Thursday, June 7, 2018

Yes, I was face to face with Donald Trump

All of the celebrity photos on the cover of my book WHO'D SAY THAT...

....were taken by me.

It was basically saving the publisher some money, but it was also my tribute, in some cases, to people who I enjoyed meeting.

Every picture tells a story, don't it?

Maybe, but I don't have a story for every picture. Sometimes it was a thrill to get a celebrity's photo...maybe in the same way Richard Attenborough was glad to train his camera on an elusive dingo or a mating capybara.

I remember Sinatra, at a Friars roast, briskly walking through and not wanting to bother with a photo op before getting behind the closed doors of the dais. Likewise, Howard Stern was at a David Letterman party and I was only there because my friend Brother Theodore didn't want to go and gave me his invitation. No way could I ask him to pose, or to do more than grab a quick unobtrusive shot.

I worked for several photo agencies and that accounts for the picture of Donald Trump. This was before he was a reality show star. I was covering a banquet, and was told to make sure to get some pictures of him because financial magazines and newspapers might be interested.

Although I was a bit nervous, the image that brings me the the happiest feeling is the one of John Cleese, taken in his hotel room. Oddly enough, I was an assigned photographer on that one; it wasn't an interview for my comedy magazine RAVE. Fortunately the interviewer did a nice job and when it was my turn to get a few shots, John was up for anything!

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