Photography by Michael Schwartz

I've got to give Michael Schwartz credit for persistence and passion. I've watched his photography evolve bit by bit, but its clear he has a really good eye. For months he's been trying to engage me to help him on the concepts and the art direction of his shoots. I've been very reluctant because I feel I'm at the point where I should finesse one certain skill- writing - and not be a such dilettante art-director ( Or even worse, yet-another-stylist.)
In any case a few months ago I emailed Mike some references on 80's illustrator Tony Viramontes to play with for a shoot he was lensing. I also popped into the shoot, which for the record had a stylist. I tried to verbalize how Viramontes' illustrations were perfect for translation into photography and didn't really require a massive use of labels to get the point across. Well, sometimes words fail you and on this day they failed me. So I started wrapping some fabric I had found in this African fabric store on 37th Street on the models as turbans and little cloaks to illustrate, literally, the point. Mike liked it and snapped some shots of the results.