Photograph by Eric Nkurunziza (@feel_eric)
Last week was not a good week. I need to admit that. There was the anxiety of my boys both starting new schools. Then, the daunting task of a weighty work to-do list after a summer filled with balancing family schedules and a studio needing more focus than I could give it while I had sand in my shoes. Add to that, Stephie waiting to hear about an awesome new position (she got it!).
Photograph by Eric Nkurunziza (@feel_eric)
Friday morning finally came. At my studio, I read a comment from a photographer, Eric Kurunziza (@feel_eric), that I had never encountered and I looked at his feed. Eric is based in Rwanda and his feed is pure joy - his subjects not smiling but laughing. Hard! I wrote back in typical Lange hyperbole, “This is the most joyous set of photos I have ever seen!” With that, Eric sent a video of him shooting that felt like what my shootings often feel like. We exchanged photos and stories. Instantly my bumpy week was left dusted and I was in a good place again.
The joy spread into the evening. Stephie and I closed the studio and walked down Penn Avenue to see all the other galleries open for Unblurred in Garfield. We were alone and had the whole evening to roam. Outside of Kraynick’s bike shop, Celeste Jones (@alifeofcycles) had set up a table of t-shirts promoting her passion, “A Life of Cycles.” The funny thing was, her passion wasn’t about biking at all! Her mission was finding joy in all the cycles of life. Celeste told me she teaches happiness workshops. When I asked what the workshops were about, she burst out in a gorgeous, boisterous laugh and suddenly I was laughing, Stephie was laughing, and Celeste’s friend was laughing. It was a riot, and also a really good lesson. From Rwanda to Penn Ave - a day when laughter was royalty. I really needed that.
Digging back into the archives, in 1991 I took the only posed portrait of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at Job's home in Mountain View. I don't remember much about the shoot except how incredibly competitive they were with each other. The writer, Brendon Schendler wrote a book called, "Becoming Steve Jobs" and in Chapter 6 he describes the shoot. The reason I am including it here is that the iconic shot on the Fortune cover is serious and captured much of the mood of the session. Yet...because it was me taking the photo, there is this one I just discovered a couple years ago.
Steve Jobs/Bill Gates - Mountain View, CA - 7.21.91
Two more things....I have been listening to the musician Sudan Archives and she is making life loud and fun. Some of it is pretty naughty...but it is all really sublime. The deeper I dive into her work, the better it gets. She will be at the Warhol Museum 10/15 in Pittsburgh with Kurt Vile. I am also listening to Janet Jackson's "Velvet Rope" and can't turn it off.
I am photographing the entire Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra tomorrow and could not be more thrilled. Did a post about it on IG @george.lange. It is a really sweet story. I will do a post about my new Pittsburgh Symphony gig in the next weeks.
George Lange
LANGE STUDIO
cell: 917.608.2474