Happy Birthday Theda
July 10th, 2020
Today is Theda’s birthday, so I thought I’d do a little tribute post in honor of one of the best models I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. Above is from the first shoot I did with Theda. We were shooting in a tiny room at the W hotel in mid-town Manhattan. At this first shoot I was immediately struck by Theda’s remarkable beauty as well as her great talent as a model.
Her talent and great figure were both crucial elements in making this photo above in the legendary Carlton Arms hotel in Manhattan a success.
I was never able to take Theda on one of my photo trips because she simply does not travel. But I was able to talk her into doing an outdoor shoot near NYC in spite of her many alergies. That resulted in the photo below. When she posted this shot in her portfolio she noted the location as “a pile of histamines.” This shot was published in French PHOTO magazine, winning me a few bonus points with Theda because appearing in that magazine was one of her goals for her modeling career.
I even talked her into going wading in this lily pond during that shoot.
Theda is one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met, way smarter than me. But she seemed to tolerate my limited mental abilities and was always a true collaborator when we worked together. That made her perfect for the first of my Nurse photos. This was taken shortly after I saw Richard Prince’s nurse paintings at the Guggenheim museum in NYC. I call it “Bend Over.”
Theda always seemed to be in tune with my weird sense of humor, which helped us make some fun photos. She once told me that I couldn’t photograph Theda’s soul because she didn’t have one, and besides, she had traded it to Satan for a mix tape years ago. That led to this photograph, “Theda Trading Her Soul for a Mix Tape.”
That wasn’t bad enough, though. We went on at that same shoot to do this photo: “Theda Cheating Death.”
OK…by now you are getting the idea of how my sense of humor works and how Theda seemed to enjoy humoring me. And that led to this last shot. The needlework was hanging on the wall in her apartment. She didn’t hesitate for an instant when I suggested this photo.
Happy birthday Theda. You have enriched my life and my photography. I miss working with you. I hope we can get together if I’m ever able to make it back to New York City.
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