Dennis Hopper
I met Dennis Hopper back in 1994, the first year I lived in New York City which was a really wonderfully naive time. I spent almost every weekend with headphones on listening to mixtapes I had made as soundtracks for my walks around lower Manhattan, which was about all I could afford. One Saturday while cruising (non-sexual sense) SoHo I saw Mr. Hopper on the street and asked I could take a quick portrait of him. He accepted politely, I shot it and he left, entering in a high priced boutique behind me. I sat on the wide metal steps waiting for the polaroid to fully develop which it did, just as Dennis was leaving the store.
“Hey Dennis, would you mind signing this since you’re still here?”
“No, No… (taking polaroid and pen) …oh, who’s that? Where was she? Wow…” he said, leering at the passerby in the photo. The he noticed the pattern in the image and asked about it.
“Oh I’ve been experimenting with polaroids. I take nail polish and paint dots on the rollers in the camera and when the film goes through, the pressure against the raised dots makes this pattern.”
“Oh, wow oooh… can I show this to my wife?” He took it and walked a few feet away and proceeded to tell her verbatim and somewhat excitedly what the process was. “The kid over there he takes nail polish… “
In hindsight that’s a connection I should have been more assertive in maintaining but I was just jazzed to have such a good New York City day.
BELOW is a more experimental pattern (more nail polish, thicker and more randomly applied.) I think this pattern was my favorite both for the color that emerged from hitting the bumps as well as that kind of insect like pattern right down the middle. Please forward this to the Creative Director of Polaroid to see if I could get a free case of film. Is Ms. Gaga checking her corporate emails?
