Would Rembrandt tell Picasso how to pose? What happens when one photographer — Fred R. Conrad — is sent on assignment to do do a portrait of not just any photographer, but Joel Meyerowitz, whose color work changed contemporary photography.
“Most of us are much more comfortable behind the lens,” said Fred R. Conrad, a New York Times staff photographer. “And to just sort of barge in on another photographer and tell him to pose … you feel kind of funny.”
Fred R. Conrad may be best known for his exquisite portraits, but an assignment in Kosovo taught him the value of watching and waiting for the story to come to him.
Kathy Ryan, the director of photography for The New York Times Magazine, sent me to Kosovo in June of 1999 to take a panoramic picture of a burned-out street that would be published over four pages. There was one proviso: Whatever ruins I decided to photograph had to reveal the horrors that had been inflicted upon its occupants.
Fred R. Conrad ponders his fascination with the characters that populated the Comic-Con convention, where comic book fans descended on the Javits Center, many of them lavishly costumed.
Fred R. Conrad likes to come up with a different theme and photographic technique for each marathon. This year, on the 40th anniversary of the race, he wanted to focus on individual runners, separating them from the sea of more than 40,000 participants. “The marathon is such a visual jumble,” said Mr. Conrad. “I wanted to isolate moments and individuals. To crystallize and distill the scene.”
