August 3, 2006 Issue
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or ©2006 Chestnut Hill Local Winner of One |
Miles of great photos at local Art Ryan exhibit
Imagine, lying on the ground, Pentax K1000 in hand. You’re on the last roll of film … borrowed from a fellow photographer because you got carried away earlier in the performance, and Miles Davis is looking down, playing straight into the lens of your camera as you snap the monumental photos that will take you from amateur hobbyist to professional artist. Arthur Ryan, 43, started tinkling with photography his senior year in George Washington High School in Northeast Philadelphia. Back then, he said, he was “still playing around,” his interest in photography developing into what he described as “more than casual” after he graduated from high school. A family friend, “like an uncle almost,” became his photographic mentor. Arthur Hill, currently residing in Bellmawr, N.J., was a professional photographer who allowed Ryan to use the darkroom in his basement. Ryan said he used to roam the streets bordering Mt. Airy and West Oak Lane, photographing children while they played. Late in the afternoon he’d go to the dark room, develop the film and print photos of the children, which the parents would buy from him when they returned from work. When Ryan was 20, Hill challenged him to photograph a free concert festival at Penns Landing in 1982, during which Miles Davis was performing. Hill warned Ryan that Davis rarely performed facing the audience, and to get good shots he’d have to get behind the stage. Ryan, who has worked in the production departments at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 24 years, used his employee badge to get backstage. He arrived at the festival donned in a suit and tie, toting a professional looking bag for his camera, with his grandmother’s sound advice echoing in his head. “She said I looked like a ‘thug’ in my Detroit Pistons jacket,” Ryan said, when he showed her his badge while dressed in normal clothes. She said to be taken seriously, he has to dress the part, and from then on he wore a shirt and tie whenever he went out to do photos. He credits his confidence and appearance for the success of his Davis photos. During the music festival there were a number of performers, and Ryan shot photos like crazy – so much so that as Miles’ performance approached, he discovered he had shot all of his film. He was only able to get the Davis photos because he was fortunate enough to find a fellow photographer willing to part with two extra rolls of film. Armed with his two rolls, Ryan was about to venture to a place near the stage when he saw Miles Davis heading toward him from his trailer. Reaching for his camera bag, thrilled with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he realized his zipper was jammed and the camera stuck inside. He said he attacked the bag with a force that made Miles say to a man beside him, “What’s wrong with that guy?” But Ryan managed to rip open his bag and yank his camera out in time to get “one good shot,” a photo of Davis walking with a man Ryan suspects was a bodyguard, from his trailer to the stage. Ryan then crept backstage, heeding Hill’s warning, to get photos of Miles during the performance. “I figured that remaining backstage would work to my advantage, because if Miles were not facing the audience, he would be facing me,” Ryan said. Luckily, he ran into a woman he recalls as Ms. Love who let him into the press area with his Inquirer badge and who had apparently taken a liking to him. When the stage hands told Ryan to leave, she told him he could stay, that he was with her. As Miles performed – facing the back of the stage – Ryan snapped photos without a flash. He was taking what Hill called “available light photography,” using the present illumination for his shots. Ryan suspected Miles saw someone taking pictures because he suddenly turned towards the front to play, and Ryan saw “hundreds of flashes going off.” Running around to the front, he joined the flashing photographers, lying on his back completing his last roll of film for the evening. As he was snapping, “… Miles, with a smile, gave me a special treat,” wrote Ryan in notes describing the experience. Miles bent down into the lens of Ryan’s camera, all the while playing the music and performing just for Ryan and his Pentax (or so it seemed to him). The other photographers pointed him out at the end of the performance, noting him as the guy Miles played for, and Ryan took his special photos home to develop them. He knew he had gotten great photos, but didn’t realize how great they were until they were developed. The Davis photos Ryan – now also a part-time employee at Penguin Photo, 7928 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill – took in 1982 are on display and for sale for the first time. To coincide with June’s Jazz and Art Festival in West Oak Lane, the owners of Art Noir Gallery at 7175 Ogontz Ave., Sean Simmons and Kelly H. Walker, asked Ryan if they could display his photos. Three of his treasured photos hang above the artistic tiles and among numerous uniquely matted and framed paintings and art on display in the gallery. (The photos will; remain in the gallery until they are sold.) Continuing on his “more than casual interest in photography,” Ryan has also taken photos of Lil’ Kim “with clothes on,” said Ryan, as well as Notorious B.I.G. and other musicians who have been guests on a friend’s radio show at Power 99. He also managed to sneak his camera into a Prince concert , and with his Inquirer badge took photos on the floor at the 1983 NBA Championship game, when the 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers. |
