Kiki Smith
Greg Kucera deals with some very big names in art and will sometimes bring artists by to visit Larry and show them the frameshop and Art Resource(also owned by Greg and Larry) upstairs. So I was out front putting away samples and in comes Greg with a women with some wild grey hair. This women turns out to be Kiki Smith. Greg introduces her and asks me to show her some of my plates and the big Deardorff camera I keep at the shop. Greg suggested to Kiki that she should get her picture taken and I happily agreed. She thought about it and said I had ten minutes. Greg and Kiki go upstairs and visit Art Resource upstairs and frantically set up a make-shift backdrop with some black gator board and a chair next to a tall window in the wood shop. I had enough light filtering in but set up a big soft box for insurance and then set up my impromptu darkroom in the employee lounge. I cut and cleaned an 11 x 14 glass plate then quickly poured on the collodion and then dropped it into the silver nitrate bath. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough silver to cover the entire plate so I had to adjust for this on the ground glass. so then Kiki comes down sans Greg and I show her where to sit. When she sat down, I was struck by her hair and her tattooed. I asked her to look out the window and explained that exposure was going to be 4 seconds and that she could blink and just relax.
I ran into the “darkroom” and loaded the plate into the holder and ran back to load the holder, told her I would give her a countdown and proceeded to expose the plate. I asked her if she wanted to watch the plate develop and she agreed. I led her into the ether filled room and poured on the developer. I prayed to the collodion gods and the image developed with a sweet amount of exposure. My anxiety lifted as the image appeared. I remember Kiki being very concerned about how I was not wearing gloves and that she warned me “You will fuck yourself up”. I just laughed and tried to explain that the silver nitrate would only stain my fingers for a week or so. She became concerned and told me she had some permanent lung damage and other issues from exposure to shit like acetone and other nasty stuff. I told her that the only reason I wasn’t wearing gloves was that I had just run out- I always wear gloves and the breakroom is well ventilated and the back woodshop windows are always open when I shoot there-
She really freaked out when I dunked the plate into the Cyanide bath. She held her nose and took a few steps back and snapped a few shots of me clearing the plate. After the plate was washed I threw it on the small electric griddle and invited her to watch it dry. Once it was dry she told me about how different races age differently and how white women lose fat above their mouth which causes it to fall slightly. She said the plate was beautiful and I was glad the plate had made it to the hotplate and was now fixed and dry. After it was varnished I asked Kiki if she would like a print from the plate and I offered to give her one of the plates if she sat for another one. She thought about it for 2 seconds and said she would but she was hungry and asked where she could get something to eat. Larry suggested Cherry Street Coffee so she went across the street and got a bowl of soup.
I prepared another plate and mixed some developer waited for her to get back. She came back and told me she had a friend picking her up soon so I need to be quick. She sat again but this time I asked to turn her head and look to the right. The window light had faded and the Softbox was the safer light source. I wanted to get a straight on shot of her face but to not have her look into the camera. I took the shot, processed, and varnished it. SAFE!!! two frickin shots of Kiki on the quick!! with no warning and no preparation…………eesh!
After the plate varnishe had hardened we looked at the plates and she said that she would take the plate that I didn’t want. I liked the second shot and she took the first. We exchanged info and I packed her plate for a safe trip back to New York.