FRANK W. OCKENFELS 3
J—Yes, very rare. So, I have to ask this question. It was amazing for me to see that you shot with Barack Obama. Umm. Wow! How was that?
F—It was an odd day. I mean, it gets a little morose towards the end of the conversation, but I was sitting in the house and Carol called and said, “Do you want to shoot Barack Obama on Tuesday, in Washington, DC?” And I think it was on a Sunday. I was like, “Sure, what do you want me to do?” they were like, “When the shoot comes, you’ll have fifteen minutes.” In between four other things he was doing that day… but he wasn’t president yet.
J— So it was during the race?
F—Yeah, prior to the election. So I was like, “Great!” So I got there and my sister called me and said, mom is back in the hospital and she isn’t doing well, and literally, the Secret Service came in and we were in a room that was about this big [referring to the small room we’re sitting in]. They swept the room with guard dogs and everything; just as they did this, my sister calls and she goes “You know, mom’s totally almost…you know, she’s really bad, you need to come.” And I’m like, “Well, I’m going to shoot Obama in about five minutes,” I couldn’t even say that ‘cause they said not to say what we were doing. So I said, “I’m on the next plane.” Then Obama walks in the door, you know all this is going on, my mother’s about to pass and Obama walks in the room, he looks at me, and he’s like, “Hi!” And I’m like, “Hi!” Then they threw over this leopard print cape over him to do his makeup and I said, “I would have thought more tiger than leopard,” and he goes, “Yeah, but I think I’m rocking the leopard pretty well,” [laughs] I go, “Yeah, you’re looking good.” So, we were joking around, he’s very open in the conversation and he stood up and he was very direct. I mean, it’s kind of, when you shoot people, and you know, if someone can give you five minutes and be amazing, where those five minutes were the best five minutes, and they are looking at you and they are listening to you. Or there’s the five minutes where they are not listening to a word you’re saying, they’re just trying to get something. Well, he was the first. He was like, “Okay, well, what do you want to do?” and looked right at me.
J—That’s insane that all this was happening to you simultaneously.
F—Yeah, so the end of that story was basically, my mother passed that day. I went up to New York, and she was gone. It was exciting to meet Obama, but in the middle of your excitement you go, “Wow, my mom is about to pass.” It was a very odd day to say the least.
J—Wow, that’s quite a heavy day. I can’t even imagine all the different thoughts running through your head with the most important man in the world sitting in front of you. Way to go for remaining calm and focused. I’m not sure what I would have done if I were you on that day.
F—Yeah, it was quite the day, bigger question than maybe you wanted to know [laughs]
J—That’s okay, it was a great story, but let’s move along and start talking about your mind-blowing portfolio. I love looking at your website. You have worked with some of the most recognizable and influential performers of our lifetime. To mention a few musicians, such as Bat For Lashes, Garbage, Alicia Keys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tom Waits, Jay-Z, Vancouver’s own Hot Hot Heat and the Snoop Dogg himself [laughs]…but the two people that stand alone in my mind, are David Bowie and Kurt Cobain.
F—Well, Bowie’s uh…
J—You shoot with him quite a bit…
F—Fifteen. Sixteen times. I’m the only one that has, actually… from his word. I met him and he liked how my brain worked and how I constantly changed things. He also got that I didn’t waste his time; That if he needed to do a picture for Rolling Stone, I did the picture for Rolling Stone. I didn’t try to do twenty pictures, or five, or four. Because he doesn’t like to spend a lot of time doing it. He’ll give you a hundred percent when he’s there, if he gives you like, ten minutes, it’s like an hour and a half with somebody else, he’s so amazing to shoot. When we started doing things together, I would be able to do things quickly and get him out of there quicker, and the pictures would be exactly what we wanted, and we had these great conversations. I actually put a book together for him and it’s called Collaboration. It’s supposed to be interviews with he and I talking about our collaboration over the years and the things that we’ve done together and why we did them and did you hate them, did you love them? You know, what was the reason for them?
Continue Reading This Article 1 2 3 4 5
