From A Taxi, 2010

From a Taxi, 2010
copyright Peter Bellamy 2010

Photo of Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, 1986
copyright PeterBellamy 2010

I was walking down Central Park West when I saw Andy Warhol being visited by the angel of death.  

Louise Bourgeois and the Spider, 1995

Louise Bourgeois and the Spider 1995
copyright Peter Bellamy 2010


I was Louise’s photographer from 1985 to 1995.

I waited in the shadows for ten years for this shot, shooting Louise’s work. Through the eighties, and into the nineties.

Countless hours, days, nights, weeks, months, years, I spent shooting her work from 85-95, this the time of her rebirth into greatness,

I shoot only a couple of portraits during this period because she would never pose.  She was much too distrusting of uncomplimentary untrue images.

One day some visitors came and Jerry (her devoted assistant) posed every one by the spider for a shot, I set up a simple soft light and the camera hung barely in focus.

Louise was the last to pose and was very nervous, the more Jerry posed her, the more awkward the situation became.

Exasperated, she looked at me and said, “Say something, Tell me you like me.”

I said, “Louise I love you, We all love you very much”

She smiled from the heart and said, “Thank you Peter."

I realized that is what her work is about to some degree, the search for and the containment of love.

And that is the art of portraiture! Endless patience and the perfect understanding of the subjects needs at the given moment. Love is always the strongest emotion between two people. It is divine

The Painter Herman Cherry

The Painter Herman Cherry

Copyright pswb2010

The Painter Gretna Campbell, 1986

The Painter Gretna Campbell, 1986Copyright Peter Bellamy 2010

 

This is one of my favorite portraits because the art speaks.  It was a beautiful painting and Gretna was an accomplished painter, She painted taught lived was married exhibited and so forth.  I liked that there was just the art, no fame, and no ego, just art. Women artists could be like that - that they had a kind of beauty by not really appearing to care about the trappings of male ego art. They were just faithful to the brush and the canvas.  Gretna put me in touch with Robert DeNiro, Sr., the painter and father of the actor, who I photographed but have never published.

The Painter Louise Fishman, 1983

The Painter Louise Fishman 1983
copyright Peter Bellamy 2010

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The Painter Gerald Jackson, 1987

The Painter Gerald Jackson 1987

 copyright Peter Bellamy 2010 

Gerald where are you now? Are you alive? Are you well? Can you still have that loft on the Bowery?   Here, you are an abstract artist in the 80s and lived on the Bowery above or near CBGBs.  You painted this coat and came out all Superfly for me.