max s. gerber(the latest shot)

though only a senior in college, stephen is already one of the flying karamazov brothers. more importantly he brings props to the shoot that light on fire. there are very few jobs i do that couldn’t be improved with something in the picture being on fire. or doused in liquid nitrogen, for that matter. i confess to seeking out liquid nitrogen every time i go to photograph someone at caltech.

i met stephen four years ago when he was a college freshman. at the time he was – as he is now – 6’4″ tall, and a juggler, and we were taking pictures in a room with an eight foot ceiling. no good. this time we reserved a room with the highest ceiling we could find, just to be safe – a theater on occidental’s campus. i saw this “KEEP CLEAR” sign backstage while we were loading in equipment, but we spent most of our time getting our standard juggling-bowling-pins action shots in front of the stage curtain. at the the very end of the shoot, just minutes before the stage managers were to come back and kick us out, stephen had the good sense to say “i have a torch“.

so did this shot really quickly, stephen squirting lighter fluid around with abandon, and trying not to get too close to the sprinklers. of course, he wanted to juggle the torch but i liked this better. maybe it’s the same reason i don’t like laughing pictures of comedians. too easy. he’s a really tall, kinda lanky and goofy, good-natured guy, and i like that he looks sort of badass in this shot.

well, as much of a badass as is possible, being a man in a skirt and bowtie.

the torch helps.

my thanks as always to cpl. bennett for his patient and knowledgeable assistance, and to dick anderson at oxy.