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What the book is about...

In the beginning Frank put everything he owned into his car and drove to Hollywood.

"I became an artist -- a starving artist!" Frank Capri

Shooting Stars in Hollywood is the inspirational story of how Frank eventually made his dream of becoming a photographer happen with a positive attitude and stubborn persistence.

Introduction from Pulitzer-prize winner, author Frank McCourt:

Frank Capri is a superb photographer. His portfolio and experience will tell you that and personal experience with his work with cinch it. Now, as he turns his talent to writing, his prose is as direct and unfussy and illuminating as his photography. The man knows how to tell a story and when he grabs your attention in his opening lines he knows how to keep it. The writing is tart and energetic and makes you want to keep turning pages. Shooting Stars in Hollywood, the inside story of a celebrity photographer's life, makes a terrific read.

Part 15


(Go to Part 1 for the beginning.)



(Continued from Part 14)




 Impatiently I ask Ricarado to hurry with Annie's hair. I don't want to lose the light, I say. He gives me an annoyed glance and takes his sweet time and when I've worn a hole in the carpet he finally releases his masterpiece. Annie looks spectacular in the long silver dress and make-up and hair done to perfection, and Ricardo asks, Know where the word cosmetics came from? I don't know and I don't want to know because I don't want to lose the light! It came from the ancient Greeks, Ricardo says. Their word for the universe was cosmos, a universe they looked at as orderly and beautiful. Viola, cosmetics.


Annie lets me drive the sex machine Porsche to the site of our shoot, the downtown space-age Bonaventure Hotel. At the glass towering edifice on an open rooftop plaza Annie takes a bold stance and slips on long silver lamè La Crasia gloves that match her silver dress and I start shooting at low angles to make her look taller. Annie's poses are stilted at first but gradually, as if the sinking sun itself warms her up, she comes alive and every picture is one of grace and sensuality and soon I'm doing my best to keep up with her. No longer do I have to direct her poses or tell her how gorgeous she is because she's obviously feeling beautiful and enjoying herself and she's giving me everything, and now the best way I can direct her is not to direct at all.


Suddenly a strong breeze whips up and automatically she turns away. Use it, I say, and she turns back, her dazzling dress unfolding in the wind to reveal an image that leaves me breathless. The unexpected breeze is the perfect touch that elevates the shot from ordinary to extraordinary. Each move Annie makes draws me closer and when I take my last shot we look at each other in the silence of the soft golden light. It's as if we've just made love and both of us are exhausted and exhilarated at once.


Annie leans forward and gives me a light kiss on the lips and I'm so happy with the shoot and the kiss that I don't even mind going back to the prison Mrs. Wesley calls the estate. Everything is glorious and finally I feel more like a working photographer than an indoor houseman.



(to be continued every Tuesday)


posted by CAPRI PHOTOGRAPHY @ 11:14 AM  

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