The Great Gonzo Shoot
Surprisingly enough (to me at least) I do actually get requests from photographers to work with them sometimes. But never, ever for payment (this bit isn’t surprising as after all I am an ancient, and I don‘t shoot very much anyway.) So I was a bit boggled to find an email in my inbox this morning, offering me a paid shoot.
The photographer in question was incredibly polite, very professional and he sounded rather nice to work for. Money’s a bit tight at the moment, so I have to say the offer was tempting. As I usually ask Rich for his opinion on each potential shoot, I didn’t accept the offer immediately, but resolved to discuss the issue with him later over our morning coffee expedition.
Our favourite coffee shop was crowded as usual. Our local town is known as the “Gateway to Heaven” because there are so many old people living there, so we had to fight amongst the (surprisingly nimble) old age pensioners for a table. The coffee there is seriously good. I’m not exaggerating - I always suck the creamy bits off Rich’s cappuccino too (it annoys him no end.) As usual we chatted about photography (day-job conversation is avoided at all costs, this is “our time”) and I mentioned the modeling offer. Rich was very encouraging (as a dutiful partner should be) and said I should go for it if I wanted to, not for the money, but only if I liked the photographer’s work.
“I think I’d like to try it,” I said, “although the photographer did mention that there was gonzo work involved, and posing with a cuddly toy seems a bit of a strange request for a model my age, don’t you think?”
Cue violent explosion. Lots of loud cursing and ranting. And I mean LOTS. Both me and the rest of the old biddies thought he’d lost his mind. I’m surprised he wasn’t clubbed with walking sticks and evicted to be honest. Needless to say once he had recovered his inner poise and decorum, he calmed down enough to explain (to me, not the biddies, who would have no doubt suffered heart failure.)
It turns out that a gonzo shoot is not after all posing with my favourite cuddly muppet (I’m a huge fan of Gonzo the Great, I mean, who isn’t?) but in fact actually involves being photographed having sex with the photographer.
Immediate thoughts:
1. How do I stop Rich getting in the car, driving up to “location X” and inflicting serious harm on said photographer?
2. Why would anyone want to have sex with me anyway? (I’m guessing this blog and the love-ball shot in particular have a lot to answer for.)
3. Why is it called a “gonzo shoot?”
4. What does this have to do with muppets?
5. How is it that I’ve been modeling and writing this blog for nearly two years and I didn’t know what a gonzo shoot was?
6. Am I a forty-one-year-old naïve idiot? (I suspect I already know the answer to that one)
7.What else have I missed?
So, for the sake of my sanity, please can everyone let me know what other peculiar modeling terms and pervy-photographic-jargon I might be unaware of, so that I can become more…um…worldly?
Would you have sex with this muppet?
The photographer in question was incredibly polite, very professional and he sounded rather nice to work for. Money’s a bit tight at the moment, so I have to say the offer was tempting. As I usually ask Rich for his opinion on each potential shoot, I didn’t accept the offer immediately, but resolved to discuss the issue with him later over our morning coffee expedition.
Our favourite coffee shop was crowded as usual. Our local town is known as the “Gateway to Heaven” because there are so many old people living there, so we had to fight amongst the (surprisingly nimble) old age pensioners for a table. The coffee there is seriously good. I’m not exaggerating - I always suck the creamy bits off Rich’s cappuccino too (it annoys him no end.) As usual we chatted about photography (day-job conversation is avoided at all costs, this is “our time”) and I mentioned the modeling offer. Rich was very encouraging (as a dutiful partner should be) and said I should go for it if I wanted to, not for the money, but only if I liked the photographer’s work.
“I think I’d like to try it,” I said, “although the photographer did mention that there was gonzo work involved, and posing with a cuddly toy seems a bit of a strange request for a model my age, don’t you think?”
Cue violent explosion. Lots of loud cursing and ranting. And I mean LOTS. Both me and the rest of the old biddies thought he’d lost his mind. I’m surprised he wasn’t clubbed with walking sticks and evicted to be honest. Needless to say once he had recovered his inner poise and decorum, he calmed down enough to explain (to me, not the biddies, who would have no doubt suffered heart failure.)
It turns out that a gonzo shoot is not after all posing with my favourite cuddly muppet (I’m a huge fan of Gonzo the Great, I mean, who isn’t?) but in fact actually involves being photographed having sex with the photographer.
Immediate thoughts:
1. How do I stop Rich getting in the car, driving up to “location X” and inflicting serious harm on said photographer?
2. Why would anyone want to have sex with me anyway? (I’m guessing this blog and the love-ball shot in particular have a lot to answer for.)
3. Why is it called a “gonzo shoot?”
4. What does this have to do with muppets?
5. How is it that I’ve been modeling and writing this blog for nearly two years and I didn’t know what a gonzo shoot was?
6. Am I a forty-one-year-old naïve idiot? (I suspect I already know the answer to that one)
7.What else have I missed?
So, for the sake of my sanity, please can everyone let me know what other peculiar modeling terms and pervy-photographic-jargon I might be unaware of, so that I can become more…um…worldly?
Would you have sex with this muppet?
Labels: Miscellaneous, modelling
posted by Lin at 12:13 PM
8 Comments:
Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance.
William J. Durant
1885-1981,
And......
You know everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935),
And...now we know why the husband and wife should talk to each other. :-)
Oh...and Bloggers too. ;-)
D.L. Wood
I can't add anything to Mr. Wood's wisdom, and he didn't answer your central question ("Why is it called a 'gonzo shoot?'"), but I can say yours is apparently a universal condition sooner or later encountered by nude models -- one of my long-time models told me recently about being similarly approached by a photographer, except he didn't offer to pay.
A few Google results, with the first being right on point (I admit this research added considerably to my own porn IQ):
"Gonzo sex works [[i]i.e.[/i], 'gonzo shoots'] consist of collections of - often themed - scenes with no overall narrative structure featuring a first person perspective from the director who may also be performing. It offers a ‘realistic’ perspective of explicit sex and is almost exclusively heterosexual."
"a gonzo shoot – meaning it is more or less plot-free sex for 40 minutes or so."
"I've even heard of Porn stars that do one gonzo shoot in the morning, one after lunch, and then run off to do one more before the day is done. This is rare, but can be done."
A porn actress comments: "Either feature or gonzo shoots really don't bother me. A lot of people complain about being on a Digital Playground shoot compared to a gonzo shoot because you are on set twice or three times as long as you would be on a gonzo shoot. I really don't mind. I just like to get out and work. I don't mind doing features. I don't mind doing gonzo. It all doesn't bother me. I just like to work."
"She plans to film a scene while she’s here as well, a 'gonzo' shoot in an old friend’s Greensboro apartment. No big deal — a few hours and a couple of cameras, one or two takes. The number of partners with whom she’ll be performing, and for that matter their genders, are still unknown to the actress… but these are just minor details when you do this kind of thing for a living."
Well, the answer is as plain as the nose on his face...
Seriously, Hunter S. Thompson was the first associated with the term "Gonzo journalism" which is describe on Wikipedia as: "a style of journalism which is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative." HST did it with Hell's Angels and the drug culture (and the 1972 presidential campaign) and George Plimpton did it with sports reporting, but I don't think he was ever tagged as "gonzo."
The "reporter" being part of the story parallels the "gonzo porn" thing about the cameraman, director, or producer engaging in the "story" of a porn movie. So, I guess you could call Terry Richardson something of a "gonzo erotic/porn photographer."
Interesting stuff, thanks guys...
Mr Wood, the husband and wife talk about ART over posh coffee, not dodgy porn. Can Gonzo photography be artistic? Now there's a conundrum...
>>>"Well, the answer is as plain as the nose on his face..."
Gah, I never thought of that!
*sob*
Another teenage muppet crush bites the dust....Gonzo, Gonzo, wherefore art thou? I will never see thee in the same light again...
Or I suppose, just go to the source...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_pornography
The Mr. & Mrs. may talk about ART...but the Mrs. received an education about it's darker side.
Can a "gonzo shoot" be ART? Well we would have go through the age old debate of what is porn...so we knew what shelf to put it on as we moved on into the age old debate...what is art.
That would make my head hurt so I'm just going to let Rebecca and Oscar a couple of your British friends make my added comments.
Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.
Rebecca West
1892-1983, British Author
and...
Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices.
Oscar Wilde
1856-1900, British Author, Wit
One thing, as a Dad of a daughter, that came to me after my morning post. Maybe some young girls are being targeted and if he seemed nice to you, they may not figure out what's going on until to late. I know the age of consent is 16 there, but that's pretty young when you might have an adult putting the pressure on that this is what you signed up for and this is what I paying for and too bad you didn't understand. It seems to me that this could be a thinly veiled level of prostitution. To which maybe your internet monitors or at least the local constables might be interested in.
D.L. Wood
Ohmigosh.. I had no idea what that term meant either, before reading this.. I immediately thought of Muppet Babies when I saw the blog title :P.
Well now I know.. good thing, in case I get offers..
Gonzo: The most over-used term in porn. It's used to describe just about anything other than a scripted, story-driven, feature. In the nineties, as new and easily-affordable technologies made filmmakers (sic) out of just about anyone, it became a convenient term for those who had/have no idea what they're doing. No lights? Out of focus? Poor exposure? Makes no sense? No problem. It's gonzo!
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