Two years ago, I was blessed to have been chosen to be a subject of a photo exhibit by Victor Skrebneski in the City Gallery in the old Water Tower. The subject was 'On With the Show' and featured people behind the scenes in Chicago Theatre. There were stagehands, costumers, producers, fight choreographers, and then me-the Assistant Ticket Services Manager at the Goodman Theatre. When the PR guys at the Goodman came to take my polaroid to submit me to Skrebneski, I had no idea who or what it was for. When I got more details, I did some research, and realized that I'd only seen Skrebneski photos all over Chicago for years and that I recognized some of his more well-known photos (Vanessa Redgrave, Bette Davis, etc.) When they told me I was selected, I was ecstatic.
When I spoke with Dennis and Victor at the studio, they told me to wear something that was distinctly me and the way that I would want to be photographed. I chose a very "Erica" outfit--black tank top, long black skirt, and my red, white, and blue wristbands. It was a cold, snowy day on my shoot (I think it was February 10, 2004), and when I showed up everyone made me feel right at home. Victor said that my polaroid stood out to him because of my hair and the crazy pink shirt I was wearing. I've never felt more like a supermodel than when I had one guy holding a mirror for me, and one guy moving my hair spikes around while I put more and more hair goo in. We wanted crazy hair!
The shoot was a blast--I could not stop laughing (this is not unlike the headshot shoot I did on Friday, or any shoot I've done for that matter) and I think the whole thing lasted about 45 minutes to an hour. To celebrate, I rounded up my best girl Hanson afterwards and we went to Le Creperie and ate and drank all kinds of yummy stuff for hours. It was great. Jump to a few months later in July when the exhibit premiered. I won't go into too much detail about it, because Fuzzy already has here , but long story short, I had NINE pictures in the exhibit. NINE! When most others had 1-3. Needless to say, I was amazed and very very touched and the whole experience is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced in my life.
Ok, so now it is over 2 years later, I have a few copies of the pictures that Victor so generously gave me, and I call it my '15 minutes thus far'. At a birthday party in Indiana Friday night, a friend tells us the story of how his company was interested in hiring Skrebneski for some photos, and when he was googled, a pic of Victor and I of us shows up near the top (thanks, Fuzzy!). Then our friend goes on to tell us that on the Skrebneski Photo website (to which I responded-'He has a website now?' cause he didn't before,) one of my pics is used in the opening photo montage on the home page (see picture above)!!! Well, needless to say, this is one of the coolest things ever in my opinion, and I am SO HONORED to be on the website, especially when his portfolio contains portraits of Orson Wells, Bette Davis, Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, and David Bowie. Me? How do I even begin to compare? Utterly amazing.
So check out the website to see the works of one of the greatest photographers of our time: http://skrebneskiphotographs.com/. And Dennis and Victor, if you are reading this post, hello! Thank you so much for making me feel so beautiful and important, and thank you for giving me the confidence I needed especially now, when I am about to embark on my new phase in my performance career.
Lovely.
Awesome.
Totally, fantastically awesome.
That pic shows how perfectly gayballs you are.
Very cool, Erica! I had heard about your photo show. Actually, I think that was one of the first times I heard about you from Fuzzy, but I had no idea. I'd like to see the other photos sometime.