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In the back of his mind, he still wants to be a gas-pump boy... or maybe a soda jerk. Perhaps a trash man, even. But for photographer Richie Fahey, it could be a while before he fulfills his childhood dreams.
Born in Washington, D.C. he moved with his family to South Carolina, where he graduated from high school and college and subsequently studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology. At RIT he took additional photo classes and made a few short movies, one of which won several student awards. In 1990, Fahey moved to New York City where he continued making movie shorts until he decided to become a photographer. When he was in high school, his parents gave him a 35mm camera, with which he began to do some photography for his school. A friend's donation of a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Speed Graphic increased his collection as well as his photographic range. Although he obtained a MFA from the University of South Carolina in painting, Fahey decided to pursue a career in photography because he felt it was something at which he could make money, and it was also work that would call on his design skills. "I started with pin-hole photography, and I also started experimenting with coloring black-and-white photos in high school," he said. "While in college and also took photography classes. I started to figure out how to hand color with oil paints in college. I basically taught myself through experimenting and 'how-to' books."
He found old family snapshots and began to experiment with the techniques he read about. In looking at the images, however, he began to notice that he looked a lot like his father did when he was 20. That caused Fahey to "see" things in another way, one that evoked the stylings and mannerisms of the forties. Theatre lobby cards, celebrity portraits in old movie magazines, and the covers of dimestore novels-with their bad colors and less than perfect reproductions-got him started with the process he uses today. "My area of interest is trying to replicate old genres," he said. "I discovered that when I use a heavier hand, I tend to get a more illustrative look, one that I like, and that is more suited to the subject matter. After the photo is colored, I scan it using a big Umax, and I might retouch it. I do not plan on going digital anytime soon because I need to make an actual print to color on. I guess if I had to go digital I could generate negatives from the file. I have often thought I could get the same results from Photoshop, but whenever I try, it lever comes out right." Classic glamour photographers George Hurrell and Bernard of Hollywood serve to inspire Fahey, but it's his meticulous attention to detail that turns the heads of dealers and collectors alike. There isn't much left to chance in one of his images, whether it's the tip of the brim of a period hat, the curl of the model's hair or the vintage lighting, every item and inference must precisely reflect the era it represents. Just finishing a James Bond series for Penguin, and with theatre promotions, other book and CD covers pending, Fahey now has barely enough time to complete one piece before another is commissioned. Such is the luck of a photographer who simply thinks of himself as "just an artist who uses a camera." But, like one of the characters in the pulp fiction books he loves to read, Fahey may be running out of time. He prefers to do his work in an old, classic style, one that calls for materials that are getting increasingly difficult to find.
"I used to use Kodak's Ektalure paper, but it was discontinued, so now I use Forte," he said. "I am now also running out of film for my Speed Graphic. Even my Marshall oils in separate tubes are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain." For the covers of the James Bond series, Fahey worked with Penguin and the Ian Fleming estate to create the look and feel of the genre. For the first book, Casino Royale, he read it and researched old Bond covers, then made sketches and submitted them. In his first drawing, the model was nude and the estate then specified that they did not want naked women on the covers. With the help of his wife, Christina, who did the hair, makeup and styling for the series, Fahey recreated the image with a model wearing a black cocktail dress. He then used himself, his wife and a friend for an image of Le Chifre players. A deck of falling cards shot by Fahey completed the image and was finally accepted by the estate. For each cover of the series, Fahey spent two to four weeks. Working out of an apartment in New York that would remind many readers of passages from a dog-eared, sunfaded Mickey Spillane or Shell Scott crime novel of the fifties, Fahey works tirelessly, sometimes up to 12 hours in one sitting. Piles of novels from the 1930s-1960s line the walls. It is the stuff that makes up his world, one in which anything is possible...as long as it involves a good girl gone bad, or a nice guy finishing last. Richie Fahey has created book cover art for Penguin, Scribner, Warner Books, Vintage and St. Martin's Press. Other commercial clients include Sony Records, Adobe Theatre Company and Spot Design. Visit the subscriber's section of our website (www.cameraarts.com) for an extended portfolio and a before and after example of his work. | | ||||
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