Hired muscle

The Fiancée stands in for The Donald in a rare appearance on the JLPFL roster as an assistant for a Golf Magazine portrait shoot down in the Dominican Republic.

Since my buddy the Jackanory has been so busy of late traveling about (thanks for dinner last week!) and working that it falls to me (we should so form a post-Redux blogging club, right?!) to keep the blog-o-fire nice and toasty with new posts. And as it happens I was thinking of Mr. Hetherington and a post he wrote a while back about assisting this morning while stirring my morning coffee, and so I present this nicely dovetailed segue as such:

My recent post about the creation of a freelance army of portrait photographers (no one is safe!) had me turning to another buddy Eric Larson to make sure I wasn't totally off-based, and eventually we started talking about assistants, as two editorial photographers will if you give them more than 20 minutes to chat. We were both sharing our recent difficulties to find an assistant who was really helpful without a ton of coaching, and that ultimately each of us relied largely on other photographer friends. Partly it’s because of the region of the country where we live (not in NYC or LA), but also because neither of us really get someone who doesn't want to be a photographer first and foremost.

I've never assisted a day in my life for money, though of course I've helped out a friend here and there for a few beers. It wasn't that I chose not to assist when I was starting out, it’s that I never even considered it. I really don't think I have that gear in my brain to be a good assistant or to not need to be in total control. It's actually been a struggle since I started using a lot of assistants for me to become better at working with and teaching my assistants how to play a big role helping me on a shoot.

I certainly have all of the respect and love in the world for those who have helped me (for better or worse), and for my many friends who started out as assistants before breaking out on their own, but something always makes me feel strange about the role of the first assistant in this business. As soon as I say that though I also find it very easy to be envious of the thousands of ideas and tricks (not to mention contacts) that I might have been exposed to if I had gone down a different path. Though recreating the wheel for myself over and over again (instead of borrowing one from a mentor or colleague as an assistant) has been a hard way to grow, at the other end of it I feel as though its really my wheel (and vision).

Different strokes for us all and I love that about this industry, but I'm sure that I'll continue to use friends and other photographers as my go to guys and gals. I'm just not ready for some of these gung-ho pro/lifer assistant guys, festooned with gaffers tape and climbing locks, dressed like a kamikaze NYC bike messenger, and wielding light meters and additional rolls of Portra 160NC like ammunition.

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Comments (5)

oh dear.. another bad picture of the girlfriend/fiancee looking spaced out. you owe me one, jlpfl.

That's capital JLPFL to you, missy!

Did you pay Mrs JLPFL the full first assistant rate I think she probably saved your bacon on the Trump shoot, as you were fumbling around with those c-stands she was all grace and poise enough to distract 'The Donald' from all your laborings !

AHPDR is now back home so AHPNYC is in full effect. Great to see you and yours too last week when I was all AHPFLFL you are a lucky man Mr Loomis

Hope to see you both again soon

Cheers

AHPNYC

Thank you, AHPNYC, for the financial reminder. Not only did I not receive any restitution for being the first assistant, I had to share a hotel room with the snoring photographer. Do you know a good assistant's union I can join?

Sincerely,
Future Dr. Mrs. JLPFL.com, Inc. (R)

ha ha Dr.Mrs.JLPFL.com,Inc.(R) I have on many an occasion had to share a room with a snoring first assistant ! Its not all glamour you know, at least it is most of the time. I think JLPFL was saving for the ring way back then so I am sure your residuals have been put to use.

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