Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Photographing MOMA Photography Curator, Susan Kismaric

When photographer Barbara Leven called and asked me if I would photograph Susan Kismaric, the photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art, in conjunction with a conference PWP, (Professional Women Photographers), plans for March when Ms. Kismaric will be the keynote speaker, I was humbled, gratified and a little anxious. I would have felt a bit more intimidated and apprehensive about this assignment had I not taken this photograph of Lesley Martin, the editor of the prestigious publication, "Aperture" last year for the exhibition, “Faces of A Village”, in Long Island City.
My assistant, Alex Kotlik and I arrived at MOMA on a recent Tuesday morning when the museum is closed to the public. Having previously scouted the museum for the best places to shoot Susan, I knew that I wanted some photos at the Bauhaus Stairway. However, I felt compelled to start out in the iconic Sculpture Garden, even though the light was a bit contrasty. With Alex manipulating the reflector, we got a couple of good shots outside with Susan sitting in the open shade.

After we went inside, I recognized that I had an immediate problem. I had discovered, the day before, that my husband, who took my Canon D10 to shoot a project that he was working on in California, accidentally took the battery charger for my Nikon. I knew that I was low on battery juice, but I thought I would have enough power for the shoot, with my two batteries having half-lives. It turned out that one of the batteries actually had no life at all, and so I was left with one battery half full (or half empty, depending on how one looks at these things.) Having told Susan that I wouldn’t take up more than an hour shooting her, I squelched my apprehension and got on with the job at hand.

What a joy it was to walk through the galleries, with no one around, surrounded by some of the most fabulous works of art on the planet. Susan told me that it was one of the perks she most enjoyed while working at the museum. The light and background in the galleries was wonderful and Susan seemed pretty happy to be sitting and looking pretty, so before we moved on to the Bauhaus Steps, I got these in.

I knew I still had enough battery life to get a few in the Bauhaus Steps and and they turned out to be Susan’s, PWP’s, and my favorites. This is the one that Susan liked best, and PWP will be using this for publicity purposes.

Thinking it would be a good idea to just get a couple of shots in the Photography gallery, I managed to get off a few frames (that I did not use) just as my battery died. So, a couple of lessons learned: watch what your husband takes away with him, and don’t panic (which I didn’t!).