Turning Back the Clock to the 90s With Scavullo

by Skip Cohen

My post yesterday sent me searching for a throwback of a throwback. I shared this back in 2014. After so many years of blogging, it's too much fun not to share the stories again. 

My best guess on today's "Throwback" is around '95. It was taken in NYC at Scavullo's studio, and we talked about a fundraiser he was helping us with. Again, without finding this print, which I scanned for today's post, all the memories would pretty much be forgotten.

Meeting the first time with Francesco Scavullo was pretty remarkable. He was helping us raise money and awareness for Photographers + Friends United Against AIDS. The event was part of Photo East, now known as Photo Plus Expo.

Two stories tie to this image, making looking back so much fun.

First, besides the memory of Scavullo's dog trying to bite me when I came into the studio, the way the studio was set up was pretty amazing. Francesco had terrible arthritis, and he needed that low camera angle to shoot fashion the way he did. (He was shooting exclusively with Hasselblad. 
Very few people know that every cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine for over seventeen years was shot with Hasselblad gear.)

To get around his arthritis and allow him to shoot at those low angles comfortably, they built a pit in the studio. Much like the old gas stations before hydraulic lifts, where you'd drive over a hole in the floor to have your oil changed, Scavullo would walk down a few steps into this 4-5 foot deep pit. You'd pretty much see only his head sticking out of the floor. The camera was on a short tripod. It was the perfect setup for so many of his studio images.

The second story came during our fundraiser shoot at the convention. Somebody asked him what his favorite Hasselblad lens was. Well, he thought for a minute and then held up his hands about eight inches apart and said, "It's the one that's about this long!" 

I'm not sure we ever did find out what the focal length was, but it didn't matter. Four hundred or so people got to watch him work that day, not just on the program we had scheduled, but with Brooke Shields for her own fundraiser at the beginning of the session when she "borrowed" our set. It was a moment to remember.

The sidebar story I left out of this post originally was that the session with Brooke Shields ran late, and we had a few hundred people growing more and more agitated as they waited in the hallway. Brooke Shields's mother would not allow them in while her daughter was being photographed. That led to a small shouting match between us; I had to let people come in. Fortunately, my good buddy Denis Reggie stepped in and used his diplomatic skills, and we could open the doors.

The whole Throwback Thursday thing comes together with one great point...do you know where all your memories are? All those images of past events in your life bring back the most amazing stories. Throwback Thursday isn't just an excuse for me to pull out old photographs. It's a reminder for all of you to do the same and share them with friends. There are few things better than a walk down memory lane to start the day! ​

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