Pat Jordan is not old, at least not in the way that matters… just numerically perhaps. The acclaimed author has a first-person piece in the new (September) issue of Men’s Journal and I was tasked to make his portrait which was as difficult as it was a distinct pleasure. Mr. Jordan like most journalists (discounting of course broadcast “journalists” who haven’t qualified for that distinctive title for, oh, well, 30 years) does not like to have his picture made, even though the dude is in ridiculously good shape. It’s an ego thing, a mistrust of how things end up feeling once they leave the careful control of scribblers and shooters into the morass of editors and account reps along 6th Ave. And he should know, he’s been at the heart of the editorial business since before I was but a twinkle in an eye.
The shoot was complicated because of a run of bad luck, travel, weather, timing, un-cooperative dogs, and everything else. Once I finally arrived with my assistant (and brother) Ryan the rain had stopped but the air was so thick with mosquitoes that the first 2 set-ups (outside of course) were brutal. But that first set-up had some juice in it and I felt like we were getting somewhere. I had a few ideas about the portrait and (for the first time in my life) really wanted to do an homage to Annie L.’s portrait of poet Robert Penn Warren (him shirtless, later in life, sitting on the edge of a bed); but ultimately they didn’t sit well and we decided to play it fast and loose.
Back inside we did several more set-ups in the Jordan’s beautiful and saturated Key West-style home (riots of color EVERYWHERE), including some images in his office which is filled with the good old stuff of the craft… much-loved typewriters (multiples of his favorite model), Pat’s preferred sheet paper, the ashes of he and his wife’s many dogs they’ve loved and said goodbye to, and wall-to-wall shelves of books (including one devoted to his own). An image from the office ended up being what the magazine decided on, maybe because there is enough contrast between young and old Pat staring back at the reader but it wasn’t my first choice.
Unlike a lot of shoots where even if they didn’t go perfect, you got what you got, the client is happy and you move on… something felt more personal with Pat’s shoot. There was something at stake for me and I didn’t get what I wanted, i.e. something iconic of this complicated and experienced subject. I’d like to go back again and again until I nailed it, but I’m not sure Pat would be up for it… but I’ll give him a chance on my own time and dime, and maybe next year we’ll get it. My favorite image from the shoot is one from the first set-up and this helpful arch of shrubbery. I was more than a little bummed when I didn’t find it looking back at me from the newsstand, but that’s life and magazines.