Richard Corman (photographer)

Last updated

Richard Corman
Born1954
New York City
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Hunter College
OccupationPhotographer
Years active1981–present
Parent
Website richardcorman.com

Richard Corman (born 1954) [1] is an American photographer, best known for his work as a portrait photographer. His subjects include musicians, actors, athletes, artists, writers and humanitarians. His 2013 book, Madonna NYC 83, is a collection of photos he took of a pre-fame Madonna in 1983.

Contents

Early life and education

Corman was born and raised in New York City. [2] For his high school years, Corman attended boarding school at Berwick Academy (Maine). [3] After graduating from Hunter College with a degree in art history and psychology, [4] he initially planned on having a career in psychology, before turning to photography. [5] He started out shooting film with a Rolleiflex camera, before ultimately moving on to digital cameras. [5] [6]

Career

Madonna NYC 83

In May 1983, Corman, then 29, had just finished a two-year apprenticeship with photographer Richard Avedon. [1] [7] [8] Corman's mother, Cis Corman, was working as a casting director on the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ . Madonna, then 24, auditioned for the role of the Mary Magdalene, and although she did not get the part, Corman's mother suggested that he photographer her. [9] [10] Soon after, Corman took candid photographs of Madonna in and around her apartment in Manhattan's Lower East Side. [11] [12] This was prior to the release of her first album. [10] In the photos, Madonna is dressed in a street fashion of ripped denim, lace and layered jewelry, with a bare midriff. [7] Over the course of 1983, Corman had six shoots with Madonna. [5]

30 years later, in 2013, the resulting photos were published in a coffee table book, Madonna NYC 83. [9] [10] In November 2013, the photos were exhibited for the first time at Milk Gallery in Manhattan, [13] and then at LabArtGalleryLA in Los Angeles, California, in 2014. [14] The photos were also on display in Madonna: A Transformational Exhibition, a traveling global multimedia tour sponsored by the W Hotel. [11] [12] [15] The installation presented the Madonna photos by Corman alongside Alec Monopoly's graffiti art. [12] [15]

Athletes and Special Olympics

Corman's first collection, Glory: Photographs of Athletes, was published in 1999. The black-and-white photos include portraits of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Cal Ripken Jr., and Pat Riley, along with portraits of Special Olympics athletes, ballet dancers, skateboarders and bike messengers. [16] [17]

Since 1991, Corman has documented intellectually disabled athletes in the Special Olympics all over the world, including Cape Town, South Africa in 2001, [6] and Beijing, China in 2007. [2] In 2003, these photos were collected in a book, I Am Proud: The Athletes of Special Olympics. [2] [5] He is creating a campaign for the 2015 Los Angeles Special Olympics Summer World Games in collaboration with artist Mr. Brainwash. [5]

Other portraits and shoots

Corman has taken portraits of a breadth of subjects, including Bill Clinton, Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese, Muhammad Ali, Kurt Vonnegut, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Isamu Noguchi, Ralph Lauren, James Dewey Watson and Elie Wiesel. [2] [5] [6] In Manhattan in the early 1980s, Corman took portraits of musicians Boy George and Johnny Rotten, and artists Basquiat and Keith Haring, before they were famous. [1] [5] [8] In 2001, while in Cape Town, Corman photographed President Nelson Mandela visiting his old jail cell. [6] He photographed Philip Seymour Hoffman in character as Truman Capote for the 2005 film Capote , in the style that Richard Avedon shot Capote in the 1960s, which became the image used for the film's poster. [5]

Corman's photos have appeared in a variety of magazines, including Vanity Fair , Vogue , Sports Illustrated , Architectural Digest and Men's Health . [2] [5] [18] [19] He shot Talking Heads for a January 1987 Rolling Stone cover story. [12]

In May 2014, someone placed a Mason & Hamlin baby grand piano underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, and Corman photographed it, using it as a prop for shoots, including a series of images with ballerina Misty Copeland. The piano's appearance under the bridge inspired his 2014 Sunrise Under the Brooklyn Bridge series. [20]

Personal life

Corman lives in Manhattan with his wife and son. [4]

Bibliography

Books

Film

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Richard Corman, “Photographer Richard Corman: I Shot Madonna,” Out , April 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Susan Sawyers, “Richard Corman: A Photographer’s Look at the Special Olympics,” HuffPost , March 28, 2008.
  3. ↑ Sept. 2019 Berwick Today Magazine
  4. 1 2 Richard Corman bio, Rock Paper Photo. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Daisy McCorgray, “An interview with portrait photographer, Richard Corman,” Professional Photographer, October 10, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Baldev Duggal, “Richard Corman & Icons,” Digital Photo Pro, October 7, 2013.
  7. 1 2 Mark Lindores, “Photographer Richard Corman: I always knew Madonna was special,” Metro , November 1, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Cedar Pasori, “Interview: Photographer Richard Corman Discusses His New Exhibition at the W Hotel Featuring Unseen Images of Madonna,” Complex , April 5, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Dan Hyman, “Tour the Lower East Side With Madonna in 1983,” Rolling Stone , September 19, 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 Rod Glacial, “Richard Corman Took These Photos of Madonna When Nobody Knew Who She Was,” Vice , July 9, 2014.
  11. 1 2 Araceli Cruz, “Exclusive First Look: Never-Before-Seen Photos of Madonna to be Exhibited,” Elle , April 4, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Colleen Nika, “Photographer Richard Corman on His New Madonna Exhibit,” Rolling Stone, September 21, 2012.
  13. ↑ “Richard Corman: Madonna NYC83,” Milk Gallery, November 15, 2013.
  14. ↑ “Richard Corman: Madonna NYC 83 @LabArtGalleryLA,” The LA Beat, February 9, 2014.
  15. 1 2 Joe Dziemianowicz, “In the Now: Madonna’s history is relived in photo exhibit at W. Times Square,” Daily News|location=New York, April 12, 2013.
  16. ↑ “All Eyes on the Athlete,” Vibe , October 1999, p. 172.
  17. ↑ Scott Simon, host, “Glory: Photographs of Athletes,” NPR, January 22, 2000.
  18. ↑ Leslie Bennetts, “Cat Power,” Vanity Fair , March 2008.
  19. ↑ Alex Kuczynski, “Cover Story; Oh, How Far A Magazine Will Go To Stimulate Newsstand Sales,” The New York Times , June 18, 2001.
  20. ↑ Jenna O’Donnell, “Mysterious piano on the East River has a supporter – the guy who did the same thing in Miami,” Daily News (New York), July 3, 2014.
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