Tuesday, April 12, 2011


Last week Rebecca, Lauren and I worked on a photo project. It involved Rebecca using her makeup application talent to convert Lauren into the littlest vampire. We chose two dresses. I think I like the red one. But the blue one has more significance as it was worn by the girls’ mother, Hilary when she was a little girl. Until a few months ago Lauren had a tick that made her close her eyes when I took pictures of her. This time around she managed to keep her eyes open just right. I enjoyed taking Lauren’s pictures as much as she enjoyed having them taken.

I tell my photo classes that as young boys we were never allowed to play with dolls and to dress them up. I tell them that as photographers we can get to do this as adults simply because we are photographers. At Focal Point where I occasionally teach I particularly like telling our models to show us what they have brought as clothing and as props. I feel that by this very act I can compensate for all those years of having only toy soldiers and cars to play with. This is more like it!



Vampires have always been dear to my heart. Around 1958 I was Brother Hubert Koeppen, C.S.C's shop assistant at St. Ed's in Austin, Texas. Brother Hubert had a hobby shop where he sold plastic models and stuff. I also had to help him with the floor of the basketball gym. I kept it polished and clean.




I was a paid a small wage with which I eventually purchased my first SLR camera, a Pentacon F. Brother Hubert was tall and like all the other brothers wore black. But he also insisted on wearing a big black hat and a cape. My Latin American classmates gave him the "apodo" el Vampiro. And since I was his assistant I was called el Vampirito.