© Albert Watson

By Albert Watson

This was the first and only time I worked with Michael Jackson. We were booked for a two-day shoot for the Invincible album cover and some inside photos. The shooting was divided into one day of portraits and one day of dance shots at my studio in New York.

I already owned a mirror rig that allowed me to adjust eight mirrors individually. And, of course, before Michael arrived, the mirrors and lighting were completely prepared on the set. To give Michael more flexibility (and to add a little fun) I gave him what was essentially a stripper's pole on a white Plexi stage. When he arrived on the set, Michael spent two or three minutes stretching and then started dancing in front of the mirrors to "Billie Jean," which we played over the studio stereo system. Because of the set-up and the preparation, it was hard not to get some magical shots in almost every frame during the roughly 30 minutes he danced in front of the camera. This was Michael Jackson dancing, after all. How could you go wrong?

I found Michael charming, cooperative, totally professional, and a pleasure to deal with. The shooting was actually quite easy. After seeing the contact sheets from the shoot, the final print was essentially one gigantic contact sheet. From far away, the print looks almost like a piece of wallpaper, but close up, it gives you a very good idea of the entire shooting, and the charisma and power of Michael's dancing."

See more of Albert's images in Who Shot Rock & Roll, showing at the Annenberg Space for Photography through October 21, 2012. Learn more about him on his website at www.albertwatson.net.

By Godlis

I remember that night like it was yesterday. They say a camera stops time, and for me, in this case it’s proven to be true. One-quarter of a second exposure on my handheld Leica IIIf camera back in 1976 has endured via silver and megapixels all these years.

I spent a lot of time in 1976 looking through the French photographer Brassai’s photographs of Paris nightlife in the 1930s, and had worked out a way to shoot photographs at night by natural light without flash. In looking back now, it was all of another time – pushed tri-x film, arcane developing chemicals, nights in the darkroom. But it enabled me to return night after night to CBGB’s with boxes of pictures to show off my experiments to my friends in a budding scene and create my “Documents for Artists.”

It was in between sets when everyone headed out from within CBGB’s, to the raw air under the Bowery streetlights.  Patti Smith was standing in mid-conversation that night, when I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if I could take her photograph. I know I saw the Bleecker Street sign in the background and thought “perfect.” I knew that she was standing in the right spot, under the streetlamps. All the elements were in place. So when she turned my way and brought her hand to her face – I knew in that moment, the photo was mine to have or screw up.  Shooting at night, handheld – no tripod - meant both Patti and I would have to be perfectly still. I did my part that night, and obviously Patti more than did hers. One-quarter of a second stopped forever. Time on my side.

See Godlis's work in the Who Shot Rock & Roll exhibit, currently showing at the Annenberg Space for Photography. To learn more about the photographer and his work visit his official website.

Who Shot Rock & Roll: The Film accompanies the photo exhibit of the same name. The short documentary focuses on the work of the show's nine featured photographers with original interviews and hundreds more rock & roll images. One of the interviewees, Mary McCartney, discusses her mother Linda's body of work. Watch a 3-minute clip of Mary talking about her mother's photos of Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and many others above. A young Mary even makes an appearance in one of the photos she discusses.

While BEAUTY CULTURE continues to break attendance records here at the Annenberg Space for Photography, we thought now would be a good time as any to publish a post on one of featured photographers, Lauren Greenfield and the documentary film, also titled BEAUTY CULTURE, that accompanies the show. The 30-minute film was directed by the award-winning photographer herself.

Produced by her husband and producing partner, Frank Evers, Greenfield filmed the documentary over the course of several months in Los Angeles, New York and Paris. Her intent was to create a film that focused on the sociological and psychological perceptions of beauty from a cross-cultural viewpoint.

Regarding her work on BEAUTY CULTURE Greenfield says, "A lot of the things I photograph are interconnected: from the young girls and the kind of precocious sexualization of young girls, to the vanity of teenagers and the kind of struggle to establish your identity as a teenager, to women and older women facing the challenge of getting older in a youth-obsessed culture. So this project, BEAUTY CULTURE, allowed me to kind of bring the work full circle and look at all aspects."

The film has been met with resounding praise from many guests here at the photography space citing Los Angeles--with its Hollywood machine and incessant promotion of the billion-dollar cosmetics industry--as an ideal location for a film addressing warped ideals of beauty.

BEAUTY CULTURE is certainly not Greenfield's first foray into filmmaking. Her documentary Thin premiered on HBO in 2006, also screening at the Sundance Film Festival. A film dealing with eating disorders of young women, Thin went on to earn Greenfield an Emmy nomination for Best Director of Non-Fiction Programming. Her follow-up doc kids + money, also broadcast on HBO, won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the AFI Film Festival among other honors.

The film, which features interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis, Tyen, Crystal Renn and many others, screens throughout the day at the Space. Make sure you come see it before the exhibit closes next month.

As for Greenfield, she will return to the Space as our IRIS Nights lecturer on Thursday, October 13, in what is sure to be a standing-room only event!