Jeff Koons and Little Anthony and the Imperials Enjoy a Moment Together

I remember having an extra bounce in my step as I made my way down to the Gold Coast of Lower Fifth Avenue into the Washington Mews. I was to photograph the artist Jeff Koons. Koons was soon to be “Koons”. He was to be our contemporary Warhol.

I was nearing the end of my artists portrait series. Of course I didn’t know the end was near. I had photographed a thousand people who spoke about what it meant to be an artist everyday. Each was swimming towards being a creative genius. For me in that time it was pure visual enlightenment.

Jeff Koons immediately greeted me and quickly led me through the studio and up to watch his assistant. She was pumping away on a life-cycle wearing black leotards backwards. The straps hardly covered her nipples.The full pronounced affect of her large breasts seemed intentionally exposed for my startled eyes. Koons was having a child like laugh at my expense. He wore a wolf’s fully enameled grin. I enjoyed the view, but “sometimes you just know when something is rotten in the state of Denmark”.

The “…Mews” space was a dream location. It was small for what Jeff would soon become. So the tour through the space was a bit like a gallery showing: something to behold on every wall. Koons was anxious for me to see what I could see. After a few minutes he said “As a photographer I think you might appreciate this”. He pulled out an envelope of 8x10 transparencies. He suddenly morphed back into the lascivious wolf. He growled, “Take a look and tell me what you see”.

The images were of Jeff about to penetrate his wife Cicciolina (the stage name for the porn star Ilona Staller). With a widening smile and equally enjoying eyes, he proudly asked “what do you see? Don’t you see how endowed I am? I am huge don’t you think?”. Music drives most of what lives in my brain. I was certain Koons was waiting with bated breath for me to sing Little Anthony’s “Goin’ Out Of My Head”. Click on the link! For your listening pleasure!!!https://open.spotify.com/track/538IUnkjiDgU9Ndhf1wN2f?si=M5mzgPRvQZyNzTz8bDizzAImagine Koons’ expression as I glanced inadvertently at his crotch.

I casually uttered a few “whatevers” and then I ushered him into my shooting session!

The rest of the morning was a quite enjoyable snippety snap-snap with my 6x7 Pentax. Sometimes the unique camera shape breaks the silence like a howitzer, but creates appreciation from the subject for its size…and back to sex we go!

I rarely have an uneventful shooting session. When I let my camera snap, it seems to be like a divining tool for some sort therapeutic revelation. Everyone brings something to the table usually unexpectedly. Everyone talks. I am the beneficiary. So after 40 years I remember moments that seem hallucinatory in hindsight. The moments become like a segment from the famed CBS announcer Walter Cronkite citing “You Were There”. And so I was.

My Jeff Koons episode was great because Jeff didn’t hold anything back. I think we had mutual respect for each other. I know he was wildly participating. There is nothing a photographer enjoys more than an active and willing subject. Today he is one of the most famous artists on the planet. He has a home inside my archives.

Day after day, year after year I internally reminisce about a life past. I share it with you because the names and contributions by these creative masters have made an impact on me, you and most of our western cultural world.

Below are a few of the names and places to follow in the coming months just for the fun of it. Some stories will be romantic, hilarious and adventurous, but all of the episodes will reveal how I see, how I make photographs and how the whole experience has affected my life.