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Cover Story: Gene Martin—Eye on Music
By Lynne Eodice | Cover Archives |
Jul 1, 2006
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All Images © Gene Martin
After a 15-year stint as a professional guitar player, Gene Martin picked up his camera again in the mid-’80s (he had previously studied photography in college). He soon made a name specializing in portraits of celebrities and music personalities, particularly jazz artists. He’s shot 52 JazzTimes covers since 1988, and his images have appeared in Time, Newsweek, US, People, and Entertainment Weekly. Among the celebrities who have posed for him are Evander Holyfield, Tony Randall, Cyndi Lauper, Ravi Shankar, Spike Lee, and Margaret Thatcher. Martin’s subjects appear very animated, and he attributes this to his abilities as a ‘people’ person and thinking quickly on his feet. He has said, “…my goal has always been to tell a story about a performer in a single image.”
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| A Nikon D2X multiple exposure image of Ray Mantilla |
Double Exposure: How did you first become interested in photography?
Gene Martin: I’ve always been kind of a “techy” person; gadgets interest me. Lighting is my specialty, and there’s nothing that I feel that I can’t make happen. Around January of ’65, I saw a photo magazine in a store that had a Nikon Photonic TN on the cover—I think it was Modern Photography. Something about the camera just caught my eye, so I bought that magazine
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| Houston Sax Player |
and started reading about photography. My uncle, who was a photographer in the Navy, found out about my new-found interest. He gave me a “real camera,” a Bolsey model B2 rangefinder. It was the technical aspect, the intrigue of the dials and buttons, that got me into photography to begin with. Later, I found that I had a knack for it. I also had an interest in music, so I started photographing bands and going to concerts. It wasn’t as tough to bring in a camera as it is today. I remember photographing Cream at Madison Square Garden in 1968, Blind Faith the following year, and Linda Rohnstadt at the Bitter End in 1970.
DE: Tell me about your education.
GM: I took a vocational test in high school, and it indicated that the #1 vocation I should pursue was to be a musician, and #2 was a photographer. During the ’60s I attended the University of Farmingdale in Long Island, New York, and took photography courses. It was the crazy ’60s, and I wanted to know everything about the subculture that I belonged to. I dropped out of college and did a number of different things—I was a carpenter, a landscaper, and a musician. My uncle later gave me his darkroom enlarger and I had a black-and-white darkroom in the basement, so I learned how to do my own photo processing. I owned a Mamiya and a Pentax H1A. I thought a lot about becoming a professional photographer, especially after seeing the movie, “Blow Up,” which was a big influence on me.
DE: What finally made you decide to pursue photography as a living?
GM: One Sunday in 1984, I was in the city and saw a black Nikon FTN for sale at a camera store. This Nikon was made in 1974, the last year they
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| Peter Frampton |
made that camera. I had always wanted a Nikon and the only way I was going to get one back then was to buy a used one, so I went back and got it. Photographer Michael F. O’Neill on Long Island offered me the chance to become his assistant, so I was working seven days a week—as a manager of a music store Monday thru Friday, and a photography assistant on the weekends. My photography became more important, and I got laid off from the music store job in 1985. O’Neill, who’s still one of my closest friends, said, “This is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you.” I became a pro photographer from that day forward and never looked back.
DE: Who are your influences?
GM: I grew up in the years of the weekly picture magazines, so Life and Look were always in our household. Alfred Eisenstadt was one of the first photojournalists to catch my eye. I loved the glamour of the industry, so David Bailey (the photographer who was the inspiration for the character in “Blow Up”) influenced me, as well as Bert Stern’s experimentation and Irving Penn’s composition. For instance, one rule of thumb is, “never cut off people’s heads,” but I always do this—I like to create tension in an image. Chris Callis, who uses motion in his images, was a big influence, as was the late Dean Collins, who was a master of lighting. I studied with him, and many of the techniques I teach today are ones I learned from Dean. Robert Farber was an influence too. I liked his technique of using nose grease on a filter to create streaks of light coming through a window, and pushing high-speed film to get grain; techniques I read about in his books.
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| Harry Connick Jr. |
DE: How do you bring out your subjects’ personalities so successfully in your images?
GM: First of all, I’m an outgoing person. I’m not afraid of touching somebody or shaking a guy’s hand. I’m also not afraid of doing a little research ahead of time to find out what my subjects are all about, and to develop rapport with them. I look at other album covers and magazines to see what’s been done on them before—I’m always looking for that little tidbit to make a connection. For example, when I photographed Steven Seagal, I already knew that we had something in common because I was also interested in martial arts. But by doing research, I discovered that he was a guitar player, as well. When he came into the room, I put my hands together in a praying position, and said, “Sensei (one who’s come before).” He knew that I was sincere, and he smiled at me. That’s how I got the picture of him bowing with that intense stare, which is exactly what I wanted him to do. I bring out people’s personalities in a number of different ways: I think quickly on my feet, do my homework on the person, and I’m never afraid of talking to my subjects. I guess you can chalk it up to experience.
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| Steven Seagal |
DE: How did you break into the music/celebrity photo business?
GM: The first thing I did was to advertise in the Village Voice, and I got enough shots to be able to show my work, which I began to spread around via promo pieces. I studied guitar with Remo Palmier, a legendary be-bop guitar player, and started bringing cameras to his place as my interest in photography grew. He needed publicity shots and asked me to take his
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| Joe Perry |
picture, so instead of taking a guitar lesson one Sunday, I photographed him. I also initially did promo shots of musicians who were friends. I didn’t even have a typewriter when I started; I wrote most of my cover letters by hand. I moved into my grandmother’s house in the basement, and literally started from scratch. I sent out these letters with my promo pieces of Palmier, and eventually I landed a magazine cover for Jazziz. I was on my way to Photo Plus East in 1987, when I got a call from the magazine, asking me to photograph jazz musician John Abercrombie. [Celebrity photographer] Timothy White wasn’t available for the shoot, so I got the job. I got a lot of work from JazzTimes, and did 52 covers for them between 1988 and 1998. Then the record companies started calling. I was known in the jazz music genre, but I branched out to photograph boxers, comedians, and oldies rock n’ roll stars. I met people and the work kept spreading. I always advise people, “You are who you say you are, and when you get your shot, you’d better deliver.” That’s what I’ve been doing for over 20 years. Up until I started shooting jazz musicians in a photo studio, most of these artists were photographed in a smoky club environment. So I was one of the “founding fathers” of this portrait style.
Towards the end of the ’90s, I was getting burned out. I met a girl who lived in the Canadian Rockies and decided to move in with her. The relationship fell apart and I was crushed—everything fell apart for me. I wound up coming back to New York in 2001 with a little money that I made in the days when I
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| Lisa Loeb |
was doing well. In September, 9/11 happened, and in December I had a health crisis. I had a blood clot in my left eye and lost most of my vision in that eye. I was as depressed as I could be, and decided to get out of photography altogether. I went from being “the jazz guy” to nothing. But on the day that I was going to be discharged from the hospital, Richard Avedon came to visit a relative there, and I took that to be an epiphany. I decided then to not leave the photography world, and was determined to continue. Since then, I’ve shot my best work. The day that I heard about Avedon passing on, I went to his studio and photographed the flowers that people had placed outside to pay homage to him. I started doing more personal work during the period after my eye problem, got three Leica cameras, and started doing some New York street scenes and abstracts. I also looked for ways to make photography less stressful. I had several gallery exhibits and began to make a comeback.
DE: What kind of camera and lighting equipment do you use?
GM: These days, I use Nikon digital cameras exclusively, particularly the D2X and the D200. I also use a D1X and a D70S, along with all Nikkor prime
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| Kenny Wayne Sheppard |
lenses. As for lighting gear, I use multiple SB800 flash units and Speedotron studio strobes. I also use a wide variety of lighting control devices—Photek umbrellas, Photoflex softboxes of different sizes, and handy new devices called Light Shapers that I use on softboxes to “gobo” light. Different size reflectors, grids, mirrors, flashlights, etc. make up my other lighting accessories. I might buy sheets of Mylar, crumple them up and bounce light into them to project patterns on the background. I have all kinds of equipment in my bag of tricks. For instance, the Lensbaby selective focus device is something I'm experimenting with.
DE: What changes have you seen in the photo industry today as opposed to when you first started?
GM: It’s a lot more competitive; and there’s more reliance on stock images, yet editorial fees are not increasing like they should. But I do believe that if you’ve got the talent and continually push forward, you can survive. You need to be motivated and you may have to reinvent yourself. The main reason one should be in this business is because you have a burning desire to create
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| Photographer Gene Martin (self portrait) |
images! You’ve got to be as creative as possible, and that goes for marketing as well. I’ve seen photographers with less talent than others become successful simply because they’re better marketers. Also, you must keep up with new trends and technology.
DE: Where do you go from here?
GM: To do more and more work. I love what I’m doing now and I’m not going to let burnout or stress get to me again like it did in the late ’90s. For one thing, I’m sending digital files to clients now, and not waiting for transparencies to be sent back. Sometimes that was like pulling teeth. As far as the shooting goes, I’d like to do more work with actors. I love the southwestern part of the country and warm weather, and I’d love to make another home base in Tucson, Arizona. It’s a hop, skip and a jump from L.A. I have a lot of pending endorsement deals, I’m writing a book called Advanced Lighting and Creative Concepts for Amherst Media, and I don’t let any marketing opportunities slip by.
You can see more of Gene Martin’s work at http://www.genemartinphotography.com.
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Last Updated: Jul 10th, 2010 - 16:19:44
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