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Interview With Fashion Photographer Walter Paul Bebirian
TNYO:
Walter, I have known you for quite some time at this point and you never cease to amaze me.
We have interviewed and featured your art many times.
But recently you mentioned in a private conversation that you were a selected photographer for Vogue Magazine. Can you tell us a little about that?
Walter Paul Bebirian:
W
ell I began working as a fashion photographer when one of my clients - the president of the store called Ted Lapidus which was located at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan - after seeing the photographs I had taken for an assignment which he had given me to photograph the outside of the store for the annual report of the company that owned the franchise in the United States - asked me if I could photograph fashion -
I told him honestly that I had not done so yet - but that I could photograph some fashion and he said - good do some and show me - and that is where it all began -
I had a friend - Joyce Caruso - who lived in my neighborhood of Forest Hills who I knew was a model represented by the Ford Modeling agency - and I told her that my client (Ted Lapidus) wanted to see some fashion photographs and would she do some with me - and so we did various photographs using clothes that she owned - and I showed these to the president Arnaud Thieffry and he said good - what do my clothes look like on the model -
and so then I told Joyce what he said and so we set up a schedule to do another shoot and she asked me if should she bring her brother - that he wanted to be an actor - and I said sure since Ted Lapidus also had men's clothes in the store - and so I continued on with the shoot.producing various images one of which is this of David Caruso (who later became a well known actor and his sister Joyce Caruso:
After a few more sample shoots with various top models of the time that Wilhelmina had provided to me for the securing of my work with Ted Lapidus - Arnaud was ready for us to create some ads to be placed in Vogue - the New York Times and various other fashion publications and the modeling agency - Wilhelmina's was called for the go see to choose what model I wanted to work with-
The first model that both Arnaud and I chose was Connie Sellecca: producing ads for the Fifth Avenue store - and after that I shot ads that advertised all of the stores in the United States: and then more for the Fifth Avenue location:
TNYO:
In your opinion, what would it take for any aspiring photography student aficionado or anyone of any age to break into the professional photography business?
Walter Paul Bebirian:
Well the answer to this second question is pretty much anything since there are many many many infinite ways for people to break into this or any other field that they really want to enter - what I did omit to mention in the previous answer was the fact that I had started out visualizing doing the ads for Ted Lapidus when I first saw the store and a simple photograph in the store - I knew right away that they needed me and that the image I was looking at was not an American image but an import from France - my first impulse was to approach the window designer but when I first approached Nicole she told me that she could not afford me to take pictures of her windows (she had just started her job there) and so I waited and came back at a later date -
I suppose that there are any number of approaches that I have pursed other clients before and after that point in time - including especially recommendations or referrals from friends - and example of an earlier assignment that I had was for "Head Magazine".
I was friends with many of the art directors in the art department of American Broadcasting Companies and one assignment that I got was to photograph the centerfold for one of their initial issues of "Head Magazine"
TNYO:
Being an artist how do you go about perceiving the subject through the lens?
Is there a dialogue that takes place with the subject or subjects that inspires the final product?
Walter Paul Bebirian:
Like with many things in my life - I have always somehow knew how to visualize - whether it was playing on stage as a musician in a rock band or in a symphony orchestra or in a small oriental music group and therefore also with my art.
TNYO:
Can you tell us a little bit about equipment and tech that was used years ago and what is being used today?
Walter Paul Bebirian: Y
ou ask about equipment -
everything - all cameras and lenses that I used for most of my life until digital cameras - were used - except
of course my Brownie Camera from my parents was new but everything thereafter was used -
in fact one of my best photographs was taken with a used Nikkormat and after I took this picture I got to use it a few times more and then the back would not close - and when I took it to the repair shop they told me it was beyond repair and that it could not take sharp pictures it was so damaged -
this camera I received from an artist who could not afford to pay me in dollars but found that the camera had been left at her place by an old boyfriend and so she asked if I wold accept it as payment - the rest is history -
This - until it would not work any longer - was my favorite camera since I was not afraid of damaging it - that made this more valuable than anything as a great and most favorite tool -
As for the equipment used today we are in a very different world where we - at least I am - working with pure energy -
everyone can afford to have new cameras - at least I ca
n and one of my most favorite tools is the iPhone that I carry in my pocket so there is no more lugging a heavy (and I really mean heavy) camera and lighting around to get tired - and I can capture anything anywhere that I see what I want to capture:
TNYO:
How important is lighting and what do you use to create the mood in your photographs ?
Walter Paul Bebirian
: Lighting is everything with photographs - especially when you realize that the word photograph means painting with light - but the most enjoyable experience is to be able to see within your own mind how things will turn out especially when you are working with available or what some people refer to as natural light -
a slight move in any one direction or another may change what you refer to as the mood that is captured -
all of these images were captured utilizing available light-
and in two of these images I used a small hand held flash for some fill light to make sure that the faces and clothing came out the way that I wanted them to:
in a more restrictive setting I used strobe light to insure that every detail came out to satisfy the art director who I was shooting for since there were a great many corporate employees who had to approve of what my results were,
a
nd of course in the dramatic night shots that I might create once in a while:
TNYO:
Do you use music at any point to help set the mood?
Walter Paul Bebirian: M
usic is always in my mind and of course different scenes evoke different music within me -
TNYO:
What advice would you give to someone who may want to be a fashion photographer?
Walter Paul Bebirian:
My advice to anyone who wants to do anything in this world - is make sure that. you are having fun.
TNYO:
What are you currently doing as an artist and does it connect to your previous photography career?
Walter Paul Bebirian: As
an artist now I continue to have fun and I honestly say that I have always considered my work as art - no matter what I have been working at - that has included many different jobs from selling flowers in the subway (working at mail room delivery - stock transfer at AT&T, working as a school photographer in the New York City school system to doing baby photographs for the moms who I met at these jobs - to working as a billing clerk at ABC (American Broadcasting) Records - Cooperative Advertising at ABC Pictures World Wide Sales and Distribution and various printing and spotting jobs in various labs as well as assistant to various photographers pretty much all at once -
https://walterpaul-bebirian.pixels.com
Walter Paul Bebirian
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