Peter Murphy, Los Angeles, 1990

I photographed a post-Bauhaus-era Peter Murphy in the lobby of the art deco Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles in 1990. It was a magazine shoot, taking place on the afternoon before his show later that evening. When I got to the lobby there were already a few photographers set up with their strobe lights and New Wave-y painted canvas backdrops. I went all the way down past them, all the way to where the pewter-handrailed staircase began to wrap around and ascend to the balcony. It was the only place left for me, really. I set up my big 1960s 8x10 camera and a 200 watt bare lightbulb on a lamp cord. That was my kit. With the bellows fully extended for a tight portrait the camera is close to 3 feet long. Peter came into the lobby, he looked up and down at the photographers lined up with their similar set-ups and when he saw mine and kind of tilted his head. One by one he got his photo taken, coming down the phalanx towards me. He finally got to me, looked at my back alley rig and said, “Just the man I’ve been waiting for. What the fuck is that?” I shot a few sheets of film and told him that was all and he disappeared like Bela Lugosi.

Archival pigment print on baryta 315 gsm, acid-free, 100% cotton-fiber paper.