It comes from a place that I think is inspired by so many things that make up who you are. And I hope that through looking at all your photos, we can get a little glimpse into how you think, what inspires you and how you just approach subjects that for a lot of us, would be really a little knee buckling. For those of you who don't know Larry's work, you can discover it here. And in his website. I'll put that link in the description here
And then I kind of got burnt out and I left for a while. And when I came back, it was maybe three years after Nick Holly Court, the DJ at the time, had left. And Adele was one of the first musicians that I photographed coming back to KJW. She had been on earlier, maybe four years before, three years before with Nick Harcourt. So I wasn't at the original session when she arrived, but she wasn't that big at that time
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:28
You know, I imagine there's so much that goes into the tact of how to make someone feel comfortable and respected, but also being present with them and capturing that moment. And it's the skill that you we have. I want to post here another picture of yours, number two with Ben Harper. What an intimate, intimate moment. Him cleaning his guitar. Can you talk about that
This photograph that I took was he was just about to go live and he took out a cloth and started cleaning his guitar. And that's when I snapped my favorite picture because it was different. And the thing is, with a lot of musicians, I don't have long with them. I can't take a whole morning or a whole day to photograph them. So which is kind of good because it's a good discipline. And especially when I used to shoot film really a good discipline
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:31
Another one where you captured this guy who, for me, I fell in love with this song called Loser, that just changed my life in terms of a song that I didn't feel like a loser. But that song just felt like it was so wrenching to my soul, and it connected to me and some of the older parts of myself that I wasn't really able to handle until I heard that song. I really love how Beck has shown up in the world
Anyway, I went, I couldn't really hear him. There were lots of people. It was noisy, but that was the first exposure to back. And since then I photographed him many times at Kcow. This photograph was taken, I think, after a delay was released and some big albums were released, maybe three or four. And he was playing solo acoustic guitar. He was playing and piano, and it was just myself and him in the studio
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:02
I wonder if Beck wants to take a photo of you. He probably is shy, but he probably is like, God, that Larry is so handsome. Just wondering out loud. Okay, here's a beautiful shot. And I don't want to sell say her name wrong. Amara Portoando. I think we all fell in love with her when the Bunny Business Social Club was first introduced to us. And now they're celebrating 25 year anniversary
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:51
Luck is also sort of married to timing, right? Because timing is very it's something that we all are aware of, especially when we're capturing a moment in time. And the luck around that is that in that moment, somebody does something that's so sort of nuanced and full of a deeper narrative. And when I see her face, I'm like, oh, I just feel her. It's amazing. This next photo is so outrageous. I love it
And, you know, if you get it right, it's fantastic. But also, what's wonderful about this camera is that mistakes also work anyway. So I thought it would be the perfect camera for Cornelius. And I took a couple of snaps, took maybe four or five photos of him, and then he picked up a prop and it looked like some kind of megaphone. He put it up to his mouth and that's the photograph I used. And anyway, that's it
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:03
Plastic cameras. I didn't even know they existed. What an amazing shot. I just listened to the Cornelius, by the way, I'm getting into that sound. Now, I think there's so much we miss. There's so much great music out there. And I know you love playlist on Spotify, and you have such a diverse taste. And I think at some point in this interview, I'm going to link one of your Spotify playlists because they're amazing
And I was just waiting, you know, I was just waiting for the perfect moment. And he came in and he was sitting in that position that you see, and he was tuning his guitar. And then he turned his head to the side. And that's when I snapped the photograph. And I thought that was the shot that I think worked. Excuse me. And I'm a huge fan. I think it's a really creative August, that's it
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:19
So here's a shot of Ravi Shawn, Larry, the legend with Anushka I think Anushka's granddaughter, please, please kind of connect those dots for me. And those instruments in the KCRW studio is so rare. It's not like this guitar, drums, bass. It's like, oh, my God. A whole new world just dropped in there. How was that set up for you?
Oh, yes. Ravi Shankar and his daughter, She's Anushke, is his daughter. It was one of those humbling experiences at KCW. I photographed them with a Leica Rangefinder, which is a very quiet camera. A lot of photo journalists use it. A lot of street photographers use it. There's no shutter, so it's inconspicuous. And I used high ISO film. This is all technical stuff. 3200 Elford
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:59
As a photographer, so many of us pick up our phones and we snap, and it's beautiful what happens. But I love when a real, seasoned technical and very gifted photographer like yourself can drop into the notes. The technical notes, because I think it's really a good reminder that there's so much that goes into framing a shot. And the shots that you've captured over the past few decades are amazing
Mark Lincoln this photograph is definitely the saddest Photo I've ever taken of anybody at Kw. Mark suffered from depression, depression. And then he lost close friend of his Vic Chestnut to suicide in 2009. And then, as you said, Deborah Marketing took his own life in 2010. There's nothing much I want to say about there's not much I want to say about this photograph because there it's all there in the photo. So that's it
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:22
And I just got to really feel her joy and her resolve and her ability to kind of talk about her resilience over her lifetime. She really came to us so much later in life. And her presence is so everything about her pain. I mean, and pop culture that in this series, can you tell us when this was shot and what the circumstances were
Sharon Jones is incredible. Sharon Jones and the Death Kings are one of my favorite alltime live shows, not a kw, but had seen them, I think about four years before photographed before I photographed her. But they came into the studio. I think she was undergoing chemotherapy. She was bald. She shaved her hair. And I'm not sure I think she might have just finished chemotherapy, but they were getting on to her
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:00
Wow. So you saw her right when she was in the midst of all that. Wow. That's just it breaks my heart. I'm so happy you captured her in such joy amidst such sorrow. I mean, that's life man right there, captured in her. Listen, what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to relink to your website in this swell right here to make sure people can just enjoy the breath of your work
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:35
I do have a followup question about the photo you use of yourself on your website in your bio. I really love it. And I want to know why you chose that photo to represent you. Given the fact that you do so many portraits, this certainly is a selfport portrait. And I just love you to riff on that because it's so beautiful and so fractured and so complex. And we get to see you doing what you do, and it's just kind of this crazy meta experience
I carry my camera everywhere I go. I try to because I don't want to rely on my iphone, and it's a small camera. It's a Fuji. It's a fantastic little point and shoot. And I was walking down. I think it was Beverly Boulevard, close to LaBrea. And I just saw these reflections coming out of the store. And I thought that would make a nice self portrait. So I picked up my camera and I just love the way it looks
Holly Rothschild
@Dance · 0:11
Hey, Larry, great interview. I love your photos. I'm a huge fan of your work. There was one photo. I wanted to know who it was. I'm going to post it and wait for your reply
