Home | Editorials | Runways | Backstage | Rockstars | Features | Email

Through Others Eyes

Well. How am I going to say this? OK I'll just tell it all like it happened. I asked three very well respected people from the fashion industry, music industry, and model industry who they considered the most famous person on my website. As you know if youve been looking around at all I have photographed a lot of famous people and to me they are all great, famous or not. But I really wanted to know what the industry thinks about fame and how they see these superstars of media.

And I got the strangest answer. One I couldn't believe. All three people said that I was the most famous person on the website !!! Hey no one knows me, how can I be famous? That is all crazy. They answered that if it wasnt for the people behind the scenes (like me) than none of the people we all consider famous would be well known at all. OK sure that makes sense. Thats what we do, we make people famous by talking about them, and photographing them. Sure. Why not.

But these three people went a little deeper. They went on to say that regardless of how good a picture is technically it should give deep insight into the photographer. And my work does that I am told. And sure thats all ok with me. But why do they think I am famous.

I Need Your Stardust

Well the answer isnt that clear. No one could exactly explain it. I cant !!!

I think that as a photographer I keep moving on to the next person and the next person. Each celebrity has his or her own career. They go off on different avenues, but in a sense the photographer gets a little bit from each of them. I always called it "stardust". I always said that each time I shoot someone a little bit of their stardust rubs off on me. I get a little dust from the models, and a little from the actors, and a little from the musicians. And I may not be an actor myself, but I become understanding of actors. Sympathetic to their vibrations, and in sync... Whatever you want to call it, its true.

I do start to see through their eyes, and I feel life with them. Thats why I never liked calling my work "pictures". I dont shoot pictures. I capture moments in the lives of people. Yes, famous people maybe, but they are all people trying to make their way through life like you and I. They have different jobs, they go to different parties, and they live in different places, but its all the same really. The word life is just too over simplified to describe what a life really is. Celebrity or otherwise. A life is years, and emotions, and memories, and putting years and memories together to come up with some kind of mantra. How can I ever explain that? I cant.

Send Me Your Autograph

So I am famous. Well no I am not really famous. I can walk into a store and no one knows my name. I can sit at the beach and no one asks for my autograph. Thats true. I'm not the famous one... You are the famous people in my life. Those nameless faces I see on the street with memories and emotions the size of a universe, all locked up inside your body. You are famous.

How can I claim any fame at all when we as a people have done so much and come so far, and I as an invividual as small as an ant walk down the road of life together? We fooled the experts. I am not the famous one, its been you all the time.

So why not just send me your autograph.

Cheers
Andrew Richard