"Ritchie Pryor" by Wes Aldridge
Well, it hasn't been your typical summertime in Shreveport. It has been something close to Hell for photography.
The rain has been pouring (or the sky has just plain sucked with gray clouds) since Monday here. This magazine requires traveling between 10 parishes (counties for those of you who are unfamiliar with the lay-o-the-land in Louisiana) and getting lots of exterior photographs. Pretty much been an impossibility thus far. Anyway, that's neither here nor there at this point. Some days blow, so, suck it up, right?
We found this really cool area that was under the bridge leading across the river to Bossier City from Shreveport. We all know I love neons and I wanted to grab this shot. It was late at night so the usual suspects were lurking about, preying on tourists. This gent comes up and jumps in front of my camera and tripod and starts begging to do his Richard Pryor impression. He was killing my shot, so the only thing to do was "make" him the shot.
Before he asked for some cash, I told him if he did his best Richard Pryor impression and let me shoot a portrait while he acted, then I would give him the four dollars cash I had in my pocket. He instantly got right down to business. He made us laugh pretty hard for a good long while. After a bit he started talking about Crack Rock being the best high in the world and that Richard Pryor died from smoking an ounce of that stuff at a time. Needless to say things took a turn for the wierd and I wanted to get the hell out of there. I handed him the sweaty bills and called it a wrap.
5 comments:
I have insomnia. That's a funny story. And a great picture. Who is we?
You are such a great photographer...
And no, he didn't kill your shot:
Without his sad, agonized, tired face your shot only would be another one of your beloved, countless neon-shots of the past - but not more!
But so it's an expressive, sociocritical portrait - showing much more of life than thousand other photos.
wes,this is a sad but beautiful pic.Sad in the face of this person and his circumstances,beautiful in the neon colors.Have a good trip.
wa
Why the brother gotta be looking all discombobulated in the photo? Oppressing my people through photography....is all good. By the way tight photo. BET!!! HOlla
Well, Jarvis, you know you are my boy and your people are my people, except my people are pretty much Native American! BET!!! But its true that the discombobulated gentleman in the shot was pretty Cracked out... literally, he told me so. His Richard Pryor impression was funny as hell though and he hung out for an minute! I actually hated to leave him there!
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