|
Online
• I
Want To Marry a Millionaire | ModelLaunch.com
A Moment With Christopher Makos
By Julian Bain
Legendary pop-artist Andy Warhol called Christopher Makos,
"The most modern photographer in America." Now Makos
has become a legend himself. He is an internationally known
photographer whose work has become a part of American art
history. Being an avid art buff this thought kept running
through my mind as I walked down 5th avenue to
meet him for our interview. As I turned onto 20th
street and neared Makos’ studio I actually began to quake
with nervousness. Everything I knew about the man flashed
through my head. This is the man who apprenticed in Paris
with Man Ray. He is responsible for introducing the work of
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring to Andy Warhol. He socialized
with Calvin Klein and Halston at Studio 54. During his career
he has photographed Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, Salvador
Dali, and John Lennon just to name a few. His photographs
have been seen in Rolling Stone, House and Garden, and Esquire.
Makos’ work is seen in Galleries from New York to Tokyo
and in the private collections of such notables as Malcom
Forbes, Pedro Almodavar, and Gianni Versace.
His dealer in Paris is the cousin of former president Francois
Mitterand for Christ’s sake! How would I be able to successfully
interview the artist and accurately depict his career based
on our allotted two hours? As my angst level was reaching
an all new high I remembered something that Ocean Drive editor
Glen Albin wrote of Makos. He said simply, "Anyone who
has spent 15 minutes with Christopher Makos, has seen ideas
spraying out of him at a rate too fast to comprehend."
He continued, "this is a man whose attention span is
matched only by the click of his camera’s shutter."
I reasoned since I probably couldn’t keep up with him
I would just take in one moment at a time and enjoy the experience
of that moment. How fortunate I was to be able to share a
moment with Christopher Makos.
The Moment
As I entered the 11th floor studio an innocent
looking young man I had seen in the elevator entered just
behind me. Sitting behind a desk Makos paused his telephone
call long enough for the obligatory introductions. The young
man, Benjamin, was a model who had come by for a ‘go-see’.
Just then the door opened again and I met Noah, another model
who was here for the same purpose. "I scheduled a go-see
for the same time as our interview" Makos explained,
"this is all a part of the interview you know, so you
can see what really goes on around here." While Makos
returned to his phone conversation and the models attempted
to settle in, I began to nose, er, I mean look around the
studio. Work that has taken a career to collect covered the
walls. The now famous photo of Andy Warhol in drag hung high
in a corner. A photo of a pre-divorced Ivana Trump in her
then Trump Towers penthouse was hung near a tear sheet of
the Absolut Makos campaign. A portrait of Devine lay on the
floor next to a stack of male nudes. A career that has been
decades in the making was laid out to view at a glance. The
studio door opening a third time announced the arrival of
my partners from Miamigo New York, Denio and Jef. Hernandez.
Makos had invited them to witness, chronicle, and be a part
of the interview process. As the dance music blared, I realized
the tone that was being set for our interview. It was very
much how I had imagined Warhol’s Factory to have been.
Lively and upbeat with a constant flow of unique characters
trotting through to add their creativity to the collaborative
process.
With his business call complete Christopher Makos directed
his energies to his guests. "I hope nobody minds, this
go-see is just a regular thing I do of having people come
over." The artist grabs his camera and begins snapping
shots of the two young models. After a couple of shots of
the child-like Benjamin he points to him and says, "He’s
great for kiddy porn don’t you think?" With that
Makos seemed to have his point of view for shooting this particular
model. He saw something that really worked for him and his
passion began to take over. I asked him if he could explain
how he was able to capture the essence of his subjects so
clearly? "I’m trying to take the art of photographing
men to a different level than other photographers have. You
know the sort of pictures that are on the invitations to the
clubs. I try to take that stuff and do pictures of people
that are just at the next level. That’s not about straight
or gay or any of that stuff, its just about iconoclastic young
American guys. Who these people are, who this guy is, who
that guy is, I never try to change them. I just try to photograph
them as they present themselves to me. They arrive, and whoever
they are at that moment is how I deal with them. I am seeing
him for the first moment and I just sort of respond to what
has happened in this exact moment, right now. That’s
why I always prefer to do what’s going on right at this
moment. I mean I do have a history and I have somewhat of
a future but the most important and interesting part of what’s
happening is right this very minute."
History
Choosing to live in the moment is a perfect response from
someone whose history is as diverse and all encompassing as
Christopher Makos. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts he grew up
in El Monte, California before relocating to New York. He
was the personal assistant to Tennessee Williams for a while
and then moved to Paris to study architecture. While in Paris
he apprenticed with one of the centuries most prolific photographers,
Man Ray whom he later referred to as his original mentor.
I asked Makos to name one thing that he learned from his mentor.
His response, "He always used to tell me ‘Don’t
edit while you work’, that is one thing that I use to
this day."
In 1971 at the age of 23 Christopher Makos met Andy Warhol
while at a Warhol exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American
Art. A year later he was hired by Interview magazines then
editor Bob Colacello to do portrait assignments for the magazine.
It was Warhol himself who later gave Makos a regular two-page
spread in the magazine called "IN" that featured
photographs of the coolest people, places, and things. Makos
consequently became close friend, traveling companion, and
personal photographer to Warhol for the last fourteen years
of his life. Christopher taught Andy how to use his first
camera, art directed Andy’s first photography book, "Exposures",
and convinced Andy to pose in drag. "We shot that in
1981, it only took about two days." After Andy Warhol’s
death in 1987 Makos published his second book, Warhol - A
Personal Photographic Memoir. This book chronicled their personal
and public lives both in New York and abroad. The former curator
of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York, Henry Geldzahler, wrote in the introduction, "It
is a great asset in Chris Makos’ photographs that they
reveal new and unfamiliar faces of the legendary pop figure
Andy Warhol." The 150 black and white images of Andy
taken around the world speak volumes of the relationship between
he and longtime friend Christopher Makos. Their history will
forever link them together.
The Work
Today Christopher Makos’ life is much simpler. Watching
him work in his studio there seemed to be a relaxed ease to
the exuberance in his work. "Now I am older and smarter."
He even has a new philosophy, "Have you heard of this?
It’s K.I.S.S. which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid,
I love that."
His work is about being fresh and of the moment. "I
thought there couldn’t be anything fresher or more of
the moment than having a go-see during our time together and
having some people come up. Of course I didn’t know that
they would be children." Then while referring to the
nubile young Benjamin he comments, " I mean he’s
the type I would invite to a Calvin dinner. I do these dinners
with Calvin (Klein), not that anything is going to happen.
It is just like, let’s just see what’s going on
out there. Who is out there?" I asked Benjamin how long
he had been modeling but Christopher answered for him. "Twenty
minutes?" He continued, "How tall are you? He is
very tall, and you still have some growing to do which is
exactly what that world wants. People your height." As
for how many go-sees he had been on, "This is my first
one." To this Christopher quips, "Oh that’s
so good, I like them fresh. They don’t get much fresher
than that."
Christopher Makos’ desire to produce photographs that
capture that ‘freshness’ is what sets his work apart.
His strive to constantly ‘respond to the moment’
gives his photographs a refreshing honesty that reflects his
attitude toward his work and his life. "I pretty much
shoot what I want. If they want it, Fine. If not, Fine."
Of course they do seem to want it. Christopher Makos’
work is currently on display in more than a dozen galleries
worldwide and in more than fifty private collections. His
very personal, very graphic photojournalism is available to
the public in his six books currently on the shelves, with
his seventh book due out June 7. For an immediate sample of
his work log on to his website at www.makostudio.com.
By viewing the images of this photographic artist, you to
can have your very own moment with Christopher Makos.
|
