Marlon Brando on a Streetcar named Desire Set

photographed by Carl Van Vechten 
Ethel Barrymore Theatre 
243 W47th St Manhattan 1948

Van Vechten is probably best remembered now (and rightly so) for his elegant and celebratory portraits of the many leading figures of the cultural movement that has come to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.  (I was planning to make a post on his portraits of Alvin Ailey and will do so very soon, but I remembered these pictures of Brando that I had come across some time back and how little they flattered the great actor in his very attractive youth, which pleases me, and besides: they were ready to go.)

Jim Collette

photographed by Bob Mizer 
for the Athletic Model Guild & Physique Pictorial 
Pico-Union Los Angeles 
1967 & 1968

As promised yesterday, here are some more pictures of this athletic Franco-American model who accidentally ended his short life the same day as Bobby Kennedy (though unlike the much admired Presidential Candidate not in his beloved LA.)  The first nine employ the same backdrop as the wrestling set with Tommy Evans and were likely shot the same day, a few of them using only the center velvet curtain and others the whole elaborate set up.  The rest come from three separate sessions, though all on the grounds of the Mizer Residence in Pico-Union Los Angeles. The last one, just below, appears to have been made in the back yard on the lawn.

Jim Collette & Tommy Evans wrestling before Black Sequin Curtains

photographed by Robert Mizer 
for AMG & Physique Pictorial 
Los Angeles 1967

According to Bob Mizer, in the pages of Physique Pictorial, Jim Collette died in June 1968 from a lethal mixture of alcohol and pills while camping with a gang of Hippies in Colorado.  It sounds like they dumped his body in a river in hopes that it would look like he drowned.  Jim is the one Stage Left (or Audience Right) in the first six pictures above.  He’s the guy with the bigger pompadour, prettier face and more athletic body.  It should come as no great surprise that I haven’t got any information on Tommy Evans yet.  I’ll post more pictures of Jim alone later, but this longer set of him with Tommy deserved to be seen first, as I found exactly ten of them, and they’re so keenly lit, inky black and sparkly, and just a bit spooky.

Poet Portraits

ten miniatures 
gesso pencil & acrylic on card 
February - March 2017 
San Francisco CA

1.Mary Sidney  

2.Elizabeth Tudor  

3.Solveig Schumann  

4.Jane Grey  

5.Christopher Marlowe  

6.Edward de Vere  

7.Sebastian Brecht  

8.John Donne  

9.Maria Schumann  

10.Thomas Middleton

Chris Ofili

born 10 October 1968
acrylic, oil, polyester resin, paper collage, glitter, map pins, and elephant dung on canvas
Manchester, Chelsea, Berlin, Trinidad and Tobago

1.Blossom 

2.Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars  

 

3.Afrodizzia  

 

4.Mono Oro  

 

5.Afro Love and Envy  

 

6.Afro Sunrise  

 

7.Afro Red Web  

 

8.Afro Nirvana  

 

9.Triple Beam Dreamer  

 

10.Afro Apparition