…Blixa Bargeld from the band Einstürzende Neubauten…over the holidays i was cleaning negatives, slides, and prints that occupy half of my home in New York. i found prints of Blixa Bargeld that i photographed for Outburn Magazine in 2000. i haven’t looked at them since shortly after they were photographed.
i had a few minutes to photograph a portrait of him across the street from Gramercy Park Hotel. i remember standing in the hotel lobby with the publicist. Blixa came from his room said hello, he took a few steps outside, lit up a cigarette, then we walked across the street, he smoked in front of the park gate while i frantically photographed half a roll of color 35mm film and a roll of Tri-X 120mm in my Mamiya 7ii. nothing was said. i knew instinctively that my time was done once the cigarette was finished. looking at the negative sheets, i was able to photograph 20 frames of 35mm and 10 frames of 120mm film.
this was my third assignment for Outburn, and i was still inexperienced at handling assignment work. the photograph of Blixa that i printed for my portfolio was in color. i still think it’s the best portrait from that session. but this one caught my attention a quarter century later. there’s something about it that i haven’t found the word for. in the 1990’s, it would have gone in the portfolio book. i miss that….now it gets scanned and posted….
Tags: Blixa Bargeld, Einstürzende Neubauten, Music, Outburn Magazine