max s. gerber(the latest shot)

last weekend lili haydn played with roger waters at the close of the coachella music festival. i was not in attendance at coachella, but this likely has a lot more to do with my dislike of the great outdoors than it does with music. i like roger waters. i listened to shine on you crazy diamond parts 1 through 14 over and over again when i was fifteen years old and hoped it might make me deep and thoughtful. i watched the wall at home by myself and thought it was a bit messed up. later on i learned that not being on drugs was the problem with my enjoyment of that movie, though i did have a drug-thought-moment when it prompted me to first consider that little children with british accents sound creepy. like little tiny college professors who drool and bite things.

anyway. . . lili haydn is an amazing violinist who i’ve seen all over the place for many years. anytime some rock band needed a violinist who could shred, and also be hip and beautiful at the same time they’d call lili. i was worried initially that this shoot wouldn’t go through due to a nasty publicist-enforced contract, but everything seemed to work out okay ultimately, and things went off without a hitch. lili couldn’t have been more gracious. even gave me an orange for the ride home, which i ate while stuck in traffic on the 5 south. thanks, lili.

this was shot for LA citybeat, and is likely among the last thing i’ll be shooting for them. all of you photographers out there have a publication like this one. that is to say the pay is horrible, the exposure is negligible, the subjects are often great (i.e., not just guys in ties in conference rooms)  and usually you get conned into working for them because you have a buddy who is the editor – or the art director – or the music editor. don’t object, i know you do this. the fact is, everybody knows you do this. and they expect it. yes, all of us photographers have to make a living, pay rent and buy food and CF cards or whatnot, and even though we angst over running a business the truth is that most of us are terrible at it. for myself, i’ve gotten a lot better at turning down obviously bad deals. and now, with some shakedowns that took place at citybeat over the last couple weeks the chains have finally been broken. the last personal connection i have to that mag has been fired and/or resigned. so there is no longer anything obligating me to do a cheapo shoot at the last minute for someone calling in a favor.

truth be told, though. . . i might miss some of the subjects.

thanks, lili, for being my last one for this paper. it was a pleasure.