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| Tamsin Gilbert |
Fortunately for photographers they can invite striking subjects to pose for them. If you are a plumber (much wealthier than photographers these days in the 21st century) you cannot approach a likely and wonderful subject with, “I think you are beautiful. I would like to show you some of my best plumbing.”
For many
years the honest approach, “I love your face. I would like to photograph you,”
worked flawlessly and even when I added the word “undraped” to the question.
I have
often repeated to my friends and family (in the presence of my wife Rosemary to
whom I have been married for almost 48 years), “ I would dump my wife instantly
for either Charlotte Rampling or Molly Parker. My guess is that my attraction
to these two actresses (not actor as I am old fashioned) has something to do
with freckles.
In my
years of taking portraits of beautiful women, including my luck at two sessions
with Molly Parker I can only cite two more who had a passing resemblance and
presence to Charlotte Rampling.
One was
an English girl called Lisa Milroy. I wrote about her here. The other was poet
Gerry Gilbert’s daughter Tamsin now married and called Tamsin Gilbert Bragg. I
wrote about Tamsin and Gerry here.
But I
must add just a bit more to the story. As a heterosexual photographer I can
assert that in many ways I live the potential of parallel universes. I fall in
love with the faces of many of my female subjects. There is a saying that says,
“A man loves often but little, a woman seldom but much.” Perhaps with me it is
like that about my infatuation with the
beauty of my subjects. I never indicated any feeling or made any advances to
either Lisa Milroy or Tamsin Gilbert. And yet I think that the electrical
impulses going through my heart enabled me to take wonderful portraits of them.
As I
write this on Saturday night (to be posted for Sunday December 5) I am
anticipating the wonderful and extensive profile of Charlotte Rampling in the
T-Magazine of the NY Times. The on-line version is even better (I believe) as
it has more photographs and even a video of that goddess of Zardoz. This anticipation
serves as enough justification to place here that striking portrait of Tamsin
Gilbert which I took around 1987. And if she reads this I hope she blushes. She
should.
Charlotte Rampling in T-Magazine
Addendum: After seeing The Inception Bureau with Mat Damon, Emily Blunt & Terence Stamp with Hilary, Lauren and my Rosemary Saturday night (my second viewing) I think I might have to add Emily Blunt to my list of two.
Charlotte Rampling in T-Magazine
Addendum: After seeing The Inception Bureau with Mat Damon, Emily Blunt & Terence Stamp with Hilary, Lauren and my Rosemary Saturday night (my second viewing) I think I might have to add Emily Blunt to my list of two.