Thru The Lens : William Abranowicz

William Abranowicz/Thru the Lens/by Susanna Salk for 1st dibs For the past 20 years, William Abranowicz has been a staple image-maker for Cond� Nast TravelerITALS as well as a contributor to House Beautiful, Elle D�cor, Martha Stewart Living, Food & Wine, The New York Times Magazine, Architectural DigestITALS and Vanity FairITALS. He has also created successful advertising campaigns for Ralph Lauren Home Collection, Rolex, Est�e Lauder, IBM, Banana Republic, Merrill Lynch and Target. Back when he was editor in chief CHECK at TravelerITALS, Thomas J. Wallace (now editorial director of Conde Nast Publications) called Abranowicz �Easily one of the world�s best photographers and just possibly one of its most lyrical.� Abranowicz has also exhibited at leading galleries such as Bonni Benrubi in New York and Photographer�s Gallery in LA. His prints are held in public and private collections worldwide including the Biblioth�que Nationale in Paris, The International Center for Photography in New York, The National Portrait Gallery in London and The Smithsonian, Washington, DC. Abranowicz lives in Bedford, New York, with his wife Andrea (who is a well-known location agent) and their two sons (Zander, 19, and Simon, 17) and daughter, Maxie, 14. An avid environmentalist, Abranowicz, is a licensed falconer, as is Zander. �Watching a bird of prey up close in the wild is incredible; its behavior can be completely unpredictable,� says Abranowicz. �Falconry teaches us something new every day.� ========================== SS: You were inspired by many of the great painters in your early days. WA: Yes, when I first started taking photographs some of the biggest influences on my work were painters Edward Hopper and Johannes Vermeer. They used light in ways that floored me. They made images of ordinary things and imbued them with a grand spirit, history and meaning. SS: But it was photographer George Tice who inspired you to actually take pictures. WA: I was from a small town in New Jersey and studying economics at Rutgers when I first saw a show of George Tice �s work back in 1975 and it changed my life. The pictures he took of my home state of New Jersey had majestic qualities. After I saw his work, I transferred to the School of Visual Arts in 1976 to become a photographer. A few years later, right after taking Tice �s Fine Printing class at The New School (while still at SVA) I started assisting him and stayed for almost eight years. During that time we produced a series of limited-edition portfolios from Edward Steichen�s negatives, after Joanna Steichen, his widow, had commissioned a series of limited portfolios and contacted George to do the printing. SS: You then went on to assist some iconic photographers. WA: Yes: Robert Mapplethorpe for a very short time and then � while Mapplethorpe was doing a portrait of Horst P. Horst � Horst mentioned he was looking for a printer. So I started printing for him for three years. Even though I �d sworn off assisting by then it was Horst, after all! SS: Any words of wisdom from the legend that still resonate? WA: Horst always used to talk about �the perfect little mess.� He�d compose an image with the greatest care and then throw some element into it that broke its perfection. I always look to include that perfect little mess in my images. SS: How did you then wean yourself from helping the greats to creating your own body of work? WA: I knew I was ready to stop printing for other people when I got a call from Annie Liebovitz�s studio and said no. I realized I no longer wanted to give this up to other people. From 1988 to 1991, I secured an artist�s residency at Peter�s Valley in Layton, New Jersey. By the end of it, I was getting a lot of freelance assignments and eventually gave up printing and assisting. SS: Tell us about one of your most unusual shoots since then. WA: In 1999, I photographed the De Menil House in Houston for The New York Times Magazine (ITAL) shortly after Dominique De Menil�s death. Designed by Phillip Johnson, it was in a suburban neighborhood and under threat of being demolished. Mrs. De Menil�s toothbrush was still in the bathroom and her Charles James dresses still hung in her closet. The house was filled with her in a way that made it quite different from any story I�ve shot. SS: Of the hundreds of houses you�ve shot over the years, is there a particularly memorable one? WA: Lars Sjoberg, the Swedish curator who wrote a number of great books including what has become a bible of sorts for many editors, The Swedish Room (ITAL) (Frances Lincoln). He collected houses to keep them from falling into complete disrepair or being demolished. I photographed the house where he lived outside of Stockholm in 2000 for House and Garden. (ITAL) The home was small and humble but a remarkable visual thing with memorable color, texture, the sparseness. That trip influenced how my wife and I built parts of our own home in Bedford. I live with the memory of that shoot every day I am home. SS: Tell us some of your favorite places to travel and shoot? WA: Greece. I have traveled there for 25 years and done two books on the country including Hellas, Photographs of Modern Greece,ITALS which was published this year by Hudson Hills Press. I have wanted to document the Greeks� move from a rural population into an urban one primarily in Athens. SS: What kind of camera did you use when you first started out and what kind now? WA: My first camera was a Russian 35 mm called a Zenit. Made for the proletariat, it was a completely utilitarian device. I now use Contax, Hasselblad and Canon Cameras depending on whether I am shooting digitally or with film. SS: How has technology impacted your art? WA: I make digital prints now. Even though I�ve had a darkroom since I was a teenager, technology came to me just at a time when I was finally getting tired of being in one. But I�m glad I learned everything with film. I think technology for many young photographers turns them into technicians instead of image makers and the ones that thoroughly understand film produce better images. SS: Has the medium where your work appeared shifted dramatically with so many print magazines gone or suffering? WA: For a while it was scary but I had been through other recessions before and knew it would roll back. Recently with the shifting of editors at the magazines I now work for, there is an excitement and new life. Becky Lewis � who has been my agent for twenty years � kept assuring me print wouldn�t die. Now, I am thrilled with the web-based magazines but for me, print cannot be replaced. SS: You�ve got a unique book project, which debuted this fall, with designer Jeffrey Bilhuber as its author. WA: Yes it�s called The Way Home (ITAL) (Rizzoli). I never had any desire to shoot an interiors book but Jeffrey�s was a completely new idea that really intrigued me: it �s about how he saw people living in his homes rather than how they were designed. It goes way beyond the traditional interiors book and creates a new genre in that category. SS: You are also working on a book of images of your own family you have taken for more than twenty years. How personal will it be and how do they feel about your documenting their unfolding lives? WA: Every August � for the past nineteen years � we all go to the Greek Islands and there I photograph my family in a very focused way: each member, every day of that month. They know that�s what I do. I think they are very proud and happy to have this long document of each of their lives.