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October 13, 2008 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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Columns |
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Some photographers would kill for the kind of behind-the-scenes access that Douglas Carver has enjoyed at venues as diverse and challenging as Indy Car Racing, American Ballet Theater, The Grateful Dead and the 7th-on-6th fashion runways of New York. Carver has earned his access by gentler methods, including respect for people, passion for his subject, dedication to his craft, and a knack for fading into the background of high-profile, high-anxiety settings. Carver’s images exude an edgy, spontaneous and intimate energy. So do his stories of how to get that precious laminate pass, how to behave backstage, how to equip yourself for fast, flexible shooting under unpredictable situations and how to relate to the talented, famous and frenetically busy stars parading past your lenses. Carver’s interest in photography started with a sports injury that forced him off the playing fields of Lawrenceville, the elite, all-male boarding school that generations of his family had attended. No longer able to compete in football, ice hockey and lacrosse, he picked up a camera and began shooting sports, partly to hang with his buddies who were still on the field and partly because he needed an outlet for all the adolescent energy he had formerly channeled into athletics. What began as an intriguing hobby in high school blossomed into an experimental video major at UC Berkeley and a career path (with a few sharp turns and detours) upon graduation. People-skills are pivotal People-skills have been a pivotal element of Carver’s photographic journey from the beginning. Arriving in New York to start a classic period of apprenticeship, he hooked up with a network of recent graduates from Brooks Institute. They were assisting in top studios and opened many doors for him. Carver’s assisting credits include Arthur Elgort (American Vogue, Harper's Bazaar), Francesco Scavullo (Cosmopolitan, American Vogue), Eric Bowman (British Vogue), and even Irving Penn. It was fashion-photographer Arthur Elgort who validated Carver’s instinct to go after the un-posed moment. ‘He was always shooting, whether the models were on-set or off—not to be invasive but to make people look vital, lively. He’d shoot while the girls were changing or relaxing. He showed me it was valid to take behind-the-scenes pictures and editors agreed because his work ran on covers of top magazines.’ At the height of his assisting days, Carver got a pleasant shock when he paused to glance at the magazines displayed on a midtown Manhattan kiosk. ‘Vogue, Harpers and Cosmopolitan were there side-by-side and I realized that I had worked on all three covers. I was around 20, and it put a shiver down my back. Once you’re out on your own, it’s impossible to have that amount of presence in three competing organizations simultaneously.’ Confessions of a ballet-junkie Carver’s first big backstage break came with the American Ballet Theater. Typically, it was the human connection that opened the door. ‘At the time, I was living with a dancer in New York City Ballet and was very much a ballet-junkie,’ he says. ‘I was going three times a week, which is a lot for a straight guy.’ But Carver couldn’t bring his camera backstage at Lincoln Center because of restrictive rules imposed by the city’s iron-fisted unions so he started following the troupe on tour, Saratoga, Palm Beach, etc. ‘Part of it was just lifestyle. Those gals are so talented, but also so locked up-- They really know how to have a good time when they’re not working. I’d take pictures everywhere: class rehearsals, narrow hallways, public restaurants, and private parties. They were friends and knew I was going to make them look good, so no one objected.’  © 2006 Douglas Carver
One of the finest lines he had to tread involved working relations with powerful and preoccupied people, such as Peter Martins, the ballet’s Master in Chief. ‘I’d see him a lot over the period of a year while I was shooting,’ says Carver, ‘and if you’re often in a room with someone, working around him but never meeting his eye, there’s a distance. So sometimes, I’d look him in the eye and give a polite nod. I found that was the perfect balance between showing respect and not interfering with someone who’s deep in thought and has so many demands on their time.’ Going right up to the edge but not beyond Carver’s enthusiasm and tact eventually earned him an invitation to accompany New York’s other premiere ballet troupe, American Ballet Theater, to Japan. He went from being unable to shoot backstage at Lincoln Center to having complete access. Out of 24 shows on the Japan tour, he shot three out-front and the other 21 backstage. ‘It was an astounding experience,’ he says. ‘My first big-name backstage job and I just loved ballet for so many reasons. But it was challenging-- no flash photography, no assistants. I was basically locked into one position for any given act. I was always trying to find where the edge was so I could go right up to the edge and not beyond it. The best pictures are right on that cusp.’ The three baby ballerinas Since flash was verboten on-stage, Carver sometimes prowled the rehearsal corridors, and it was there that he found one of his most enduring (and endearing) ballet images. ‘I was walking down this long hallway as it sporadically filled with baby ballerinas running around in their black leotards. Its narrowness provided a converging perspective but it was too drab for a good shot. I started thinking in terms of color and graphics. I waited for an interesting group. Finally, three girls came by with their hair pulled back and just the right variety of faces. I’d already checked the fluorescent tube types and knew that their colorcast was an unflattering green. So I lit the foreground with flash and over-gelled it with too much magenta, knowing that when I rebalanced the color during printing, the girls would look fine and the hall would go surreal green. I dragged the shutter (long exposure) with rear-curtain sync both to further increase the ambient fluorescent green and to add a slight blur outline around the girls and make the image more three-dimensional.’  © 2006 Douglas Carver
With the Andrettis at Indy Carver earned his entrée into the closed world of Indy Car racing by helping a friend prepare for her first photo show. The friend happened to be an editor at Simon and Shuster, and after Carver visited her office three times to consult about her photos, the editor asked why he never brought any of his own. ‘Finally, I brought up a portfolio,’ he says. ‘She asked if I would mind waiting while she showed it to at art director, who took it in to show the editor-in-chief, who took it in to show the publisher. In 10 minutes, they said. ‘We want you to do a book.’  © 2006 Douglas Carver
The book was for a series promoting literacy by portraying special days in the lives of special people. Carver proposed a profile of the Andrettis at Indianapolis. The publishers thought he was blowing smoke but, in fact, Carver knew the car fabricator who worked for the Andretti racing team. He contacted the Andretti office and was surprised to find them quickly responsive. ‘That was largely because I was pitching a book on Michael,’ says Carver. ‘He was a young star and very, very good but Mario was so overwhelmingly famous that everything was Mario, Mario, Mario. I thought Michael would be perfect as a positive role model for literacy because of the father-son dynamic and the fact that the Andrettis are an incredibly strong solid family with great values.’ They just get it Once granted access, Carver, and his brother, Rob, who co-wrote the book, worked with the Andrettis for nine months, shooting seven races, which were multi-day events, before spending three weeks with the Newman-Haas team at Indy. They came away with a deep respect for one of America’s premiere racing families. ‘Not to idealize them,’ he says, ‘but they’re what you wish famous people were like. They’re so grounded. They just get it. They work incredibly hard but realize that nothing’s more important than family and teamwork. They saw that we were working hard and trying to do the right thing, so they facilitated the process for us. It made all of the difference in the experience and the pictures.’ According to Carver, most of the problems he faced in the pits were because of the photographers who had preceded him. ‘Too often other photographers had gone banging around with egos and jamming lights everywhere. Their attitude had been, ‘Why don’t these people understand that I could make great pictures if they’d just cooperate?’ Well, the team had invested nine million dollars to get their car where it was and they wanted to win the race - not make great photos.’  © 2006 Douglas Carver
Through humility and hard work, Carver built a relationship of mutual respect with Michael Andretti but never presumed on it. ‘Yes, I liked Michael & Mario and enjoyed being around them,’ he says, ‘we shared professional and personal moments, but I acknowledged that our friendship was circumstantial. I didn’t hesitate to seek photo access, but I never made personal assumptions. Because of that, they grew to respect me and give me opportunities that they certainly didn’t have to.’ Once, Carver inadvertently offended a visiting factory engineer by photographing a super-proprietary part of the racecar’s engine. Carver’s interest was purely aesthetic but the engineer demanded that he yank the film out of his camera. Michael heard the ruckus, came over, touched the exacerbated engineer on the hand, and ended the incident in an instant by saying ‘It’s all right. He’s with me.’ On another occasion, Michael came out of a private victory party to deal with an over-zealous bouncer who insisted on denying Carver access to the inner circle. The end result of Carver’s months of work on the racetrack was Michael Andretti at Indianapolis, a 64- page book of color photographs and text, published by Simon & Schuster. From the exhaust fumes of Indy to the haze backstage with the Grateful Dead Smitty, the friendly car fabricator who helped Carver get into the pits at Indy had two passions in life— racecars and rock ‘n roll and he combined the two by tweaking Ferraris for the Grateful Dead. Smitty introduced Carver to Phil Lesh’s personal manager during the Laguna Seca race. The next time the Dead played New York, the manager invited Carver behind the scenes at Madison Square Garden. ‘When Kidd (the manager) saw me backstage,’ Carver recounts, ‘he asked, ‘Where’s all your stuff?’ I hadn’t brought cameras because Kidd & I had met as friends and I assumed that people were always hustling him for favors and access. But he said, ‘For God’s sake, bring your camera tomorrow night, if you want to, that is.’  © 2006 Douglas Carver
Carver bought one camera and two lenses to the next performance and expanded from there. Within months, he was getting there 4-5 hours early with an assistant and cases of equipment, doing radio-remote installations, and using exotic lenses. ‘With a scene as big as the Grateful Dead,’ he says, ‘you know that talented people have been running around taking photos for the last 30 years, and it’s a real challenge coming up with something new.’ He shot Grateful Dead tours for the next three years, until Jerry’s tragic departure.  © 2006 Douglas Carver
Deadheads are notoriously laid-back but the scene backstage at their concerts sometimes crackled with uptight egotism. Carver made that unwelcome discovery while attempting to get a remote-camera rigged up in the rafters before a performance. ‘I stepped back, and my feet touched a cable, just touched it. But the guy who was handling the cable had it in for me. He blew up - never mind that it was hours before the performance and before the sound check. Some people take their spaces very privately and don’t want to share.’ Fashion Icon Carver was invited to go behind the scenes of the New York fashion world by a former Ford model, Mila Radulovic, who was retiring from the runway to start a fashion website. She envisioned the site, called Fashion Icon, as an electronic Vogue, offering a hipper, behind-the-scenes look at fashion. She had met Carver during a Levi’s casting, knew his style and wanted him to shoot the New York shows. Carver accepted the challenge, and that was the beginning of a five-year immersion in the swirl of designer clothes and glamour girls. Before each season, Carver and his employer would go over the list of designers and shows, selecting the hottest ones to shoot. ‘Then she would go through the hard work of getting me the access. We didn’t always get every show. But I shot about 20 shows a season, twice a year for five years. It was pretty intense. I shot out front when required, and went backstage whenever I could get there. You go through different levels of kiss-my-ring and trying to get access. You have to pre-register, get credentials verified, and pick-up a photo ID and all that does is allow you to request access. Actual access is determined by each designer’s PR company based upon your sponsor/publication, your relationship with the designer, your ability to cajole, and sometimes your willingness to genuflect.’ When the adrenalin peaks Carver found that some of the least known designers offered the most dynamic photo opportunities, following the universal law that the best time to connect with somebody is just before they reach stardom. Several times he shot talented but commercially unknown designers who were making a big push, had good girls, good hair and makeup and good clothes and came away with his most creative and memorable images. They were infinitely more cooperative than the big names because they were hungry to get their gear out in front of other people. ‘The best backstage shots are just before the show opens when the adrenalin peaks,’ he says. ‘Sometimes, I’d capture that backstage energy and sometimes just the opposite. At Girbaud, I caught a personal favorite of a model who was surrounded by pandemonium yet completely in her own Zen-like space. She was calm; the clothes were bold. Striving for a dramatic portrait of calm, I lit her with a hard off-axis flash.’  © 2006 Douglas Carver
One of the most delicate boundaries Carver had to navigate behind-the-scenes of the fashion world involved knowing when to take pictures of beautiful girls slipping in and out of their clothes. ‘I’m not interested in compromising some poor gal half-exposed while she’s changing,’ he says. ‘But opportunities are transpiring during those peak moments. With focus and effort, there are respectful ways to capture images filled with a sexy vitality that makes both the girls and the clothes look great. Half-on and half-off are great if you’re getting the right halves. That creates a tension and energy that I’m happy to put in a fine-art gallery. There are other photographers… I really don’t know what they’re thinking, but they just shoot as much as they can get. Then the girls get upset and it’s a well justified anger.’ Visual signature Shooting fashion season after season gave Carver a chance to refine his techniques and equipment over time. Gradually, he began to bring less gear and more pre-visualized ideas. He also refined his personal vision. ‘My visual signature is pictures that are in-focus but blurred,’ he says. ‘Out-of-focus means you missed it. I’m aiming at something that is sharply focused but also has some blur, because life, good energetic life, is not static. Typically, I capture in two layers, a soft ambient layer that gives the photograph feeling and location, and then on top of that, a crisp flash-frozen layer that gives clarity and impact.’  © 2006 Douglas Carver
Carver’s multi-layered images reveal his fascination with the difference between the on-stage performance and the back-stage reality. ‘I’m so drawn to behind-the-scenes work, he says, ‘because I’m really interested in the human pursuit of perfection. Whether it’s racing or fashion or ballet--- the performers are presenting this fantastically perfected version of reality to the audience. I love to peek behind the curtain to see what the wizard’s really doing.’ When not working shooting the scenes, Carver works out of his Fifth Avenue studio that specializes in digital workflow solutions – making technology transparent to allow more creative control in less time. His active career in advertising includes work for Levi's, Microsoft, L'Oreal, Nikon and Sony. His editorial client list includes The New York Times, Vogue, Glamour, Newsweek, W Magazine and ABC-TV Sports. Stay tuned for the upcoming exhibit and publication of his “Body Parts” fine art portfolio. Douglas Carver's Gear Camera Lenses Memory Card Software Hardware Click here to read our interview with Douglas Carver... Click here to read Douglas Carver's Six Essential Tips & Getting and Working Backstage...
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