Nancy Ellison – Altered Ego’s opened on March 19th at the Pacific Design Center. Nancy has been photographing Hollywood, music, writers, the dance world and politicians since the seventies and her body of work is prodigious. In order to put this retrospective together she reviewed over 200,000 negatives, seeing some of her images in a new light and finding pictures she had made and forgotten. The result is a gorgeous show with big beautiful prints of everyone from George Hurrell to Mick Jagger. Her work captures Hollywood’s biggest names provocatively posing for the camera in boudoir situations and relaxed and approachable in candid moments. Everyone looks beautiful and everyone has opened up and shown themselves unafraid in front of her lens. I asked Nancy for her thoughts about some of my favorites in the show.
Andy Romanoff: Robert Mitchum just looking at the lens, you show a very private and unguarded moment here. What was going on when you shot this?
Nancy Ellison: I had just created my own impromptu studio on the set of That Championship Season, with the assignment to shoot the cast in one large group shot. Unexpectedly, Mitchum ambled over with coffee in hand and took over my apple boxes. He sat there staring at me with that Mitchum look and I started shooting him. Wow. He then began his famous storytelling and I was utterly hooked.
AR: Mick Jagger 1982, the close-up with his face next to someone’s butt, this is a great shot even for a performer who is always a provocateur. How did it come to be?
NE: We were shooting at my home in Malibu and having a wonderful time. His charming PR rep, after figuring out everything was going well, changed into a bikini to do yoga on the beach. Later, she wandered back into the area where we were shooting. Mick immediately took advantage of the moment – as he is prone to do.
AR: Sharon Stone with a doll in her lap; over and over you seem able to establish real trust with the people sitting in front of your lens. How did you manage that so consistently?
NE: I first met and photographed Sharon in Mexico City on the set of Total Recall, and we became friends – shooting a lot together. During the making of Sliver, we shot both in on location in NYC and back in Los Angeles. Here she is at home on a day off wearing her favorite cow flannel PJs. I like her normal take on happiness…
AR: Hal Ashby, sitting in his hot tub, I know you spent many years photographing actors on film sets. It’s not so usual to see the private moments of directors. How did you come to make this picture?
NE: We both lived in Malibu Colony and were friends and neighbors. Hal was fairly unique as a director in that he did not bring his own agenda to the making of Coming Home (a film on which I did special photography). He treated all his characters as if he was on their side and that gave everyone a chance to feel the dignity of their own positions vis a vis the Viet Nam War. Off screen he was lovable and aloof all at once – super cool but really private, yet he had no trouble allowing me to shoot him in the nude and vulnerable. (Other images on the roll were wildly graphic)
AR: The Barbie series, Happy Birthday Mr. President, you were already well known for photographing many real women who in some way personified the Barbie ideal. Why then did you choose to do this series?
NE: My husband to be, Bill Rollnick, brought me a Barbie to photograph. (He was involved with Mattel) I photographed Barbie the same way I would have photographed any beautiful starlet. It was fun. We took a few to Moscow during the summer of ‘91, where Barbie was not available for sale, yet everyone knew just who Barbie was. It started to become a game for me. Barbie in Paris, London, Washington DC… a book development deal, then lots of Barbies some one-off Barbies wearing real miniature jewelry took hold. The inner child ruled! Barbie Live was the result. I could not help but create an homage to the famous photograph of Marilyn Monroe singing, Happy Birthday Mr. President. I am nutty for the image!
AR: There are some big prints here. I’m guessing not the size they were originally intended to be, any thoughts about that?
NE: Seeing Patrick Swayze’s photo as large as it is in the show (48×72) gave me a sense of intimacy with him that I actually had not experienced during the shoot, which was pleasant but routine and professional. Fresh off Dirty Dancing he was riding the perfect wave. I loved his “blue collar” masculinity and was delighted when he agreed to pose bare-chested. What intrigues me about this image is the apparent relaxed passive posture of his body, yet his face it taut and wary – very feline!
AR: Looking at the installation I’m struck by the thought that It’s not uncommon to photograph women as beautiful but less so to photograph men that way. Your pictures of men consistently show them as beautiful creatures, idealized the same way Hollywood idealizes women. Was this a choice you made and if so why?
NE: If you think of Greek Art, it is the male that is the most idealized. I trained as a painter and art historian. It is normal for me to bring a painter’s sensibility to photography. Beauty is a cultural ideal, and its form is not sexist. We rejuvenate in the face of beauty and grace. It is healthy.
AR: There is a great shot of Pavarotti in the show but I understand there is another version with you in it.
NE: There is, I was doing a book on the Met Opera (IN GRAND STYLE: THE GLORY OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA -RIZOLLI) covering a season and a half. I say half as this shot of Pavarotti was at the end of the season and it was his final performance. I received permission to cover him in a strict photojournalist style and got it. For the book, the shots were re-touched, but the more serious ones where he was helped off stage etc. I did not retouch… This was a dressing room portrait after his final 40 minute standing ovation. He sang brilliantly – something he could not do doing rehearsals – and it was clear how much people loved him… but look at the anxiety in his eyes…
AR: I have one more question I’d love to ask but… I recall you have a picture of Hillary Clinton where she seems fiercely angry or maybe displeased. I could have sworn it was in this show. Am I wrong, is it on your website or am I just a victim of my misspent youth again?
NE: Yes, you remembered correctly – but my web site only. The image in my show was taken at the same time as the one you remember when she was “fiercely” concentrating on what was being said at a forum during the Clinton Global Initiative. I don’t remember the topic but you saw the two very real sides of Hillary. She is a fierce listener, and she has one of the most delicious laugh/smiles around. President Clinton gave me VIP permission to roam the conference without the usual press ropes, which took me to a few more private places. I chose the laughing Hillary for my exhibition, as I love partnering it with the dreamy-eyed President Clinton portrait, which was taken during the same conference.
Andy Romanoff
Nancy Ellison – Altered Egos
From March 19th to June 1st 2013
Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069
USA
+1 310-657-0800
