I wanted to incorporate the rich, warm burgundy surfaces inside the lobby, so I arrived a couple hours early to scout the location.

Jake and Gene showed up right on time and we were able to finish the shoot in less than 30 minutes. What an absolute delight these two were to work with. They were both enthusiastic, engaged and eager to participate and I am delighted with the result.

As any photographer will tell you, a good portrait requires the cooperation of the subject(s) and Jake and Gene were the best.

Turns out they loved the result as much as I did and each requested a signed copy of the photo, which I was flattered to provide.

I’m eager to see the performance tomorrow evening and can’t wait for the great white whale’s operatic debut.

While working in NYC last month I had the opportunity to photograph Marfa NYC, a restaurant/bar inspired by Marfa, Texas. It’s located at 101 2nd Street, a few yards from 1st Avenue. Jesse and I were enroute to the Sunshine Cinema on Houston to see The Road and didn’t have time to stop. We paused long enough to peek through the window and make a photograph. I noticed the art on the back wall, barely visible in this image, and thought the cow skull painting looked familiar but I couldn’t place it.

Fast forward to January 6, last Wednesday, when I’m roughly 1,800 miles from Marfa NYC parked in front of Prada Marfa. It’s the sculpture installation created by artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset that sits on a lonely stretch of West Texas highway 90 just outside Valentine. It debuted in 2005 and has been baffling unsuspecting tourists for more than four years.

Despite the fact that it’s one of the most photographed curiosities in West Texas, I wanted images for my agency, ZumaPress, in L.A. I arrived at the site shortly after 4 p.m., and began shooting. Thirty minutes later a white Suburban rolled up, turned and backed up to the front door. A guy in a long black duster and black cowboy hat proceeded to pull out a ladder, unlock the door and go inside. I yelled at him from across the road, “I’ve been waiting here for a week, I thought you guys were never gonna open.” He’d probably heard that same lame-assed line a million times before but he chuckled and shouted, “We never open.”

I crossed the road and introduced myself while he fiddled with one of the dead flourescent ballasts in the ceiling. He told me his name was Boyd Elder and said, “I grew up here and I maintain this piece for the artists.” Boyd and I chatted and I asked him what he did for a living, “I’m an artist, I’ve been making art since I was five, he said.”

He was waiting on an electrician to show up to repair the faulty light and it gave us an opportunity to talk and get acquainted over a pair of frosty Shiners from my ice chest. I noticed Boyd was down to the end of a cigar and asked him if he’d like to try one of mine. We shared a couple of Casa Magnas while Boyd talked about his art and growing up in far west Texas. During that conversation we learned that we had a bunch of mutual friends in the area, Bob and Christi Dillard, owners of the Ft. Davis Mountain Dispatch, Roy Hamric, writer, photographer, university professor now in Thailand and Blair Pittman, in Terlingua, author and former National Geographic photographer. I learned that Boyd had worked closely with The Eagles in the 70s and was responsible for a lot of their album cover art. He mentioned a new restaurant/bar in New York’s East Village and that he had paintings hanging in that establishment. “I was there just two weeks ago and I photographed it,” I told him.

It was Boyd’s paintings I’d seen hanging on the back wall of the restaurant. They’re barely visible in the image I’ve posted here. I promised Boyd I’d email him the photo when I got wherever I was going to sleep that night.

The electrician didn’t show and Boyd had work to do, so I told him I’d planned to shoot after dark and I’d call him if the electrician turned up. Two hours later Boyd called me from his ranch house and asked about the electrician. I told him the only person I’d seen was a beautiful costume designer from NYC who’d stopped to photograph the sculpture.

Boyd asked me how I felt about homemade chile rellenos and I asked him for directions. The rellenos (in Shiner beer batter perfected by Miss Rita) were fabulous as was the company, the cigars, the Aberlour 16, the Shiners and the music.

I ended up bunking at Boyd’s and can’t wait to get back. I’m mailing him an 11×14 print of the Marfa NYC image and a handful of cigars.

I recently photographed singing sensation, Stephanie Umoh, outside the Neil Simon Theatre on 52nd Street in NYC.

Umoh is a Lewisville High School graduate who, just two years out of the Boston Conservatory, is cast as Sarah in the current revival of “Ragtime.” Watch for the upcoming story and profile of Umoh at www.theaterjones.com.

Cuban-born composer and librettist, Jorge Martin, will debut his adaptation of Reinaldo Arenas’ “Before Night Falls” with the Fort Worth Opera this May. Stay tuned to www.theaterjones.com for the upcoming interview and profile.

I met and photographed Jorge at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in mid-November. It was critical, to me, that Jorge’s portrait be associated with Fort Worth. The Modern’s three pavilions provided the perfect iconic background for the shot.

Paul Baker, 98, director, educator and author, died yesterday at his home near Waelder in the Texas Hill Country. Paul was the founder of the Dallas Theater Center and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Mark Lowry at TheaterJones.com has written an excellent obituary. He’s also providing a space for friends of Paul to post tributes.

On May 11, of this year I photographed Paul and his family at his ranch in the Texas Hill Country. Those images are part of a slideshow at TheaterJones.com. At 98, Paul was still quite alert and eager to discuss theater and the arts. Mark and I spent several hours with the Bakers; Kitty his wife, and his daughter, Robyn Baker Flatt, founder of the Dallas Children’s Theater.

Paul was delighted to hear that both my sons were graduates of Booker T., 2000 and 2007, and wanted to know everything about them and their careers in the arts. Clearly, Booker T., was one of his greatest passions.

David’s got an excellent bts (behind the scene) world debut video up at Strobist.com from the making of a Hypernova music video using a Canon 1Ds Mk III and the Profoto Pro-8a Air strobe.

50 years ago this week, Miles Davis’ landmark album Kind of Blue was released. Fred Kaplan at Slate has written an excellent piece on the significance of Davis’ seminal work.

In 1959 I was a mere four years old and it would be 15 more years before I’d hear the recording for the first time, while working nights as a photographer for the Arlington Citizen-Journal. Those were late nights that involved shooting countless handshake and check-presentation photos with the occasional Texas Rangers game thrown in. It was the Rangers games and the lure of a lifestyle assignment from one of the greats of local journalism, Margaret Galloway, that kept me coming to work. Those handshake photos that the publisher and his brother, the editor, craved were mind-numbing. Suffice to say that anyone who worked for a small daily still has recurring nightmares about the “grip-and-grin” assignment.

But once the evening’s shooting was done I could wrap myself in the cool black womb of the darkroom and make prints. It was there that I heard Kind of Blue for the first time. Local PBS station, KERA, had a late-night jazz program called “Flight Time” and it was all classic jazz and little talk. Jean Fugett, the dj and a Dallas Cowboys tight end, had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and a velvet-smooth voice and delivery that oozed cool. Fugett, an Amherst grad, went on to become a hugely successful attorney and head of TLC Beatrice International Foods. I started my jazz education under his tutelage.

I still recall the moment I heard All Blues for the first time. I stopped printing and stood motionless for the entire 11:33-minute track. I haven’t had a religious experience, but if I ever do, it’s gonna be a close second to that first listen. I was at the local Peaches Records store the next morning to buy the album and the cassette tape.

In the ensuing 34 years, I’ve worn out countless versions: vinyl, cassette, CD and each day, seven days a week, here in the studio, I queue it up in the late afternoon as a segue to cocktail hour. But I enjoy it most when it’s late night and I’m here working on images in the wee hours. The ambulances and cop cars that race up and down Lancaster Avenue are mostly still and it’s just me and Miles.