Jessica Roberts for Joe Torsella
Issac Turner for Dr. Richard Baron
I’ve never been an assistant during my career in photography. And only in the last 4 or 5 years have I really been using assistants. (Shockingly, we didn’t get assistants as newspaper photographers. Unless you count the occasional PR person holding our off-camera flash.)
Any photographer who utilizes assistants has a huge collection of images of his or her assistant standing in for the subject during lighting tests. I know I do. It can be frustrating using assistants as your stand-ins, because often, they’re:
- often gifted with more/better/shinier hair than your subject;
- (a lot) younger (read: skinnier) than your subject;
- have cooler/hipper clothes than your subject;
- or they have that I’m-so-bored-and-it’s-way-too-early pissed-off look that makes them look cooler than your subject.
Many times I’ve gotten a scene looking awesome with my assistant in it. And when we put our 500-pound, 90-year-old, balding subject into it, it somehow doesn’t look as cool as when I had photographed my 26-year-old, blonde, might-could’ve-been-a-model assistant. Hmmm.
So today begins my first in a series I shall call The Assistant Corner. I’ve had a fairly steady and loyal crew for awhile, so you’ll see a lot of repeats. This is to get back at them in honor of them. Ha!
Ryan Collerd for Daily News sports writer Bill Conlin
Great idea! I have been saying for years someone should do a book called “Stand In” and show the assistant shot and then the real photo. I’m starting to amass my own collection, but it is never the case that I look better than the subject. Wah. Wah.