max s. gerber(the latest shot)

i first met tommy almost fifteen years ago. i used to do sound for the bands that came to play at the school (yes, i was that geek), and geggy tah was a staple in town. tommy lived nearby in pomona. he was one of the first people to give me any credit as a photographer, before i even really knew i was one myself. i took some awful publicity photos for them, not really knowing how to do anything at all. one day in november of 1995 tommy showed up at the school’s darkroom with gina, the band’s boston terrier mascot, and we managed to take a picture that was probably my first real successful image. it got put on t-shirts, stickers and greeting cards. every six months for the past 13 years i’ve gotten a (small) residual check from sales of the greeting card, though i’ve only seen it in a store one time.

tommy has more energy and enthusiasm and optimism than any other ten people i know. i’ve always been glad for this influence in my life, since these sorts of impulses are not something i generally have when left to my own devices. tommy dances the night away. he takes spontaneous trips to strange places. he walks up and down stairs on his hands. he can do a standing backflip. he breaks into hotel swimming pools, getting stopped by security guards even though he’s a full grown man. from his porch in pomona you can see fireworks at the LA county fair. he can play any instrument without thinking much. he’s just one of those naturally musical sorts of people. there are those who are virtuosos on a particular instrument, and then there are those people who almost are music themselves, and anything around them becomes an instrument. that’s tommy.

tommy must be mellowing because for a long time it was very difficult to take a picture of him. he had so much energy, so many ideas, moved so fast, that any still frame didn’t seem to really look like him. and it was infuriating because his ideas would go so fast that by the time i set up for one of them he’d already be on to the next one. at one point the only thing that made any sense was to have him be a blur. he seems somewhat more comfortable being static now than before, and i take that as a good sign. we’re all growing up, i guess.