The awesome photographer Sam Shaw was very close to John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, both personally and professionally. He produced Husbands, Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night, Gloria. He was production designer on Killing of a Chinese Bookie. He designed all of the stunning unforgettable posters for Cassavetes’ films. He was also a brilliant photographer (one of my favorites). His photographs of Marilyn Monroe are lovely, and unlike any other pictures of the most highly-photographed woman in the world. He took a lot of “candid” shots at John and Gena’s house. Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes hamming it up by the pool, playing hoops with the kids, etc. And there are a series of photographs of John and Gena cuddling with their dog. Here’s one I haven’t seen.
But one of the photos in that series, ripped out of a magazine over 20 years ago, has hung on my wall ever since. It’s a talisman somehow. One of my most prized possessions. I ripped the photo out, took it to a Kinko’s (and there was a tear down the middle), and had them make a huge copy. It’s come with me, from Chicago, to New York, to New Jersey. I wrote a long post, back when I got the Criterion Love Streams gig about that photo, what it signified, the events that took place in my life BECAUSE of that photo (hello, Michael), and how … eerily perfect it was that I was now writing about Gena for Criterion. It made so much sense in a way. A daunting task, but maybe I had been preparing for it since I was a kid.
In that post I linked to is also a series of Sam Shaw’s posters for Cassavetes’ films. They still have the power to shock. Eye-grabbers.
