Shoot! Interview: George Pitts

photo by Clayton Cubitt

George Pitts is an industry mainstay, and a classy, classy gent. I mean, look at him!
He was kind enough to answer some questions I had for him about this crazy photosphere we live in. Listen to him, he knows some stuff.

You have a new job (since September) as Associate Chair in Photography at Parsons The New School of Design.  I know you’ve taught intermittently for a number of years; what made you make the bigger leap to Academia?

I enjoy teaching; and I’ve had the good fortune to teach extremely memorable students including Ryan McGinley. To grab the attention, let alone the enthusiasm of a young ardent mind, is an enriching experience.

You were the Director of Photography at Vibe for many years, and then at Life Magazine, and now you are the consulting DP at Latina Magazine.  Have you kept a stable roster of photographers this whole time, or are you always looking for new talent?

Prominent photographers often say: “You’re only as good as your last picture.” That’s a terribly reductive perspective, but now I understand where they’re coming from. Each magazine, including Latina, demands, above all, that I have a capacity to listen, to the Editors, to the tone of the story, to the general visual expectations. It isn’t merely about exerting my taste, although I can and do, when asked.

But to answer your question, yes I generally have stayed in touch with photographers I’ve worked with, since my earliest years as a photo editor at Entertainment Weekly. At EW, I had the privilege of assigning a job to Philip-Lorca diCorcia, and he couldn’t have been more low key. That’s a lesson in and of itself. You never know what a talent will become, and it’s best to assign as thoughtfully as possible, and when it’s prudent, to learn something about the sensibility of the photographer. This kind of practice can lead to fruitful relationships, and repeat assignments, which can fortify such bonds, and lead to great pictures. Although I’d never claim to have a stable of photographers; I have maintained various levels of contact with a lot of people I respect, and whose photographs are breathtaking. I truly love photography, and think I have substantial insight into who can illuminate the subject matter.  

Tell me how you got your start in photography. How does your own work contribute to your professional endeavors?

I’ve answered this question before, but I don’t believe anyone has ever chosen to publish my response. I was encouraged, or rather challenged by one of MoMA’s Photography Dept. figures, Susan Kismaric, to try photo editing, since she had once worked as an photo editor. I had just returned from India, and didn’t want to continue working in bookstores to support my practice as a painter, having recently married. And so I went to Time Inc., and they actively helped me secure a position that eventually led to being a photo editor. 

My own work, perhaps, has a maverick status in the mainstream, and appears to be better known among younger people, than among my own peers. I think it’s largely because of Nerve.com, and being in the art world all my adult life. I was a painter far longer than I’ve been a photographer, and  a love of art is invaluable, it serves virtually every instinct I have to recognize beauty. I admire Manet and Jenny Saville, two dissimilar but progressive modernists. Looking back, I think I clearly respond to unconventional expression at the service of a refined uniquely beautiful vision. And just as a good painter is often aware of a range of other authentic artists, one can respond to any number of things if it’s good.

George Pitts, Untitled

When did you first arrive in New York? Did you have any mentors who helped you on your way?

I came to New York in the ’70s after graduating from Bennington College. But mentally, it was a last minute thing, since my Fulbright grant fell through, being unable to secure a British affiliate to mentor my strictly large scale abstract painting work. So I landed fast, took a sublet in the East Village, and painted. Apart from painting I wrote poetry as well, and had a supporter in poet John Ashbery. Ashbery was as generous as they come, likewise Brice Marden. It made New York in the ’70s feel like a dream, hard as hell, but rewarding beyond words.

I should also mention I had help from more indirect sources, the music I loved: Roxy Music, Bowie, Scott Walker, Miles Davis, Kurt Weill; and just a deep-seated appreciation of radical auteurs like Fassbinder, Susan Sontag, Jacques Rivette, Luis Bunuel, Catherine Breillat, Ulrike Ottinger, Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. All their ideas were in the air at the time. I suppose Warhol influenced my habit of taking Polaroids as if they were serious pictures, and decades later, I embraced photography big time. Frances Steloff, founder of the now defunct Gotham Book Mart, where I once worked, took a shine to me, and passed on values that remain with me: a love of animals, books. And friends included people in the downtown music scene: Arto Lindsay, Mark Cunningham, Lucy Hamilton; which was a blast. The era itself was a mentor! Too many wonderful, complex people to mention.
 

Have you ever found the photo industry disappointing or frustrating? What would you change, if anything, about the magazine industry?

If I could really change things, I might add a wider range of good magazines, not to level the playing field, but for sheer pleasure and the diversity of aesthetics that make up what is truly of quality. Vibe carried quality that was probably only possible for Vibe, and maybe a fraction of that sentiment pertains to Latina, and all that now seems possible, because of a fresh not fully examined context. Fresh work can bloom in unlikely places, is something I’ve noticed about my career. And also, the harder and more attentively one studies something off the beaten path, the more beautiful things often become, much to one’s surprise, and enrichment.
I think most ‘industry’ colleagues know what the frustrations are, so why recount them? What, if anything, that I find disappointing, is always the cultural insistence that value comes in one narrow vein and brand of taste.  Better to be discerning yet conscious of the diversities of beauty, than insist that there’s only one approach to quality.  What’s gratifying is being allowed to do the work, and to witness the effects of the work; it’s an incomparable feeling. 

What’s one warning you would give to a wide-eyed photographer just starting to shop her book around to editors?

I guess put forward your strongest work, and show it to those with related tastes, be it a magazine, a gallery, or even a website; and to publications that one admires. Try to notice if you’ve developed
a distinctive visual sensibility, and ask yourself where could it be explored?  In some instances, perhaps you need to be clever; in others a fidelity to your specific visual imperatives, your truth, has more meaning for an editor. Since the Fashion picture, especially, can be so many things now, it’s common sense, to ask yourself, what can one contribute to the genre? Or can one’s hard won experimentation with light, location, or in the studio, lead to something? Is there enough of a sign in someone’s body of work, to anticipate what will develop if you gave them an assignment? It’s often disarming and touching, to be wide-eyed; but it also helps to be a ruthless but sensible editor of one’s work, which can be a lot to ask, yes, but beneficial.  Then you at least proceed from a position of being aware of your better moments, regardless of whether it gets you that first job. Inevitably, your voice will speak to someone.  Then there’s the issue of being a professional, and creating work which carries an obvious level of technique, and an assured visual style that objectively speaking, the work is just, well done, more than competent, singular in its way. That’s a path open to a greater range of photographers. And such photographers are always in demand.

George Pitts, Cat Power
 
It’s harder to advise a visionary, because such photographers are often used differently than seasoned pros. Editors can pick up on a visionary or instantly recognizable look, and think of the perfect person or subject for them. That happened for me, when Raygun assigned me to shoot Cat Power. The assignment helped establish the kind of people I’m lucky enough to be asked to capture.  When I assigned Andrea Modica to photograph author Toni Morrison at Vibe, it was hard to think of other people; I suppose that’s what defines a visionary type.